More than 2 dozen shot, 3 killed in single weekend in Chicago: Report

At least 25 people were shot, three fatally, in shootings across Chicago over the weekend, the Washington Examiner reports, even as Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot is set on forcing out police officers who refuse to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The city has continued to grapple with gun violence throughout 2021. More than 1,600 people were shot in the Windy City in the summer months alone, according to reports.

Pattern of carjackings

In addition, a series of carjackings took place over the past week in Chicago that included armed gunmen forcing drivers into car trunks. According to the Examiner, police believe at least two of the carjackings were related.

Chicago’s CBS affiliate reported that a 91-year-old cab driver was shot during a separate carjacking in the Roseland area of the city early Saturday.

“Police said the man was sitting in a blue Hyundai in the 10700 block of South Langley Avenue at about 4:30 a.m. when a man approached his car and forced him out at gunpoint,” CBS Chicago reported.

After the driver stepped out of the cab, the carjacker reportedly shot the victim in the right hand and the right leg. He was taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition.

Making the city safer?

Despite the ongoing crime issues, Mayor Lightfoot has been making headlines recently not for cracking down on the violence, but for her hardened stance against police officers who have refused to comply with the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandate.

Her claim is that the mandate will make the city safer. But the enforcement of the order against police officers, in addition to firefighters and health care personnel, may have the opposite impact, with more and more workers taking unpaid leave.

Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said the city wouldn’t be able to last with “a police department workforce at 50% capacity or less.”

“I can guarantee you that no-pay status will not last more than 30 days,” he said, according to ABC News.

“There’s no way they’re going to be able to sustain a police department workforce at 50% capacity or less for more than seven days without something budging,” Catanzara added.

The odd contrast reveals both a crisis of leadership and a spiraling gun violence problem in the Windy City — and with Democrats in charge, there’s no sign of things getting better anytime soon.

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