Blaming the Right Guy

The Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page knows exactly where to point the finger:

• Regarding Heather Mac Donald’s "In Chicago, ‘the Feds’ Are Part of the Problem” (op-ed, Jan. 26): The ultimate source of Chicago’s problem is the lack of political will by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In this city only one person’s opinion matters—the mayor’s. Even today, efficient, effective law enforcement takes a back seat to the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) first priority: perpetuation of the power that controls the department.
  
  It is easier to decry Chicago’s racist police rather than hold accountable those actually sowing the destruction of African-American and Latino families by glorifying and spreading the thug culture of drugs and violence, a culture that brought 4,379 shootings and 796 murders to the streets of Chicago last year.
  
  Out of all that carnage, the CPD was involved in the fatal shooting of exactly 11 suspects and the wounding of 14 others, while at the same time having 31 CPD officers shot at by violent offenders, a startling 82% increase over 2015.
  
  The insolvency of Chicago, a result of three decades’ profligacy, means we haven’t replaced the 2,800 patrol officers which knowledgeable insiders say the CPD now lacks, creating a citywide vacuum that fueled last year’s 24% increase in violent crime.
  
  Meanwhile, the CPD rank and file, comprised of men and women of every race and creed, all know they’ve become politically expendable pawns. So to whom is it a surprise that the shibboleth by which they now operate is “stay fetal”?
  
  Unless real pressure is brought to bear on the one source of political power in Chicago, this Kabuki of the absurd will continue.

You have to subscribe (pay) to get through the actual link up top, so we posted the entire letter.