1 of 3 | Chicago police officers monitor crowds of people protesting the 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald in Chicago on November 25, 2015. The number of homicides in the city was up 57 percent in 2016, the largest increase in six decades. Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/UPI |
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Jan. 25 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he would "send in the Feds" to Chicago if the city does not "fix the horrible 'carnage' going on," citing over 200 shootings so far this year.
Trump's late Tuesday tweet references his inauguration speech delivered Friday in which he said "the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential -- this American carnage stops right here and stops right now."
Trump cited Chicago Tribune data reported on Monday that said the city saw 228 shootings and 42 killings so far in 2017, but the newspaper reported that shootings increased to 247 people shot with at least 44 killed prior to the president's tweet.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday said federal agencies, including the FBI, already help Chicago but more could be done, particularly over gun control, federal prosecutions and the use of federal resources to track illegal guns.
"There's a lot the federal government can do ... and also, fundamentally, in my view, also help fund additional police officers," Emanuel said. "Over the years the federal government's stepped back their resources, which we have stepped up. The federal government can be a partner, and to be honest they haven't been for decades."
The Chicago Police Department earlier this month said 762 homicides were recorded last year -- an increase of 277 deaths, or a 57 percent jump. The increase was Chicago's largest in up to six decades, and police said 2016 saw more than 1,100 shootings than in the previous year.
"We need a plan, not a threat. We need jobs, not jails," civil rights leader Rev. Jesse L. Jackson wrote on Twitter in response to Trump's tweet.
