Crime has overwhelmed the 12th Ward and its alderman
Chicago politics lunged further to the left two years ago, not only with the election of one-time-defund-the-police supporter and ex-CTU organizer Brandon Johnson as mayor, but with the addition of several new far-left members to the City Council.
One new alderman, Julia Ramirez, represents the 12th Ward. Ramirez is also a member of the City Council Progressive Caucus. Ramirez’s rise to represent the 12th Ward began with ousting Anabel Abarca, who was appointed to succeed George Cárdenas. Cárdenas stepped down from the City Council to take a seat on the Board of Review.
Ramirez outlasted Abarca by a mere 800 votes to become alderman of the 12th Ward.
Located on Chicago’s Southwest Side, the 12th Ward covers Brighton Park, McKinley Park, and a section of Back of the Yards. Ramirez is a proponent of restorative justice, a law enforcement theory popular among the far-left that proposes alternatives to serving time in prison for criminals.
“My experience leading anti-violence initiatives and as a social worker,” Ramirez explained to the McKinley Park News, “makes me uniquely qualified to serve our community and find holistic solutions to ensure everyone feels safe in our neighborhoods.”
In short, as with Alderman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez of the 33rd Ward, Ramirez favors a “treatment not trauma” approach to law enforcement.
Nearly 40 years ago, the great Chicago columnist Mike Royko scoffed at such naivete regarding social workers confronting crime. When informed future Congressman Luis Gutierrez, then a candidate for 26th Ward alderman, could use his social worker background to counteract street gangs, Royko seized the moment:
“Social workers have been running around the 26th Ward for years. And that hasn’t prevented it from turning into the city`s worst war zone, with homicidal punks controlling the streets, killing each other as well as innocent bystanders who happen to wear the wrong-colored hats.”
Despite Gutierrez' long career in politics, the 26th Ward remains a war zone.
Today’s 12th Ward is also an urban combat area. Prior to her election to the City Council, Ramirez worked as a re-engagement specialist for CPS, while, of course, moonlighting as an “organizer.” Chicago Contrarian readers know that “organizer” and “left-wing activist” are interchangeable.
Tragedy hit Ramirez’s family in the worst way in 2014. In a case of mistaken identity, her brother, Nicholas Ramirez Jr., was fatally shot by Orlando Dominguez after a terrifying car chase on the North Side. Ramirez Jr. was 19 years old. It's understandable that her brother's murder had an enormous impact on the alderman.
Nick Ramirez’s killer is serving his 40-year sentence at a downstate prison.
Always the social worker, Alderman Ramirez, while a guest in 2023 on the Restorative Justice podcast, expressed unique emotions about her brother's murderer and his family.
“I feel like I’m forever connected with this young person. And ultimately, whenever the opportunity arises, like, I hope that I can be of support for them. If they're open to that and supporting, you know, [about] their reentry into society, because I want that.”
That's not normal.
Anger and rage are much more natural responses to the murder of a loved one. If you agree with this, you should not be ashamed, because these are natural human emotions after suffering such a devastating loss. This is why over the centuries society has created a law enforcement system that includes police departments, prosecuting offices, and prisons to temper that desire for revenge.
That law enforcement apparatus aims to protect the public from thugs like Dominguez.
In sum: Some people need to be locked up for a long time. Unfortunately, leftists such as Ramirez minimize or ignore much of human nature. That is because left-wingers believe they always know better than those they deem unenlightened — which is most of the population, of course.
That is why their policies are doomed to fail.
Ramirez certainly was not under the radar in the autumn of 2023 when the Johnson administration began preparing former industrial land at 38th Street and California in Brighton Park for a sprawling migrant tent camp that would house 1,500 people.
City Hall not only declined to inform Ramirez — or so Ramirez claims — about their massive tent city, no one else was told either — because of course the Johnson administration knows better than the yokels.
Protests broke out at 38th and California — protests led by residents — not the rent-a-mob, bused-in type of rallies regularly weaponized by the left. Ramirez and a staffer showed up at one, where her constituents gave her an earful and more. During what the alderman called in a statement "a truly disappointing experience," she and the staffer were quickly surrounded by angry demonstrators. A video capturing one incident that looks like a rugby scrum -- described by Ramirez as an assault -- shows residents pushing and shoving one another and shouting at police. A Ramirez staffer swept up in the melee was hospitalized, but was in "good condition," her statement said.
It is crucial to note that Ramirez never said she was against the building of an encampment for illegals in her ward or any other place else in Chicago. Her opposition to the Brighton Park migrant camp rested on environmental concerns about the former industrial land.
Fortunately, Governor J.B. Pritzker came to the rescue of 12th Ward residents — and the migrants — in late 2023. Because of "serious environmental concerns," Pritzker stopped the construction of the migrant tent city after the Illinois EPA discovered toxic metals and poisonous chemicals at 38th and California.
Last September, despite opposition from most of the City Council as well as Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling, Johnson cancelled Chicago's contract with ShotSpotter, which provided gunshot detection services to the CPD. Support for ShotSpotter was particularly strong among minority aldermen where the detection system was set up.
There were exceptions and, unsurprisingly, Ramirez was among them.
ShotSpotter, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, recorded over 5,000 gunshots fired in the 12th Ward between July 2023 and August 2024. Often, CPD, after a ShotSpotter alert, would discover gunshot victims when no one dialed 911.
After Johnson ended the contract with ShotSpotter, CWB Chicago began a series, “Brandon's Bodies,” which tallies the gunshot victims discovered in areas where the technology was formerly deployed.
One of those victims noted by CWB Chicago was a woman, Brandon’s Bodies #21, who was shot last month in the 12th Ward. No one called 911 to report the gunfire, fortunately the victim was able to flag down a passerby for help. According to CWB, responding police officers placed a tourniquet on her arm, which slowed blood loss until paramedics arrived. The wounded woman was then hospitalized and subsequently reported to be in good condition.
Although CWB Chicago was not able to find any comments on ShotSpotter from Ramirez, on the alderman’s political site, Ramirez said:
"The 12th Ward office is committed to ensuring public safety."
However, left-wingers are notorious for playing games with the meanings of words. Their abuse of the word “equity,” inferring that it means equality, quickly comes to mind. Public safety for most people means protection from being robbed, assaulted, or getting shot by a maniac.
Nonetheless, when Ramirez was a guest on WBEZ Reset podcast with Sasha-Ann Simons discussing Pritzker's closure of the Brighton Park migrant camp, Ramirez admitted an unsettling truth about her mindset while discussing public safety.
“There were big concerns about public safety, and I believe that public safety is providing people with shelter and feeding people, but we also need to make sure that it works for everybody.”
Ramirez' constituents likely do not agree with her.
As for ShotSpotter, it is an effective public safety tool.
