Writer and film critic Burt Prelutsky once famously quipped, “If liberals didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.”
While it sounds like a joke, the consequences caused by progressives’ presumptions of privilege are not amusing at all. The issues arising from two sets of rules — one for the elites, another for the people — are playing out right now in Chicago in a tragic way.
In a city reeling under crime and violence, “Defund the Police” advocate Mayor Lori Lightfoot is diverting over 70 police officers to protect herself and her property.
That is on top of an additional 20 officers who serve as her personal bodyguard.
As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, the special unit, called the Government Security Detail, was quietly started in July 2020.
A memo on the creation of the division stated its purpose was “to provide physical security for City Hall, the mayor’s residence and the mayor’s detail command post.”
The unit was created at the same time other Chicago neighborhoods were complaining about a shortage of police.
Even while Lightfoot used the Chicago police like her own personal minions, she also waged war against them by mandating Covid 19 vaccinations and cracking down on officers through increased scrutiny of policing actions.
This was after Lightfoot’s pledge to cut $80 million from the police budget in 2020, according to Fox 17 WZTV Nashville.
Police officers have literally turned their backs on the mayor in response to her contemptuous treatment.
As Mayor Lightfoot enjoys her special protections, the population of Chicago suffers under constant violence.
Chicago has long had a reputation for corruption and criminality, and the police were already outgunned and outmanned. Lightfoot’s callous treatment of law enforcement made the situation worse.
In January, NBC 5 Chicago reported 797 homicides in Chicago during 2021, more murders than any other American city. It was the highest body count since 1996.
In 2020 President Donald Trump, alarmed by the lawlessness of Chicago, sent federal agents to assist the police. Mayor Lightfoot bitterly opposed the move at the time, but later relented.
By the end of 2021, Lightfoot was begging for federal intervention, as the New York Post noted.
An easier solution would be for Lightfoot to trim down her special police unit and send the officers back out to serve the whole community.
The people of Chicago deserve better than a hypocritical mayor indulging herself at their expense.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.