Murder City Bonehead Mayor Brandon Johnson announced in recent days that the city would discontinue using ShotSpotter after the summer murder season – and the Democratic National Convention.
No big deal, right? Giving police a chance to respond rapidly to the location of shots fired, especially full-auto strings of fire, and giving police a decent chance to catch the perps is, in Comrade Mayor Johnson’s eyes, just a waste of resources.
The only problem is that the contact with his city expires today.
And ShotSpotter’s parent company has no desire for a short, six- or eight-month extension.
Whoopsie daisy there Mr. Mayor.
I can see ShotSpotter management chuckling to themselves, “Good luck on that Democratic National Convention you’ve got coming to town, dumbass.”
ShotSpotter uses computer algorithms and fancy microphones to identify gunfire and triangulate its location in the covered area. It’s actually someone decent, but it comes with a big-dollar price tag.
However, since it’s “someone else’s money,” many politicians are eager to sign off on the expenditures. After all, these (often left-leaning) pols will take any opportunity to act as though they’re “doing something” about gang violence in their communities. The very violence they themselves have fostered through their soft-on-crime leadership and policies – to say nothing of gun control.
Brandon Johnson wants to ditch this tool because it’s actually used by police to apprehend shooters and take them off the streets. It’s better to let these gang banger run free shooting at people than to have “overpolicing” in minority neighborhoods (where the worst of the crime seems to always happen).
Johnson blames the system on the death of Adam Toledo, 13. Toledo was carrying a gun late at 2:30 in the morning near where shots had been fired. He ran from police and died tired after not obeying police commands before or after running from the cops.
Brandon’s actually words from the Sun-Times:
He insisted the technology is “unreliable and overly susceptible to human error,” adding that it “played a pivotal role” in the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March 2021.
Many of those concerns were reiterated by critics of ShotSpotter, who frame it as a costly surveillance tool that has led to overpolicing in minority communities.
Again, ShotSpotter management hadn’t signed off on a contract extension beyond February 15th. From NBC Chicago:
The city of Chicago planned to keep using ShotSpotter technology through the end of summer even after opting not to renew their contract with the company, but that plan is facing obstacles.
Multiple sources tell NBC Chicago that Sound Thinking, the company that owns ShotSpotter, has rejected the city’s offer to extend its contract for six more months.
As a result, members of Chicago’s City Council tell NBC Chicago that the technology is expected to shut off at midnight Friday when the current contract ends.
The city, who has not responded to request for comment at this time, has informed members of the City Council that negotiations remain ongoing with the company.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Tuesday that the city would not extend its contract with the company, but had aimed to arrange a short-term extension through September, guaranteeing that the technology would remain in place through the summer and the Democratic National Convention.
It’s almost like Brandon Johnson really doesn’t care about getting violent offenders off the streets. It’s better to be woke and not “overpolice” crime-ridden cesspool neighborhoods than put bad guys in prison.
Until and unless voters elect someone who puts public safety over wokeness, more people will die and people who can afford to leave will flee Murder City USA for greener and safer pastures.
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