It took only hours for Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker to demagogue the horrifying killing of seven people by a shooter during a Fourth of July event in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. Pritzker, who recently returned from a highly publicized trip to the key primary state of New Hampshire, is already positioning himself to run for president should Joe Biden decide not to seek reelection.
“There is no better day and no better time” to talk about gun control, Pritzker said as he railed against the “high-powered rifle” used by the captured shooter.
Pritzker ignored the fact that Illinois already has the sixth-most stringent set of gun controls in the country. Back in 2013, Highland Park itself banned AR-15s and AK-47s.
Keith Pekau, the mayor of the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, says that Pritzker is trying to hide his own involvement in making the public-safety climate in Illinois worse. “We have seen a 90 percent decline in mental health care beds in the state, and a 2021 report found that two out of five people in the state live in designated mental health shortage areas,” Pekau told Newsmax TV.
Pekau also said that the governor signed sweeping changes to the state’s criminal-justice system last year. Over the last 18 months, judges have been gradually forced to impose the least restrictive conditions possible to ensure a defendant’s appearance in court. Cash bail is to be completely abolished by the end of this year. The law also narrows the definition of felony murder, allows the bypassing of mandatory minimum sentences in cases involving drugs or retail theft, and permits anonymous parties to file allegations of police misconduct.
“Illinois is in the middle of a crime wave, and Pritzker is part of creating that problem and isn’t qualified to talk about any solutions,” said Pekau.