Chicago Politics

Curfew Veto Press Conference 7.16.25

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Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the Curfew Veto Press Conference.

Transcript

1:49 And thank you all for joining us. I want to thank all of the community organizations, labor unions, and elected officials that are standing with us today. Our alder people, our district counselors, and CCPSA commissioners, our county commissioners, state legislators, all of us collectively standing strong and firm to ensure that we build the safest, most affordable big city in America. And ahead of today's city council meeting, I want to reiterate my commitment to building a safer and more just Chicago.

2:28 I decided to veto this measure because it would be counterproductive to the progress of reducing crime and violence in our beloved city. When I was elected two years ago, I made a pledge not to simply do the easy thing, but to do the right thing. The easy thing to do would be to play into the political theater of safety. The easy thing to do would be to tell people that if we threaten young people and families with severe repercussions,

3:00 that that somehow would make us safer. But we know from years of doing the same old tired forms of policy that it doesn't get the results that people have longed for. It doesn't keep us safe and it doesn't make our city stronger. Instead, today we are doing the right thing. We are deciding to focus on investing in people. There is no study that we have seen or frankly anyone in Chicago has seen that says that these type of measures and curfews will keep young people safe.

3:36 and in fact if we were to enact such a thing we would leave ourselves vulnerable to potential and costly lawsuits that do nothing to make our city safer. We need to focus on what we have done to build the type of progress that we have already seen has been proven to be effective. We are seeing a continuous decline in violent crime throughout the city of Chicago. So in other words, the work is working.

4:07 To build on that progress, we must lean into the strategies that have been working, investments that have been working. And it doesn't mean criminalizing our young people. We need to stand firm and do what is right. And that means investing in our young people. That is why this summer I'm so proud that we will hire 29,000 young people for summer jobs, a

4:40 45% increase since taking office. It means engaging our city's young people during our budget roundtable discussion and giving them the opportunity to be able to voice their opinion on how we can continue to invest in their future. As we address the root causes of crime, we must continue to strategically deploy our officers to high crime areas rather than dictate their time in enacting and enforcing curfews. These measures are why we have seen and experienced real productivity. In fact,

5:16 we have the safest April in 60 years. In fact, we have the safest Memorial Day in 16 years and the least violent 4th of July weekend in the past six years. The work is working. Now in closing, in closing, weeks ago I vetoed this measure.

5:49 If I was sent back in time and was tested with this ordinance, I would do it all over again. I would do anything and everything necessary to protect the city's young people And from the looks of this crowd, I know that I'm not alone in our work to protect young people across this city.

6:19 And so I look forward to working with members of city council to sustain our critical investments and to build partnerships that are leading towards a safer city. And I especially look forward to charting a new path to safety in our beloved city. And I want to thank all the community partners again, the parents, the young people, the advocates who are here with us this morning for charting this new path. Thank you all. And so it really gives me tremendous honor and privilege to introduce the executive director of Palenque LSNA, Juliet de Jesus Alejandre.

6:54 Thank you all very much. Good morning. Hello. My name is Juliet de Jesus Alejandre. I'm the proud mother of three Latino sons growing up in Chicago. I'm the current ED, but I'm also a former youth organizer. Like every mother in Chicago, I pray my boys are safe every day and go to schools where they are seen as brilliant and beautiful

7:25 and they are provided with the support and opportunity to thrive using their special gifts to the service of the world. That's what we all want. That's what all mothers want. When we look for solutions to youth violence, we have to remember that the world is big and we're not the only ones with this problem. There are other solutions that we can learn from. The World Health Organization says that every year, 200,000 young people ages 10 to 29 die from youth violence across the world. And why? The research will tell you that any society with significant wealth gaps between the rich and the poor consistently exhibit the highest rates of youth violence.

8:04 Do you want peace? Right? Then invest in economic opportunities for parents and youth. If we want less violence, then we do what the mayor has been saying. We invest and love on our children. Just like we do and see in rich communities. Years ago, I worked on a project that brought together young people from Chicago's barrios and communities with suburban youth who also went to public schools.

8:37 But their public schools had psychologists, nurses, tutors, social workers, even physical therapists and cold baths for their aching bones. I asked the principal of one of these rich suburban public schools what their discipline policy was. You know what she said? She said, we love and support our children. That's it. So we empower all our children to live lives of dignity and giving them every support that they deserve to be healthy.

9:08 All children deserve that. Now, the research does agree that we need to create laws. but the laws that need to be created says the research from around the world are ones that protect children that will protect their access to health care mental health services less guns and alcohol good schools and recreation programs nowhere in the literature from across the globe does it say that curfews are a solution snap curfews curfews will only further criminalize

9:43 black and brown children from working class families and we all know that that's what it will do. Curfews have never worked to create public safety. The children of Chicago have already been harmed. Redlining, segregation, school closures. Now while their parents deal with kidnappings and increased evictions and higher and higher rents across the city so today I am proud to stand with our mayor and reject the politics of harm towards our children and we call for investments continued investors that

10:14 will help our families thrive if you want to see peace then make families thrive non-violence all right non-violence is a product of good public policy Chicago wants peace in our downtowns we want peace in our communities and we will not get there with snap curfews thank you and now i'm so excited to invite um rainia jackson youth organizer from good kids mad city good morning everyone good morning

10:56 my name is rainia jackson i live in the 24th ward in north lawndale on the west side of chicago i've been organizing on the front line with good kids mad city And I lost a lot of people that I call family throughout the years through gun violence. So I know the pain and anger a little too well. And for such a long time in my life, I was angry. I was lost. And I didn't just lose my family. I lost my sense of safety. My sense of trust in the systems that are supposed to protect us.

11:26 That's why I joined Good Kids Mass City. Because we've been in the front lines fighting for things that can actually save lives. like mental health services, trauma-informed services, youth centers. We've been working with the city to announce our jobs, our youth peacekeeping jobs that are here to save lives, that are mentoring our young people and keeping them off the streets, putting money in their pockets. And that's why I'm here, to say no to the SNAP curfew.

11:58 We don't need more control. We need to feel human again. We need to feel like our lives matter. And if you pass this ordinance, you're saying the exact opposite. Because I know what it's like to feel unsafe. I know what it's like to be a young person just trying to survive. And now the city wants to give police even more power to decide where we can go and when we can exist in public. with just 30 minutes notice that's not safety baby that's targeting that's trauma added on to more trauma this curfew would allow the police to shut down parks and beaches and public spaces

12:32 the few places where we can go to breathe and turn them into um war zones they're turning them and they're turning them into zones of punishment and for what for being black and brown in our city for being young in our city. It makes me think, what if my brother was still alive today? He'd be seen as someone worth protecting or just another target so police control with. We don't need another curfew. We need a vision for safety that's built on love and care,

13:07 not fear and force. And that's what the peace book is about. It's about giving resources directly to the young people, creating spaces where we can be young and grow and be heard. and investing in things that prevent harm before it starts, like our peace book, our youth peacekeeping jobs. We talked about snap curfews are proven to not increase safety, but you know what has been proven?

13:37 Access to public mental health services, non-police crisis responses, youth jobs like the peacekeeping program that we have going on this summer, youth programming and funding our public health and safety department. We don't need to invest public safety dollars into things that we know don't work, like the snap curfew, or things like hundreds of million dollars in police vacancies, or funding ghost cops.

14:08 We need to invest in things that work. So I'm not just speaking as an organizer today. I'm speaking as a sister who lost her brother at a young age, as someone who still wakes up thinking about the night I lost the person I love the most. Please, I'm begging to vote no on this curfew and vote yes on the peace book Fun things that work because we deserve to live in a society where we're able to thrive and not just survive We deserve peace and we deserve the peace book Thank you I would like to introduce Alderman Taylor

14:55 Alderman Will Hall Thank you so much. To lock kids up is not what we do. We love kids. And so to lock a kid up from a neighborhood where they have no schools, to lock kids up from neighborhoods where they have no grocery stores, to lock kids up where they have no support is not what we do in the city of Chicago. We are the city that loves young people.

15:27 And so this is a city where young people can come from north, south, east, and west and enjoy the city where we love them. And so on today, we are not only vetoing this ordinance, we are saying to Chicago, love our children. This is the next and the now generation. If you love children, we need business communities to adopt parks. If you love children, we need more mentors to show up downtown instead of locking up kids who come downtown.

16:01 If we love children, then let's stop building prisons in the state and find the schools that these children go to. To lock children up, to lock children up who are crying out for help, It's the same thing we've seen done for the last 60 years. Don't lock up the next doctors, give them a chance to intern. Don't lock up the next leaders, give them a chance to shadow other leaders.

16:33 And so we're calling on everybody in Chicago to love a child, to serve a child, and to lead a child like our mayor has called us to do. This mayor has put money not only in the budget, but he has put his time and his effort into communities where children come from who've been abandoned. And so I want to invite my sister, who has been consistent, who's been fierce in loving children before she got the title of Aldrin. She is one of the most consistent freedom fighters from fasting and diet to make sure that children in her neighborhood got an auntie.

17:11 and to make sure that some child has a meal. I want y'all to clap your hands for none other than Jeanette Taylor, Chairwoman of Education. Good morning. I was looking like, who are you talking about? So, good morning, everybody. How you doing? Whitney Houston once said, I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.

17:42 It said nothing about locking young people up when they want to have fun in their city. To me is, the headlines is always talking about what the administration has not done. Look at what they've done. You've never seen this many young people in City Hall. You've never seen this many young people have summer jobs. You've never seen this many young people have year-round jobs. And so, it's easy to talk. We do a lot of that. Where's the action? The action is today when he vetoes what we made the mistake of doing.

18:15 And Alderman Taylor was not one of the people who voted yes on that mess. You're so busy in protecting your downtown interest, you say, forget the young people that live in our very communities. Bad enough the CPS budget won't be able to protect these young people. They didn't make those decisions as adults. Worse than adults that get to go to other jobs in other cities, but we won't go there. At the end of the day, what needs to happen today is this needs to be vetoed, and we need to come together to say, how do we hold young people accountable when they do wrong?

18:47 And locking them up is not it. How many more billions of dollars do we need to spend in wrongful convictions? How many more jails are we going to build? You ain't invest in a prison system to say you want those people to work, but you want to invest in the young people in the very city that you claim to love. And so I'll end with this. At the end of the day, young people, you're going to vote. You're about to be 17 and 18 years old. Remember the people's interests. And we need you all in their space.

19:19 There is not a box to put young people in. And so let's not start boxing them up by saying they can't appreciate their downtown. At the end of the day, these young people are our future. And we will protect them at all costs. Thank you. And this press conference needs to end with the voice of a young person. Serenia Jackson wants to come back up and lead us in a chant.

19:50 All right, repeat after me. It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and protect one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains. One more time. It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and protect one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

20:24 We have nothing to lose but our chains. Good job y'all

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