America is being cheated.
We are told to live in fear.
Are you willing to accept that?
I am not.
My home is a short drive from downtown Washington DC and not a day goes by that I don’t worry about the rising crime rate. Our young daughter attends a preschool in a city park that I may no longer go to because of an alarming increase in carjackings.
It’s my worst nightmare of a thug stealing my SUV with my toddler helplessly strapped to her car seat inside.
Last week, my hairstylist was carjacked in broad daylight right outside her salon. As she was unloading her suitcase, a group of men stopped, jumped into the front seat of her vehicle and took off.
When she called the police at 10 a.m., she was told it was the fourth carjacking that morning.
My mother-in-law owns a Washington Nationals baseball season ticket, and for the first time, off-duty DC police officers can be hired to patrol local sporting venues. I now worry about her every time she goes to a game.
Is this the new normal?
Apparently so, according to the Democrats who run the nation’s cities. What a sorry state of the country.
As valid as my fears are, they pale in comparison to what millions of other Americans, with far fewer options than me, go through every day.
Take on the role of 20-year-old Ashley and 22-year-old DJ. They are an out of town couple who were shopping in downtown Chicago last Saturday night.
After getting out of Nordstrom, they were looking for a place to eat. It was an ordinary evening. Then everything got wildly out of hand.
They were surrounded by a mob of up to 100 teenagers.
“They said they were going to kill us,” Ashley recalls (above right). They turned and started fighting. I was pushed to the ground and the whole group went to DJ and not to me.’
“They said they were going to kill us,” Ashley recalled. They turned and started fighting. I was pushed to the ground and the whole group went to DJ and not to me.’
By now you may have seen the video of the attack. It’s terrifying. Ashley screams as the crowd swallows her up. Her head dives under the bodies. Her attackers throng with each other, frantic to make their move.
It’s one of many stories. It was absolute chaos in Chicago over the weekend.
Hundreds of young people flooded the city’s iconic shopping district. Shops were looted and destroyed. Windows were smashed. Traffic was blocked. Tourists were terrified.
Two teenage boys were shot. A man was reportedly beaten while sitting in the driver’s seat of his car after his windshield was smashed.
At this point in the decline of America’s cities, I don’t expect city leaders to be shocked.
Those days are long gone.
Mafia violence is a regular occurrence in this once great city. And, as might be expected, there were few demands for arrests and accountability for those who literally destroyed their own communities.
America is going gaslight. We are told to live in fear. Are you willing to accept that? I am not. (Image: car set on fire in downtown Chicago on April 15)
Chaotic scenes unfold in Downton Chicago as a mob goes on a rampage
In today’s America, violence, destruction, and nihilism are accepted. It’s the new normal.
“Here’s the point,” outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters Monday, long after the full picture of the chaos was clear. “The vast majority of young people who came to the center came to the center because it was nice weather and a chance to enjoy the city…I am not going to use your language, which I think is wrong, to say it was chaos.’
Nothing to see her, folks. Just go along.
Even worse: the reaction of Illinois Senator Robert Peters. Not only did he ignore the vandalism, the beatings and the shootings, he justified it outright.
“I would see the behavior of young people as a political act and statement,” Peters tweeted on Sunday. “It’s a massive protest against poverty and segregation.”
Perhaps the most disturbing response of all came from Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson. He makes it clear that nothing is going to change in the Windy City.
“I am in no way condoning the destructive activity we saw at the Loop and at the lake this weekend. It is unacceptable and has no place in our city,” he said, a sure signal that what comes next will be bad.
‘However,’ he wrote, ‘it is not constructive to demonize young people who otherwise do not get opportunities in their own community.’
Let’s be clear, no one is demonizing law-abiding teens. They advocate basic security. But in Chicago and across America, that’s too much to ask.
Honestly, if you’re shocked by these reactions, you haven’t been paying attention.
The summer of 2020 was my red pill event. It was the moment I recognized a paradigm shift in our country. While gangs and criminals exploited justifiable outrage over George Floyd’s murder to loot and riot, the left defended them.
I watched and listened to all this and felt helpless. I was disgusted when neighborhoods of innocent Americans were destroyed. But anyone who objected to this outburst of anger was labeled a racist.
Remember Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez in July 2020 who blamed the economic desperation in New York City.
“They have to feed their child and they have no money, so they feel like they have to steal bread or go hungry,” she said in a virtual town hall.
Of course, shoplifting doesn’t explain the reported 130% spike in shootings year over year. But that didn’t matter to AOC.
“Do we think this has to do with the fact that there is currently record unemployment in the United States?” she said.
Perhaps the most disturbing response of all came from Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson. He makes it clear that nothing is going to change in the Windy City.
“Here’s the point,” outgoing Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot (pictured) told reporters Monday, long after the full picture of the chaos was clear. “The vast majority of young people who came to the center came to the center because it was nice weather and a chance to enjoy the city…I am not going to use your language, which I think is wrong, to say it was chaos.’
Well, Alexandra, how do you rationalize crime these days? Unemployment is at the lowest level in US history. I’m sure she’ll find another excuse, because these far-left lunatics are profiting from the destruction.
For them, crime is not the result of lawlessness. It is the result of social ills. When they blame shootings on unemployment, they avoid blame, they set themselves free.
No one escapes the irony that Chicago has been ruled by Democrats for decades, yet it just keeps circling the drain. Maybe they are to blame?
Now, almost three years after the BLM Summer of 2020, our society has deteriorated even further. Perhaps most sickening of all are the people Lori Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson and AOC claim to represent.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Chicago. It’s Los Angeles, it’s New York City, it’s Washington DC, it’s Detroit, it’s St. Louis, it’s Baltimore… When will these unthinking politicians and the voters who put them in office learn? At this rate, maybe never.
And while I will live in the city as long as possible, I will not put my family in danger. If Washington, DC continues to get worse, the McCains will leave.
We’ll be fine. But where will that leave our fellow Washingtonians? Some cannot escape the chaos.
If people like me escape, the decline of cities will only accelerate.
So, will I accept that I live in fear?
The answer is no’.
But I am one of the lucky ones.