54 shot, 8 dead in Chicago over weekend: 'A lot of the problems are internal'
Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page says issues with the mayor's office, police department, police unions and community support groups need correction in the Windy City.
Chicago is reeling from another deadly weekend of gun violence, with at least 54 shot and eight killed in the Windy City as Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot calls for tougher gun laws and federal help.
Chicago Tribune writer Clarence Page joined "America's Newsroom," Monday, to discuss the leadership problems at play as the city gears up for another bloody summer.
"The fact is that a lot of the problems are internal," Page said. "The mayor's office, the police department, the police union getting along with each other, community support. Some communities support the police better than other ones do. We have a good community policing program that could be a heck of a lot better insofar as developing better relations out in the neighborhoods."
CHICAGO WEEKEND VIOLENCE: 54 PEOPLE WOUNDED IN DOZENS OF SHOOTINGS, 8 KILLED, POLICE SAY
Democratic Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez sounded off on Fox News last week after Lightfoot appeared to reverse her previous refusal to seek or accept federal assistance in quashing gun violence by calling for a "united front" between the city and Washington, D.C.
Chicago is on pace to have over 800 murders by the end of 2021 after the city recorded a skyrocketing 769 homicides in 2020.
"Chicagoans are frustrated in general," Page said. "But it's a big city with a lot of different communities, some are doing a better job of handling these problems than others these days. The problem is heavily on certain neighborhoods on the South Side and the West Side. We know where the problem is and we need to put more resources into those areas."
Page also voiced his criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement after they looted downtown Chicago last summer in the name of "social justice."
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"They are a radical movement," Page said. "They are a minority group within a minority… the fact is, most Black folks want better policing and we have a problem. Some communities are over-policed, at the same time they're under policed depending on what you need to have done in those communities. That's why it's so important for folks to work together."
Fox News' Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
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