Chicago: Lori Lightfoot proposes going cashless to end robberies

The mayor proposed a surprising measure to put an end to crime in the sixth most dangerous city in the country: not using cash and opting for "other forms of transactions."

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Verónica Silveri Pazos

24 de enero, 2023

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has proposed new "solutions" to end the crime wave sweeping the city. One of the measures consists of stopping street vendors from accepting cash payments and to opt for "other forms of transactions" to make payments:

We've been in Little Village working with the street vendors, understanding what the nature of the crime is, making sure that we do things in concert with them to help them, to make sure that their money is safe. Do not use cash, if possible, use other forms of transactions.

During a mayoral debate organized by ABC7 Chicago, Lightfoot laid out her solutions to end crime and acknowledged, "that people in the city do not feel safe" and promised to "continue working on the strategy" of hiring more police officers and to establish stricter gun control laws:

My main goal is to make sure Chicago is the safest big city in the country, and we've made progress year after year. But I recognize that people in the city don't feel safe, so we have to keep working on the strategy that we know is making progress: getting guns out of the hands of criminals; holding violent and dangerous people accountable; and making sure we hire more police.

Chicago, the sixth most dangerous city

The Chicago Police Department shared in its weekly report the overwhelming numbers of crimes recorded in the first days of 2023. Comparing the numbers with the same period last year, it is evident that crime increased by 65%, sexual assaults increased by 16%, robberies by 37% and motorcycle thefts shot up by a staggering 175%.

CompStat Public 2023 Chicago Police Dep.

by Voz Media on Scribd

Chicago is ranked as the sixth most dangerous and violent city in the nation. With a population of 2,746,388, the Windy City has a crime rate of 3.9 per 100,000 residents, making it 67% more dangerous than the U.S. average. "Much of the crime can be attributed to violence and gang conflicts, which are linked to drug trafficking," according to Property Club.

10 deaths in one weekend

Eric Spracklen of Project Veritas, posted a video on Twitter showing evidence of what is happening on the streets of the city, where every day there are people shot and killed. Robby Starbuck, a director and producer known on social networks, commented that the incident involved a criminal who was already at large "after a violent home invasion in 2009 in which he shot two people":

"It is illegal for criminals to have a gun. It has an illegal magazine. Democrat gun laws don't work and their soft on crime policies and unleash murderers."

Last weekend, from Friday to Sunday alone, a total of 33 people were shot, of which more than ten were killed. In less than 24 hours, a total of 18 people were shot and two of them died from the injuries.

Money poorly invested

For this year, the City Council has approved $53 million - and bid for another $113 million in federal funds - to improve the crime situation. However, the programs implemented are not effective. A few months ago, the mayor described crime as a problem rooted "in decades of systematic racism" and disinvestment in communities:

The violence is rooted in decades of systematic racism and disinvestment in our communities. To combat all of this, we have taken innovative steps to address both the short-term and long-term consequences of violence.

In 2021, Chicago suffered one of its deadliest years. More than 700 homicides were recorded and it was the first time in that this many murders have been recorded since 1994. Most of the deaths and shootings are concentrated in the western and southern areas of the city, which are heavily segregated.