Editor’s Note. This article was originally published in the South Side Weekly by the Editors
President Donald Trump has declared war on Chicago.
The regime’s assault has grown in its size and intensity over recent weeks. In South Shore, federal agents swarmed an apartment building last week in an early morning raid where agents rappelled from helicopters and used concussion grenades. In Franklin Park, they shot and killed a man during a traffic stop. At an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Broadview, federal agents shot journalists and nonviolent protesters in the face with pepper balls, beat and arrested people, and blanketed the surrounding area with tear gas.
Gas has become a favorite weapon of federal agents, who deploy it with shocking ease whenever they feel the least bit threatened. They’ve been filmed dropping canisters yards from a Logan Square elementary school, in the middle of a residential street in Brighton Park, and outside of a hospital in Humboldt Park. On Saturday, agents shot a woman multiple times because they alleged she deliberately hit their car with hers. (She survived, and was released by a judge pending trial.) During an impromptu protest at the site of the shooting, agents deployed gas without warning, sending dozens of Chicago police officers scattering along with demonstrators.
Immigrants are not the only targets. Trump’s agents have swept up American citizens and legal residents. They’ve hospitalized Americans who dared to confront them, and were filmed choking a Black man on the West Side.
Now, Trump is deploying Texas National Guard troops to Chicago in a brazen assault on our city and the Constitution. In a bizarre speech to the nation’s military generals last week, Trump attempted to justify the incursions by inventing an “invasion from within.” He has likewise conjured delusions about crime rates (which are at historic lows) and nonexistent “riots” to pretend there’s a need for federal intervention. Just this morning, he ranted that Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker should be jailed.
Let us be clear: The President of the United States is levying war against American cities and American citizens.
We cannot rely on the other branches of government to save us. In Congress, Republicans were unable to stave off a government shutdown despite controlling both houses. Their inability to govern is superseded only by their unwillingness to hold Trump accountable for any of the dizzying array of impeachable offenses he’s committed since January. Locally, judges have ruled against Trump and his agents over and over. But the Supreme Court, now packed with a corrupt conservative majority, is all too happy to permit Trump’s worst excesses.
It’s up to us.
As journalists, we will continue to operate with Justice Hugo Black’s landmark opinion on the First Amendment in mind: “The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” Where major media companies capitulate, we will investigate and report.
Readers have another, equally important, role to play. The First Amendment also guarantees the right to peaceably assemble and seek redress of grievances. That’s not only a right, but a solemn responsibility—to yourselves, your neighbors and your country.
So: attend a No Kings rally on October 18. Report sightings of federal agents to rapid responders and the press. Connect with your neighbors, find a community defense workshop, and post know-your-rights signs.
Resist. Our democracy is at stake.
