Chicago Mayor Johnson’s “Sickness” Comment, Praise of Cop Killer Shows Dems Are Still Party of “Defund the Police”

Recent comments from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson describing police officers as a “sickness” and lionizing a notorious cop killer are just the latest evidence that Democrats’ antipathy toward law enforcement has never truly left the party – even as many liberals have attempted to distance themselves from the “Defund the Police” movement.

In his most recent outrageous remark, Johnson praised “Black Liberation Army” member Assata Shakur as “an important person in the black liberation movement.” Shakur, who recently died in Cuba, was convicted of murdering a New Jersey State Trooper in 1977.

Before that, during a press conference on September 16, a reporter asked Johnson about how to make Chicagoans feel safe. Chicago’s per capita murder rate is about three times that of Los Angeles and nearly five times that of New York City.

In response, Johnson outrageously suggested that the police are to blame for violent crime in the Windy City. “The fact of the matter is, we are driving violence down in this city, and we’re using every single resource that’s available to us,” Johnson said. “Jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness that has not led to safe communities.”

When asked to clarify his comments days later – a clear attempt by friendly media outlets to throw Johnson a political lifeline – the mayor instead compared himself to Martin Luther King, Jr. and doubled down.

“Dr. King referred to militarism as a sickness,” Johnson said, according to NBC News. “And I’ve said this on multiple occasions, and my position is still very clear: the addiction of jails and incarceration is one that we have to wean ourselves off of.”

Both comments quickly drew rebukes from even some Democrats, including Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, who said Johnson’s remarks were “disappointing and disheartening.”

Indeed, they are, but one thing Johnson’s anti-police radicalism shouldn’t be is surprising. In fact, it was something of a full-circle moment for the 49-year-old former educator, who attempted to mask his prior support for the “Defund the Police” movement during his mayoral campaign in 2023 but has now apparently had another change of heart.

Back in June 2020, in the midst of nationwide Black Lives Matter riots following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, then-Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson supported a resolution that called for defunding the police and redirecting money toward social services.

That resolution claimed that “policing, criminalization, and incarceration have been used as tools of violence and retribution against marginalized groups seeking safety, especially Black people.” Johnson reaffirmed his support for the resolution in December of that year, calling it “an actual, real political goal.”

However, Johnson tried to backtrack three years later while running for mayor after the “Defund” movement had fallen out of favor, saying he never said it was his “goal.” Still, many saw through this blatant dishonesty, earning him the nickname “BLM Brandon.”

His comments in mid-September show he continues to believe policing is racist and should be abolished. As Burke reminded Johnson, her prosecutors “get up every single day to make sure that they keep women safe from domestic violence” and “make sure that we are doing our jobs in protecting children from being sex trafficked, to make sure that we are prosecuting murder cases.”

The leader of the Chicago Police Department union also blasted Johnson. “He has always hated us. He still hates us. He just can’t say what he wants to publicly,” John Catanzara said in a YouTube video. But, he added, Johnson’s real views “came out a little bit because he lost control.”

Catanzara also highlighted Johnson’s rank hypocrisy by filming the video in front of the mayor’s home, where he has “three squad cars blocking it, patrolling it, protecting it for him and his family.”

“What a hypocrite,” Catanzara said.

Johnson’s initial comment and non-apology even drew a rebuke from the left-leaning Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, which said he “blew that opportunity” to show he supported the city’s police force.

The Tribune editors also wrote that “the message he delivered remained a divisive one” and was “meant to cast aspersions on those who would hold criminals responsible for their actions and to find common cause with those who believe in third, fourth, and fifth chances for criminals.”

As the Editorial Board put it, the most charitable conclusion of what Johnson meant is that “policing and law enforcement are at best necessary evils in reviving the Chicago neighborhoods most beset by violent crime.” But even that would be “giving Johnson the benefit of the doubt,” as “he did, of course, initially refer to law enforcement as a disease.”

Others who know Johnson have affirmed he is “anti-police” based on other comments. Republican Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison pointed out last month that Johnson repeatedly refused to say during an MSNBC interview if he would accept funding to add 5,000 more police officers.

The mayor, Morrison said, “is anti-police, anti-rule of law, and against the notion [of] holding criminals accountable and punishing them.”

But as repulsive as Johnson’s comments are, equally damning is the support or silence from other high-profile Democrats, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, widely considered a 2028 presidential hopeful. Pritzker has notably called border patrol agents operating in Chicago “a performative show of force and a waste of taxpayer dollars” and has opposed Trump administration plans to deploy federal law enforcement to help make the city safer – a strategy that has yielded stunning success in Washington, D.C.

Ultimately, Johnson is only saying out loud what many Democrats still believe. 2020 was a “coming out” party of sorts where, for the first time, the cultural zeitgeist gave elected liberals confidence to voice their true hatred for law enforcement.

After the “Defund the Police” movement produced disastrous results at the ballot box for Democrats, most of the party distanced itself from anti-police rhetoric and policies – at least publicly. But as Johnson’s comments and the muted reaction from virtually every other Democrat show, that same vitriol and resentment are still simmering just beneath the surface, ready to burst back into the mainstream at the earliest opportunity.

Matt Lamb is a contributor for AMAC Newsline and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.