How does Johnson plan to end the insanity downtown if he refuses to admit what it is?
By now, we all know the Brandon Johnson drill. When episodes of teenagers swarming the downtown area create havoc, the mayor reacts with an outpouring of sympathy and understanding for the conditions in which marauding teens live. As Johnson expresses his worry over teens ravaging downtown, he readily dispenses the valid concerns of residents, visitors, and businesses owners in the affected areas.
Part of a troubling pattern demonstrated by Johnson, the mayor’s impulse to excuse teenage lawbreaking extends back to the period prior to his assuming office in 2023. For those who are willing to remember, on the evening of April 15, 2023, throngs of teens descended on the downtown and pandemonium followed. One day later, as Loop residents dug themselves out of the rubble, the damage done was significant and visible: Gunfire wounded two teens, motorists were assaulted, and teens battered pedestrians on the public way.
At the time, Johnson, then mayor-elect, reacted by declaring the city was in need of a “comprehensive approach to improve public safety.”
Yet days later, after emerging from a meeting with Democratic lawmakers in Springfield, instead of issuing a firm condemnation of what was manifestly criminal behavior, Johnson, our moral paragon, delivered a finger wag in response to criticism of teen lawlessness:
“Look, demonizing children is wrong. We have to keep them safe as well.”
Abandoning all pretense of moral clarity, Johnson followed with a now-notorious remark:
“They're young. Sometimes they make silly decisions. They do. And so we have to make sure that we're investing so that young people know they're supported.”
A preposterous comment for which he will always be remembered, Johnson, it is also useful to recall, reacted similarly in August 2023, months after he took office. On the evening of July 30, a “trend” announcement promulgated on social media, inviting teens to congregate in the South Loop. Arriving at the Roosevelt Red Line Station, hundreds of teens flocked to the Roosevelt Collection Shops on Delano Court. By 9 p.m., the area convulsed with teens arguing and fistfights broke out on Roosevelt Road. As night fell, the behavior among the teens took on a more reptilian character, the confrontations grew more violent, and a 7-Eleven was looted. Eventually, Chicago Police were called to restore order; some 40 arrests were made. The same scenario unfolded in several instances throughout the summer of 2023.
Though property had been destroyed, a store looted, large brawls had taken place, and car windows smashed, when asked his reaction to the criminality and mass disorder, Mayor Johnson shrugged at reporters recounting a menu of crimes committed by the teens. In a moment of irritation, Johnson scolded journalists who described masses of teens as a “mob” and insisted reporters characterize it as a “large gathering.”
Excusing away the criminal behavior of teens is Mayor’s Johnson’s habit, so it shouldn’t be too terribly surprising the mayor casually brushed off the significance of the latest incident of “wilding” in Streeterville. For the second time in less than a month, hundreds of teens converged on the lakefront neighborhood, went on a rampage, and by the end of the evening, one teen had been shot, another stabbed, and a Chicago police officer had been assaulted. With Streeterville residents' nerves frayed and business owners wracked with anxiety, Alderman Brian Hopkins (2) has called for a city curfew to be lowered from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thus far, Johnson has resisted Hopkins’ appeal for a change to the curfew.
Though it is worthy to debate the efficacy of a change to the curfew, Mayor Johnson does have alternatives worth exploring to prevent teens from journeying downtown for the purpose of running amok.
If Johnson is serious about confronting the “reckless and dangerous behavior” demonstrated by the teens in Streeterville, there exists a practical solution: Proactive and preventative police action. A man who is fond of asserting his intent to address the “root causes” of social ills, the mayor should charge the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to develop and apply a plan which includes the assistance of the Cook County Sheriff (CCSPD) and the Illinois State Police (ISP) to prevent teens from traveling downtown on weeknights and weekends to undertake anti-social behavior or engage in outright criminality.
To accomplish the goal of keeping the activity of Streeterville and the surrounding neighborhoods orderly and non-disruptive, the starting point for any successful plan begins with increasing a police presence on the Red Line. Most teens who contributed to the unrest on March 28th used public transit to arrive downtown. According to sources inside the Chicago Police Department, a legion of teens creating a ruckus in CPD’s 2nd District was dispersed by officers in the early evening. CPD suspect a vast number of rollicking teens left the area and proceeded downtown on the Red Line.
To thwart teens intent on creating mayhem downtown, CPD must assign additional officers on all Red Line stations between the 95th/Dan Ryan station on the South Side to the Grand station on the Near North Side. Officers stationed at these Red Line stations must strictly enforce all violations, issuing citations for drug or alcohol offenses, public nuisance, or turnstile jumpers. While the possibility exists the presence of additional officers on Red Line platforms may motivate teens to attempt to board CTA trains elsewhere on the Red Line, with sufficient officers present at all stations, in the course of time, youth will become discouraged and abandon the attempt to pilgrimage downtown.
Though supplementing Red Line stations with officers will substantially reduce the flow of teens downtown, other modes of travel are available to teens — by automobile — and must be addressed. For teens who have benefit of a car, travel to the downtown is not outside the realm of possibilities. To hinder teens intent on creating trouble downtown, officers in the center of the city must rigidly enforce all traffic and motor vehicle violations and CPD must work in close consultation with the city’s Bureau of Traffic Services to tow automobiles which are in violation of City or State licensing statutes or illegally parked. Towed vehicles should be impounded. In addition to issuing citations and towing illegally parked cars, CPD should strictly enforce all traffic ordinances and laws in the area. The combination of a highly visible police presence and firm enforcement of traffic laws will serve as a deterrent to disorder or criminal behavior.
Finally, CPD should secure the cooperation of the Cook County Sheriff and ISP to assist with enforcement on roadways within their jurisdiction as well as the expressways and off ramps leading into the downtown. The addition of Cook County and the ISP to a safety plan will discourage the probability of teens aiming to create upheaval downtown.
The cost of inaction is high
Mayor Johnson’s refusal to define “wilding” as a form of criminality is unsurprising. To the mayor, wilding teens are victims. To Johnson, the wilding teens come from derelict neighborhoods, which are starved of amenities, diminished job prospects, and suffer from economic isolation and disinvestment.
In Johnson’s worldview, the refusal to condemn criminal behavior among teens is an act of mercy. The teens, Johnson insists, are only in need of a lifeline to connect them to purpose and belonging in a world often fraught with challenges and distractions.
While Johnson’s Father Flanagan-esque “There are no bad boys” Weltanschauung is admirable, this is no time to indulge in fantasy.
Although wilding has become a common colloquialism for acting crazy or excited in a playful manner, teens who have crossed Chicago to arrive downtown are not creating an atmosphere of youth and gaiety. Though Johnson would prefer us to believe wilding is a harmless manifestation of youthful spirits, it is not. Far from an innocuous display, there is a calculated vulgarity and violence to their antics.
Just as teens deserve compassion, so too do residents of Streeterville. Johnson has a legal obligation to support the needs of all residents, whether born into or above poverty. That Johnson shows no sympathy for wilding teens’ victims and voices no qualms about wilding teens’ violence is deeply unnerving.
Streeterville and the area which surrounds it — the Central Business District (CBD) — is a quarter of Chicago on which a city government should place a high premium. A consequential cog in the city’s economic engine, it is Mayor Johnson’s duty to defend business owners from threats and violence. Doubly so, Mayor Johnson has an obligation to defend residents from violence and threats to bodily harm.
The upheaval in Streeterville over the past several weekends presents Mayor Johnson an opportunity to assert himself and fulfill a campaign promise to make Chicago safer. Wilding demands a strategy, one which does not require the mayor to pour money into a cherished social program, recreational activity, or safe space.
Wilding stands in need of a police response. The toll of taking no action against weekend unrest and violence will be serious. A refusal on the mayor’s part will lead to a serious disruption of commerce, and a loss of businesses revenue, which will depress tax revenues. More broadly, Streeterville residents have reached the limit of human endurance: The rising mood of discontent will force citizens to leave Chicago.
While there exist critics who will be inclined to denounce any safety strategy which involves CPD or will criticize a safety plan as monstrously unfair and targeting black youth with impunity, such charges are preposterous. Chicago routinely tows and impounds dozens of cars illegally parked or operated in Streeterville every weekend. Moreover, Chicago recently demonstrated a well-planned safety plan can be successfully applied while respecting the rights of demonstrators and residents alike during the DNC.
Mayor Johnson is not on a hot streak. A man with a 6.6 percent approval rating, Johnson needs a victory to demonstrate to residents he has mastered the craft of governing. Wilding downtown necessitates an immediate police response, not safe spaces, deflections or excuses.
