by Rex Huppke
We here in this “City of Big Shoulders,” this diverse, beautiful, complicated Midwestern metropolis, are preparing for a likely Donald Trump-ordered invasion of federal immigration agents, and possibly federal troops.
Yes, I used the word “invasion,” as it seems accurate. Nobody here wants them, not Chicago’s mayor, not the governor, not the people, not the advocacy groups that help immigrants or work to stop violence. If the feds or the soldiers come, they’ll be uninvited and unwelcome, and the pointlessness of their mission will be clear as a sunny late-summer day on the shore of Lake Michigan.
Folks in my adopted city don’t suffer fools lightly, and Trump is a fool who thinks he can flex his authoritarian muscles by sending troops onto the streets of Democratic-led cities. He is itching for chaos.
‘They want to inflame something’ – that’s why Trump’s targeting Chicago
As Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said recently of the rumored Trump administration plans to do in Chicago what they’ve already messily and dumbly done in Los Angeles and Washington, DC: “The intentions here are clear. Nothing to do with actually enforcing the law, nothing to do with actually keeping the peace. They want to inflame something. That’s what they want.”
Like all good aspiring dictators, Trump knows if he kicks off trouble with his masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons or draws mass protests by militarizing the streets of a major city, it’ll give him an excuse to exert more federal power. It’s not clever, it’s just the obvious play for a man who sees our democracy as an obstacle.
Trump keeps lying about violent crime as ICE goes after families
For whatever they’re worth in these days of Trumpian dishonesty, the facts are against the president in all regards. He can talk about ICE agents rounding up hardened criminals, but according to the most recent ICE data, 70% of those presently in ICE or U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody have no felony conviction.
Trump and his administration toadies can talk about “violent crime in big cities,” but crime in Chicago is down sharply, with a 32% drop in homicides and a nearly 40% drop in shootings.
If they come into my city, it will be for the noise and spectacle of it all, for the sole purpose of manipulating the masses with unfounded fear, not for any valiant reason or with the goal of making anyone’s life better.
Chicago cops won’t help ICE, and they won’t wear masks either
Chicago police officials have already said they won’t assist with immigration raids. And you can bet the activists, faith leaders, and concerned residents of Chicago will be organized and ready to peacefully place wrenches in the gears of Trump’s intimidation machine.
WBEZ Chicago recently quoted Rev. Tyrone McGowan of Progressive Community Church on the city’s South Side: “We are rising, rising not because of soldiers and military occupation, but because of neighbors and organizers, healthcare professionals, educators, pastors and parents, young people and elders who decide to choose peace.”
Chicago’s history of protest awaits Trump’s federal invasion
Chicago has a long history of protest. In the 19th Century, German and Irish immigrants were being blamed for crime – sound familiar? – and the city’s mayor targeted German saloon owners, leading German immigrants to rise up and clash with police on the Clark Street bridge over the Chicago River.
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to days of riots involving police, soldiers, and throngs of Vietnam War protesters.
In 2006, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Chicago to protest anti-immigration policies, and earlier this year, tens of thousands gathered downtown in Daley Plaza to rail against the Trump administration as part of the nationwide No Kings protest.
Simply put, Chicagoans know how to protest. The city has a massive network of well-organized activist groups and a baked-in intolerance for getting pushed around. People here look out for their neighbors, and they know a con artist like Trump when they see one.
The myth of Chicago as a violent hellscape is red meat for Trump’s base
The president and his Republican Party have used Chicago as a culture-war cudgel for years on end, painting this city – my city – as some violent hellhole, statistics and objective reality be damned. We have problems, as do all cities and towns. Ours can seem worse, a multiplicative factor that comes with life in a place of 2.7 million people. But among cities with a population of more than 100,000, Chicago isn’t even near the top 10 in violent crime per capita.
So Trump should take his fear-mongering and false narratives and excuses to sick U.S. troops on U.S. citizens and use them somewhere really violent, like Little Rock, Arkansas, which is No. 4 on the most violent cities list.
The City of Big Shoulders will stand strong against Trump
So we’ll wait for Trump’s invasion. But let it be known loud and clear that this isn’t a city you mess with. This is the place that saw regular pizza and said, “Hey, what if we make that about two inches deeper and put more cheese on it?”
This is a place of hard work. A place where resistance runs deep.
The poet Carl Sandberg, in 1914, dubbed us “City of Big Shoulders” and wrote, aptly: “I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.”
So we wait.
