We all know that Chicago's own Mayor Brandon Johnson thinks that law enforcement in its traditional form is 'a sickness.'
The arresting and incarcerating - dare I use the word - criminals is 'a sickness' and it just makes him so mad he could spit any time someone advocates being tough on crime.
Like that would ever fix anything.
Johnson doesn't need cops, and he doesn't need the National Guard. If people would only leave him alone to run the city as he saw fit, all these troubles would magically go away.
But, no.
He's burdened with folks who insist on the 'sickness' being the answer to all the city's criminal ills.
JAILS AND INCARCERATION AND LAW ENFORCEMENT IS A SICKNESS
“Here are a few recent gun arrests that started as routine traffic stops.
— Douglas Ritz (@douglasritz) September 29, 2025
One of the accused is a convicted murderer.”
Traffic stops are a sickness.@GovPritzker pic.twitter.com/0ZQZbNFE5l
Working in the mayor's favor, though, fighting those forces of law and order alongside him, is something in Chicago known as the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), a civilian overwatch board that formulates police policy, mostly based on how loud special interest groups screech, not what everyday citizens need or want.
For years, there have been grumblings about the CPD and how they decide who is the subject of a traffic stop. Back in April, the CCPSA was in the middle of taking community input for a possible revamping of the CPD's traffic stop procedures to correct for these reported cultural and ethnic imbalances.
They were taking a hard look at experienced police officers who used a broken tail light or expired plates - legitimate infractions on their own, no doubt - as an excuse to pull over a vehicle they had a hunch would yield evidence of a greater offense.
Activists say, 'But that's not fair!'
...The proposed policy “acknowledges” that what the department calls “Pretextual Traffic Stops can be perceived by some members of the community as negative, biased or unlawful. Therefore, any such use of lawful Pretextual Traffic Stops as a law enforcement or crime prevention strategy must strike a balance between identifying those engaged in criminal conduct and the community’s sense of fairness.”
Officers who stop drivers for improper or expired registration plates or stickers and headlight, taillight and license plate light offenses “must strike a balance between promoting public safety and building and maintaining community trust,” according to the draft policy.
Advocates for police reform have long urged the department to ban pretextual stops, saying their use does not make Chicagoans safer and have been used by CPD officers to target Black and Latino Chicagoans.
The proposed policy represents the first time CPD officials have acknowledged officers are empowered to stop drivers in Chicago on a pretext in order to search for evidence of a more serious crime and should be allowed to continue doing so.
By July, the commission's outreach work was almost done, and they were floating a list of new restrictions on the Chicago PD for initiating a traffic stop in order to assuage the elements in the city who felt most victimized by the current traffic stop procedures.
...The group is taking public input through Monday but has already outlined a list of restrictions most of its members support. Among them: barring traffic stops for plates expired less than a year, improperly displayed or missing front license plates, improper rear license plate lighting, having a single non-functioning head-, tail-, or brake lights during daylight hours, and driving with a loud sound system.
A minority of CCPSA commissioners also support banning stops for failure to wear seat belts or failure to signal turns or lane changes. Some community members are pushing to go even further — calling for a ban on stops for tinted windows, among other minor violations.
...“More than 44% of all drivers stopped by police officers in 2024 were Black, and nearly 35% of drivers pulled over by Chicago police officers were Latino. By comparison, just 14.8% of drivers stopped by Chicago police were White,” WTTW reported, citing a paper published by a coalition of groups seeking to change traffic stop policies.
That conclusion assumes that “fair” traffic enforcement would result in stops that mirror the city’s racial makeup — an assumption that some observers say is flawed. White residents may be less likely to drive or even own vehicles because they tend to live in walkable, transit-rich neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Black and Latino residents may spend more time behind the wheel and could be statistically more likely to work in driving-intensive roles, such as delivery or ridesharing. Financially well-off residents may also be far more likely to spend disposable income on frequent rideshares instead of driving.
According to the local ACLU representative, these traffic stops do nothing to prevent crime. There's 'no evidence' even as they cannot or will not explain what the guns removed from vehicles during these traffic stops might have been used for had the traffic stop never happened.
By last month, it turns out, as it so often does in the hands of anything progressive and blue, that the community survey and outreach the commission had been conducting must not have turned out the way they wanted. For a supposedly transparent 'community' organization, the results were never released. Instead, even as they moved forward with the traffic stop restriction plan, the commission found itself under scrutiny by another neighborhood organization that had obtained the results and publicized why the CCPSA wasn't releasing it.
A Freedom of Information Act request finally forced it into the open. It turns out that, when asked, the public wanted the CPD doing exactly what they were doing, and more of it if they could.
A city commission’s plan to limit the reasons Chicago police officers can make traffic stops is moving forward even though its own in-house survey found that a majority of city residents do not want any restrictions placed on CPD’s ability to stop drivers.
That’s the stunning claim in a letter published by the three-member Near North (18th) District Council, which is charged with improving policing in parts of downtown and the North Side. The council’s letter said the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability’s own survey shows the public does not agree with the commission’s plan to restrict traffic stops.
And in a move critics call troubling for a panel that is supposed to be committed to transparency in policing, the CCPSA did not release its survey results until the 18th District panel filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
The negative response to the CCPSA's restrictions was overwhelming in its rejection.
...According to the July 18 letter to CCPSA and several aldermen, the survey revealed that “over two-thirds of survey respondents” opposed placing limits on CPD’s ability to stop drivers for low-level, non-moving violations.
More than 1,300 people from all 22 police districts responded to the survey, the letter said. It also claims the survey found that “majorities in over 80% of the city’s police districts” are against traffic stop restrictions.
What Chicago residents want and what they get have seemed to be diametric opposites, especially lately, and that is true in this case.
Chicago cops are still enforcing vehicle traffic infractions and finding all the worst dregs of society with busted taillights and expired plates.
Chicago felon charged after loaded gun found during traffic stop, sheriff's police say
A Chicago man has been charged after Cook County Sheriff’s police said they discovered a loaded gun in his vehicle during a traffic stop in the South Loop.
What we know:
Around 7:11 p.m. on Sept. 19, officers stopped a Chevrolet Impala for reportedly having expired tags in the 1700 block of South State Street.
The driver, 43-year-old Jason Harden, had a suspended license and no insurance, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
(The court released this guy.)
They're snatching up people left and right who shouldn't be out and about to begin with...
...On September 14, deputies stopped a man in River North for driving with an expired registration. They ended up arresting the driver, 40-year-old Terrell Washington, who served a 16-year sentence for murder in 2004. Why? Because, according to the sheriff’s office, he had a loaded handgun in the car. Judge Antara Rivera ordered him detained.
...On September 20, officers spotted a car parked in a fire lane in the 3700 block of South Wells Street. When they tried to pull the driver over, he sped off, running red lights. Out of safety concerns, cops called off the chase, but tracked him through the city’s surveillance camera network until the car returned to the same block. Officers arrested 39-year-old Walter Diggs as he walked away from the vehicle. They found a handgun with a machine gun conversion device and a drum magazine inside the car, prosecutors said.
According to Illinois Department of Corrections records, Diggs is on parole for a stolen vehicle case and has prior convictions for burglary and possessing yet another stolen car. Judge Shauna Boliker ordered him detained on charges that include possessing a machine gun and aggravated fleeing.
...and the CCPSA is still going ahead with its plans to restrict officers.
“Here are a few recent gun arrests that started as routine traffic stops.
— Douglas Ritz (@douglasritz) September 29, 2025
One of the accused is a convicted murderer.”
Traffic stops are a sickness.@GovPritzker pic.twitter.com/0ZQZbNFE5l
There's a sickness in that city, alright.
Only it's confined to and running wild through the government buildings.
The city's residents are the ones who have to survive it.
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