As the toll from shootings mounted in Chicago over the long holiday weekend, Mayor Brandon Johnson said it would take time and help from the community “to get ourselves out of this rut," the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “Here is what we need to remind ourselves,” Johnson said Monday as he repeated themes from his mayoral campaign. “If we’re going to get ourselves out of this rut, it’s going to take all of us ... Everybody knows if your only strategy is policing — that is the old way of doing things and that has not worked.” At least 11 people were killed and 63 others wounded in attacks over a weekend that saw four mass shootings. Though none of the mass shootings occurred in the Harrison police district on the West Side, it recorded the highest number of shooting victims: 15. This come after two previous weekends when the district recorded the most shootings in the city.
Last week, interim police Supt. Fred Waller said the district continued to be a “challenge” as he sought to deploy officers where they were needed. The Calumet district on the Far South Side had 11 people shot over the long weekend. Two people were killed and three were wounded in a single attack at Roseland Park. The commander of the Calumet district said it was “unfortunate that this occurred because today was a fine day, people just enjoying their family activities. But violence prevails in this city.” The two districts accounted for about a third of the weekend shootings. The Memorial Day weekend last month ended with 59 people shot, 11 of them killed — Chicago’s most violent since 2016 and one of the most deadly in the last decade. The city is facing a four-day weekend over the July Fourth holiday. As he has in the past, Johnson blamed a long history of “disinvestment” for the continuing high toll from gun violence.