The Chicago Tribune released on Monday morning the latest statistics on crime in the city.But it wasn’t until Tuesday night after Fox’s “O’Reilly Factor” aired a segment called “Chaos in Chicago” that President Donald Trump publicly made mention of the statistics on his preferred platform Twitter.
The presidenttweeted Tuesday at 9:25 p.m. ET:
If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible “carnage” going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
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After 8 p.m. on the Fox program host Bill O’Reilly reiterated the Chicago crime statistics from the Tribune article while a graphic of the data showed on the screen:
“228 shootings in 2017 (up 5.5% from last year” and “42 homicides in 2017 (up 24% from last year).”
O’Reilly also interviewed attorney Horace Cooper during the segment. Cooper is an adjunct fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank.
“I don’t know another word besides ‘carnage’ to describe the devastation that’s been taking place,” Cooper said.
O’Reilly also said that Trump can intervene.
“You know what else President Trump can do” O’Reilly said. “He can send in the National Guard. He can put the guard in there. The governor won’t.”
In his tweet, the president said he would “send in the Feds.”
The “Chaos in Chicago” segment:
In August, during an interview with O’Reilly, Trump said law enforcement in Chicago has to be “much tougher than they are right now” and that he met with “a couple of very top police” who would be able to stop violence in Chicago in a week.
“I could tell you this very long and quite boring story,” Trump said to O’Reilly. “But when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, ‘How do you stop this How do you stop this If you were put in charge to a specific person do you think you could stop it’ He said, ‘Mr. Trump, I’d be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent.”
According to the Tribune, “At the time, Chicago police said Trump had not met with top brass since at least March. The Trump campaign did not identify who had claimed to have a one-week solution.”
In an interview on local news Tuesday night, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that Trump and the federal agenciescan be helpful on issues such as tracking guns, providing resources for police officers and creating after-school opportunities for youth.
“Over the years the federal government’s stepped back their resources, which we have stepped up,” Emanuel said. “The federal government can be a partner, and to be honest they haven’t been for decades.”
On Monday Emanuel made stern comments that Trump should focus on jobs and education instead of debating the crowd size at Friday’s inauguration.
He also responded to the fact that the White House website makes specific reference to crime in Chicago.
“There were thousands of shootings in Chicago last year,” the site reads in the section titled “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community.”
Emmanuel said police training and proactive policing could be an answer to the violence.
Last week the U.S. Justice Department released a report stating that Chicago police routinely violated the civil rights of people, citing excessive force, racially discriminatory conduct and a “code of silence” to thwart investigations into police misconduct.
The mayor also said he saw no need for police departments to enact tactics like stop-and-frisk. Trump said on the campaign trail the tactic might be a possibility in Chicago because he believed it worked in New York City. Stop-and-frisk ended in New York City, and it has been documented that the tactics disproportionally targeted Black and Latino males.
Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. replied to Trump’s tweet:
We need a plan, not a threat. We need jobs, not jails. #Chicago
Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) January 25, 2017
Is Fox News the Trump Administration’s Bar for Journalism
Trump has been critical of U.S. media, calling various outlets “fake news” during his first press conference as president.
Fox News has a history of bias and racism in reporting. O’Reilly was under fire in October for a segment on his show where correspondent Jesse Watters traveled to New York City’s Chinatown to essentially perpetuate racist stereotypes. The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) demanded an apology from Fox News.
“I’m disgusted by this racism,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, said about the Fox News segment.
O’Reilly himself has made comments on air that have caused controversy. In July he said that slavery wasn’t really that bad for some slaves, particularly those involved in building the White House, who “were well-fed and had decent lodgings.” His assessment was in response to former First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech during the Democratic National Convention.
Fox News pundits make racist remarks on and off screen.In October Fox’s Sean Hannity on his nationally syndicated radio talk show “The Sean Hannity Show” said that former President Barack Obama and his family may want to go back to Africa if Trump were to win the election. Hannity said he would charter a plane for the trip.
The radio show host, Fox News pundit and Trump advisor said he’ll buy Obama’s airline ticket, but he “can’t come back.”
A fake news article fueled Hannity’s tirade. He read froma Daily Mail article that talks about “rumors” of Obama saying he’d leave the country, stemming from a satirical article posted on a Canadian website, The Burrard Street Journal. The website is similar to The Onion in the U.S.
Fox News also has a legacy of sexism. The company has reached a financial settlement with former host Juliet Huddy, who claimed O’Reilly and Fox News co-President Jack Abernethy sexually harassed her.
