CHICAGO – In a New York Times Guest Essay, Mayor Johnson argues that instead of sending in the National Guard, we need to double down on the strategies that made this the safest summer since the 1960s in Chicago. The Mayor touches on raising his family on the West Side, the connection between poverty and violence, and the progressive approach to fighting crime.  

Key Excerpts: Mayor Brandon Johnson in The New York Times: Chicago’s Mayor: The National Guard Isn’t What We Need 

By Mayor Brandon Johnson,  

Sept. 8, 2025 

• “Sending in the National Guard is the wrong solution to a real problem. If President Trump had listened to the city’s leaders, he would recognize that Chicago just experienced record-low homicide numbers, making this the safest summer since the 1960s, a result of effective collaboration between communities and law enforcement.” 
• “The importance of this effort is not theoretical for me. My wife and I are raising our three children in the Austin community, on the West Side of Chicago. As much as I love our neighborhood, it is one of the parts of our city where gun violence is most pervasive. At my own home, I’ve had to replace a window shattered by a stray bullet. I’ve lost neighbors and members of my church community. It is because I go to sleep and wake up on the West Side every day that I feel so strongly about finding lasting solutions to Chicago’s persistent problem with gun violence.” 
• “For much of the last six decades, Chicago’s leaders have pursued various “tough on crime” strategies targeting guns, drugs and gangs. Despite the significant resources devoted to these strategies, sustained reductions in crime proved elusive.” 
• “My administration has managed to make progress in crime reduction with three interconnected strategies: effective and law-abiding policing, violence prevention and addressing the root causes of crime.”
• “My priority is to make Chicago the safest big city in America. If our efforts are successful, we’ll demonstrate that the progressive approach to driving down crime is not only more just, it is also more effective. We don’t need the National Guard; we just need to invest in what works.” 

Read the full Guest Essay here.  

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