With over 85% of votes in, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot is in third place, grasping at the heels of Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson respectively. With the chances favoring Paul Vallas as the winner, the implications of his tenure as Chicago’s mayor could be polarizing. Although he seems like a good candidate, Paul Vallas would be a terrible mayor for Chicago.
One of the first issues on Vallas’s agenda is lowering the hiring standards for Chicago Police officers. His argument is, the rigid standards weed out too many potentially good candidates. His argument doesn’t take into account the reason why those standards are in place: cases like LaQuan McDonald’s, where a 17-year-old boy was shot 17 times by officers.
It literally comes down to life or death.
Lowering the standards for hiring officers may widen the net of candidates, but it also reduces the quality of the candidates. In a world where these people are armed and have the law on their side, the character of those people matters. It literally comes down to life or death.
Paul Vallas also promised to bring back officers who have left the police department for various reasons. Doing so would re-establish a culture of poor decision-making, excessive force and gang-like mentality. Vallas wants to revert back to aggressive policing practices that put police at odds with the same people and communities they swore to protect and serve.
[Vallas’s] approach will be acid to any relationship building…
Also, as mayor, Vallas would create a “Police Reserve Unit” made up former Chicago police officers, who will address misdemeanor complaints like loud music or other “nuisances”. So, in other words, he’ll be allowing grumpy old men with guns to live out their worst mental reactions to a kid simply playing music from his cellphone on sidewalk.
The three aforementioned changes the wannabe-mayor want to make have one thing in common: reverting back to a former failed system. Vallas wants to go back to a lower standard of hiring for police, rehire officers who have left and give a whole team of retired cops free and exclusive reign over misdemeanor complaints.
The implications of this man actually becoming mayor are frightening. His approach will be acid to any relationship building between distressed communities and police. If Vallas becomes mayor of Chicago, the results could be bad. Vallas is stuck in the 90s, and Chicago is well beyond. Or so people believe.
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The Reeders Block 