Chicago’s gang violence continues to be an epidemic for the Windy City and Mayor Lori Lightfoot will be introducing a new ordinance on Sept.14, to help curtail the problem. Mayor Lightfoot’s new ordinance will allow the city to sue gangs for the havoc and destruction they have caused and take any assets obtained illegally.
“What we are proposing is a tool in civil courts that gives us the opportunity to go after those gangs that are wreaking havoc and in particular, take away the profit motive from them by seizing assets that they have been able to purchase because of their violent activity in our neighborhoods. As a city, we are using every tool to push back against the gangs that are leaving a trail of blood, death and misery in their wake,” Lightfoot announced during a press conference Monday.
According to police reports obtained by Chicago’s Fox News, 60 people were shot in the city from 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday, including 11 children. One of the kids, a 12-year-old, did not survive. Eight children were also shot over the extended Labor Day weekend, including a 4-year-old boy who died days after he was struck by a bullet intended for someone else, police said.
Lightfoot’s proposed plan would allow city attorneys to take legal action against gang-affiliated offenders in civil court while the police try to curb their mayhem in the streets. Some feel that the new action won’t deter Chicago’s violence. The plan has been tested in several suburbs outside of Chicago with the Illinois Street Gang Prevention Act and has received mixed results as the gang members have been taken to court but their assets aren’t always seized.
“[Seizing assets] will work here in Chicago. It has worked on a federal scale. In order to really make an impact, you have to take what really matters most to a person,” First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter of the Chicago Police Department said during the press conference.
