I want to thank the community advocates who led on this. Who have demanded that we reimagine what public safety looks like in this state.
The status quo “tough on crime” policies are failing us. We see this in every corner and every zip code of our state. The status quo “tough on crime” agenda is bad for public safety. We are seeing young people who are stuck, young people who are hurting, and young people asking us to step up!
If you are a 14 year old kid in this state here is what has happened in your life:
2007-09
Great Recession leading to a mass foreclosure crisis. This hit Black families particularly hard with a loss of over 50% of Black wealth.
2010s
Eviction crises, the closure of schools, hospitals, a massive budget impasse, as well as the well documented murders of Trayvon Martin and Laquan McDonald.
2020
A pandemic, economic crisis as well as a disparity in who can stay at home and who couldn’t, and the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd to name a few and the build up of the traitors flag being walked through the US Capitol for the first time in American history on Jan. 6th.
This year
If we want safety then we must start to intervene at this critical point of trauma and pain. If we want safety it needs to be grounded in data and evidence. If we want safety we must move from the failed old guard status quo and for a new, clear understanding of what Pope Francis calls the Collective Samaritan. If we want safety then we must heed FDR’s words: there is nothing to fear but fear itself. We must not act out of fear or we will make the situation worse.
Everyone in the world blaming you and your loved ones for what is happening in the world
We know that there are those who want us to double down on the status quo because they have failed to provide for us on every other metric from the pandemic to the economic. We must not tie ourselves to these failures that led us to this point but move into this new decade boldly doing for others as we would want done to us.
Illinois is leading the country in reimagining public safety. We are going to keep fighting for public safety for and by the people. And we will get public safety for all, not just a few.
Thank you.
