By Steve Pomper
There is encouraging news for cops across our great nation. Two of the most egregious opponents of law enforcement today are being hurled upon, as President Ronald Reagan might have said, the “ash heap of history.”
Within days of each other, Chicago’s catastrophic anti-cop mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and the equally loathsome, equally anti-police St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner are on their way out. Voters showed Lightfoot the door, making her the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose reelection.
Outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot
Oddly, Lightfoot blamed racists and misogynists, the radical left’s go-to “ists.” Americans ask, were the voters not racists or misogynists when they elected her in 2019? I guess she doesn’t want to do the political math.
Time magazine wrote, “While Lightfoot entered Election Day as something of an underdog, the extent of her loss was striking.”
To radicals, maybe. But not when you consider this woman boldly stood on a Chicago street and threatened, “We will take you to jail, period,” to any law-abiding residents who dared to disobey her CCP virus mandates. She manufactured this “tough stance” while allowing repeat violent offenders to evade the consequences of their criminal actions. And she blamed victims for the crimes committed against them.
Chicagoans can choose whomever they please. But if they elect an anti-police candidate, America will see they weren’t serious about restoring public safety to their once great city by bidding adios to Lightfoot.
In Gardner’s case, she has so devastated public safety and the criminal justice system in St. Louis that the state’s Republican AG, Andrew Bailey, isn’t about to wait for an election to make changes. This so-called prosecutor is simply doing too much damage to criminal justice in the state’s largest city, often by doing nothing—certainly not by fighting crime.
As if an object lesson was necessary, as the AG acts to remove Gardner from office, a disturbing video shows a reportedly “homeless” derelict trying to load a gun while standing behind a man sitting on a sidewalk curb. After fumbling with the weapon, he puts the gun to the man’s head and pulls the trigger, executing him.
This vicious 2 p.m. murder on a downtown street of one of America’s major cities suggests the lawlessness Gardner’s tenure has created.
This is about the radical leftists’ lack of respect for public safety, the criminal justice system, and the cops. The cops whom people like Gardner won’t allow to enforce certain laws against certain people. It’s also about coddling criminals while punishing law-abiding gun owners for what armed criminals do and not prosecuting armed criminals for crimes they commit.
Gardner most infamously did this when she charged James and Patricia McCloskey in 2020 after they displayed their firearms when threatened with violence and property destruction by a BLM mob. Gardner prosecuted none of the thugs who damaged property or threatened the couple. A judge removed Gardner from the case, which the Missouri Supreme Court upheld on appeal.
Fortunately, Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson pardoned the pair, restoring some semblance of justice to that city’s criminal justice system. And now AG Bailey is seeking another example of justice for the people of Missouri, St. Louis specifically.
To show you Gardner’s priorities (hint: it’s not prosecuting criminals), as I recently wrote , at TTR about her defense of her position, “Still, the cop-hating prosecutor forged ahead and ‘claimed if Missouri Republicans get their way, they will appoint a ‘shadow prosecutor,’ and ‘justify most of the officer-involved shooting cases.’” What morally corrupt, anti-civil society priorities she has.
Even a one-time political ally, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, said, “She really needs to do some soul-searching as to whether she wants to continue as circuit attorney because she’s lost the
trust of the people.”
The comments stemmed from an tragedy where a 21-year-old man, Daniel Riley,out on bond from a 2020 robbery case and having reportedly violated his release conditions “dozens of times,” driving without a license and speeding, allegedly caused a vehicle collision that cost, Janae Edmondson, a 17-year-old high school volleyball player her legs. He should never have been out of jail to allegedly commit that crime. Gardner kept him out.
Now, that Lightfoot is essentially gone, and hopefully, the system will ultimately remove Gardner, too, the people of both cities, and those like them, will finally understand that the policing they get reflects the people they elect.