“Chicago’s Worst Hoods at Night!”
"Chicago Gangs, Alleys and Guns at Night"
"Top 10 US Cities With the Most Dangerous Nighttime Vibe While Walking That I Have Visited"
I picked these titles at random from the popular YouTube channel of Charlie Moore, a former Detroit cop who films his drives through inner city urban areas. The Atlantic characterized these journeys as “hood safaris,” implying that it’s racist to document the unfathomable danger the residents of our most crime-ridden cities face every day, even though Moore himself is black. I challenge anyone to watch just one of these videos and not instead ask: How have we allowed parts of cities like Chicago to become more dangerous than actual war zones?
Although Barack Obama was not in the audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on July 23, during a conversation about Fox News contributor Gianno Caldwell's new book, "The Day My Brother Was Murdered: My Journey Through America’s Violent Crime Crisis," Caldwell directed a related question to the former president:
You’re from Chicago. You lived there for many, many years. You were president for eight years. How many times did he talk about Chicago and fixing the issues that exist there? We didn’t really hear him talk about that. Why? Why is that the case?
Obama and the Left’s silence on America’s crime crisis infuriates many of the fortunate among us who have never had to mourn a family member or friend lost to a stabbing or drive-by shooting. Just imagine how Caldwell feels. His youngest brother, Christian, was gunned down on Chicago’s South Side on June 24, 2022, when he was only 18 years old. Christian was not the intended victim, and his killers have still not been captured.
On the same day as Christian’s death, 150 other people were murdered across the country. Caldwell shares the stories of eight of those victims in “The Day My Brother Was Murdered.” During the Q and A session at the Reagan Library, he mentioned the heartbreaking story of Cecelia Thomas:
Baby Cecelia was five months old on June 24. She was in a car with her parents up front — and her baby brother, three years old. They hear a pop. They thought it was fireworks. Baby Cecilia was shot in the head. She was four days away from being six months old.
The system should be working to bring justice to victims like Cecilia and her family. Instead, Caldwell says, it too often seems to be helping the criminals. Is that just an exaggeration? Well, consider the SAFE-T Act in Illinois, which eliminated cash bail throughout the state. Caldwell explained why the law is such welcome news for murderers:
So for doing things like murder, as an example, you may get an ankle monitor bracelet…and they will sit you at home. But the SAFE-T Act … created this new avenue for this ankle monitor bracelet. ... The police can not respond to someone being out of range on their ankle monitor bracelet for 72 hours. You’ve killed the witness at that point! It’s insanity!
Not insane enough for you? How about the requirement that, when Chicago police officers witness a crime, they must get approval from their supervisor before chasing suspects on foot or by car? Unfortunately, this insanity is not confined to Chicago. While Caldwell called Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson even worse than his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, he made clear that L.A.’s Karen Bass is clearly in the running for the worst city leader in America:
If people don’t believe that there is accountability ... it is legitimately Gotham City, and in many cities across the nation that’s what we’re experiencing. ... Karen Bass doesn’t believe in accountability, apparently. You saw what happened with the ICE protests -- I mean, this is insane ... This is completely political. They let people run wild and destroy their own neighborhoods. ... How do you get justice by destroying your own stuff? You don’t.
And you won’t get justice as long as George Soros-funded prosecutors are in charge. These “terrible people,” as Caldwell described them, “have enabled an ideology” that has failed those who may not have started out as criminals but now see insane laws telling them they can do things like steal up to $950 worth of items without being stopped. When they realize they can get away with such crimes, some escalate to carjacking, robbery, and even murder.
“We have to ensure that these people no longer have an office to be in,” Caldwell said. That’s why he founded the Caldwell Institute for Public Safety, which supports anti-crime candidates and advocates for legislation that supports victims of crime. There have already been successes, as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who was in the audience at the Reagan Library pointed out:
I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support of Nathan Hochman, my new boss. ... There's been a complete 180 in our office. You have saved not only my fellow prosecutors and myself, but the good citizens of Los Angeles County from the nightmare of George Gascon that we had to endure for four years. ... He deliberately ordered us to not file certain enhancements, not file certain counts, not file certain allegations. ... I'm forever indebted to you.
Alas, for every nightmare that ends (and George Gascon's reign definitely was a nightmare), a new one beckons. Caldwell warned about what he thinks will happen if Zohran Mamdani, who called for dismantling the police in 2020, becomes the next mayor of New York City: "If he wins, I think it's gonna be the end of New York."
A week before his brother was murdered, Caldwell was on air talking about violent crime. “This could happen to any of us,” he recalled saying. “This could happen to my family. And the very next week, it did.” That same day, it also happened to the families of 150 other victims. And it continues to happen—every single day—to far too many. It behooves us to remember that it could happen to us—and to follow Gianno Caldwell’s lead in demanding change and refusing to stay silent.
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