Chicago Mayor Worries That We’re Being Too Mean To The Thugs Terrorizing His City

Two years ago, a 20-year-old student at the University of Chicago named Max Lewis boarded a subway car on the city’s Green Line. Lewis had just finished another day interning at an investment bank in downtown Chicago, and he was on his way back to his apartment. Then, without warning, a stray bullet tore through the subway car’s window and hit Lewis in the neck. Doctors quickly determined that Max Lewis had been paralyzed from the neck down. He’d never be able to eat or walk again. He’d need a ventilator, forever. But Lewis could communicate with his eyes. By blinking, and using a letter board, he sent this message to his family: “If I have to live like this, pull the plug. Please, seriously.” Doctors took Max Lewis off of life support, and he died in the hospital shortly afterwards.

It’s a horrifying story. But it’s not particularly unusual in Chicago. The same weekend that Max Lewis was shot in the neck, at least 100 other residents of Chicago were hit by gunfire, and 18 died. A few days later, Chicago’s mayor at the time, Lori Lightfoot, gave an extended interview with CNN in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood. She was surrounded by bodyguards for the whole thing. Lori Lightfoot did not offer any sympathy to the family of Max Lewis, nor did she propose any solution to the city’s rampant crime problem. Instead, in the interview, Lori Lightfoot made it clear who the real victim was in Chicago. It was Lori Lightfoot. “I’m a Black woman and I’m a member of the LGBTQ community,” she said. “It’s not okay that systemic racism, homophobia, and sexism still exist but I’m going to play the cards that I’m dealt.”