Delphine Cherry knows as well as anyone how intractable violent crime is in Chicago. In 1992, her teenage daughter was gunned down in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods — a bystander caught up in a gang shootout. Twenty years later in a suburb just south of the city, it claimed her son.
“You don’t think it’s going to happen twice in your life,” she said.
Chicago has been bracing for weeks for President Donald Trump’s promised deployment of National Guard troops to the nation’s third-largest city. Although Trump said the troops would help fight crime in a city he described as a 'hellhole,' his administration has been tightlipped about the operation's details, including when it would start, how long it would last, how many troops would be used and what role they would play in civilian law enforcement.
Trump has also veered back and forth on sending troops to Chicago — at times insisting he would act unilaterally to deploy them and at other points suggesting he would rather send them to New Orleans or some other city in a state where their governor 'wants us to come in.' Most recently, he said this week that Chicago is 'probably next' after National Guard troops are sent to Memphis.
Although Chicago has had one of the highest rates of gun violence of any major American city for some time, city and state leaders overwhelmingly oppose the planned operation, calling it political theater. Even those most directly affected, including people who have lost loved ones to violent crime, wonder how sending in troops would have any lasting effect on the fight against it.
Learning from Other Deployments
With plans for the Chicago deployment unknown, the ways National Guard troops have been used in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. this summer might offer clues. In June, Trump deployed thousands of Guard troops to Los Angeles amid protests over his administration’s immigration crackdown there. Although the troops initially were assigned to guard federal property, they also provided protection for immigration agents during raids.
In August, Trump announced he was placing Washington’s police force under his control and mobilizing federal forces to reduce crime and homelessness there. The troops who were deployed have patrolled around Metro stations and in the most tourist-heavy parts of the nation’s capital, as well as engaging in community clean-up efforts.
Despite the deployment, questions linger about the effectiveness and reliability of such short-term measures, especially when addressing underlying issues of crime.
Calls for Funding Over Troops
Local leaders have emphasized the need for better funding towards community programs aimed at tackling the root causes of crime rather than military presence on the streets. Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker have pushed for more federal assistance for violence prevention initiatives instead of troop deployment.
“If it was about safety, then the Trump administration would not have slashed $158 million in federal funding for violence prevention programs this year,” said Yolanda Androzzo, executive director of One Aim Illinois, highlighting the detrimental impact of such funding cuts.
Voices of Victims
Victims of violent crime, such as Delphine Cherry and Trevon Bosley, voice skepticism regarding the deployment of National Guard troops, emphasizing that real change requires community support and resources rather than military intervention. Cherry, who lost both her children to violence, believes that the focus should be on community healing and support rather than military presence that may exacerbate tensions.
“It’s not like we have a police shortage,” Bosley stated, advocating for a community-based approach to crime prevention instead. Both he and Cherry remain unconvinced that troops could truly address the complexities of violent crime in Chicago.
