Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) announced that he has allocated $500,000 in his new budget for “restoration and reparations.”
The move is a means of combatting rising crime issues.
Speaking to CNN, Johnson said that reparations will “address the cycle of violence. Which looks like school closings, closing of mental health facilities, of which I have invested in,” adding, “We’re going to open two mental health clinics, that were closed two previous administrations ago.”
“And so, in order for us to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago, it requires investments. and that’s what this budget has done – a $16.77 billion budget without raising property taxes, and we’re just getting started in the city of Chicago,” Johnson explained.
A quarter of a billion dollars have also been allocated to address the city’s homelessness, as well as $100 million for “violence prevention,” Johnson said.
In September, Johnson finalized a contract exceeding $29 million with private security company Garda World to establish and oversee base camps aimed at sheltering migrants.
He later blamed “right-wing extremism” for the city’s immigration crisis.
“What we have seen is a raggedy form instituted by right-wing extremism. Everyone knows that the right-wing extremism in this country has targetted Democratically-ran cities and quite frankly, they’ve been very intentional about going after Democratically-ran cities that are led by people of color,” he said during a press conference.
He stated that “right-wing extremists” motivation is to “create disruption and chaos because that’s what this particular party has been about. This is the same political party that did not want to accept that President Obama was actually an American. It’s the same Republican right-wing extremism that stormed the Capitol. It’s the same right-wing extremism that refuses to accept the results of the Civil War. It’s raggedy. It’s disrespectful it’s mean-spirited. It’s an unclean spirit, quite frankly.”
