The streets of Chicago are bleeding, and the Democrat leadership, led by Chicago Teachers Union lackey, Mayor Brandon Johnson, seems content to let the city drown in its own bloody chaos. Over the Labor Day weekend of 2025—and I am writing this on Sunday, so this number will rise, at least 50 people were shot, eight fatally, in a relentless wave of violence that has become all too familiar in this once-great city.
These numbers are not mere statistics; they are a grim testament to the failure of Democrat policies that prioritize political posturing over the safety of citizens. From Chicago to Los Angeles, New York to Philadelphia, urban America is under a murderous siege, and the Democrats in charge are complicit in the carnage.
In Chicago, the epicenter of this urban decay, the weekend’s violence included a woman shot dead in a South Shore apartment and two men gunned down in East Garfield Park by a suspect emerging from a dark SUV. These incidents are not isolated; they are part of a broader pattern of bloodshed that has left Chicagoans living in fear.
The city’s Violence Reduction Dashboard laughingly claims a 33% drop in homicides and a 38% reduction in shootings in the first half of 2025, yet these figures ring hollow when 50 people are shot in a single weekend. The Democrat narrative of “progress” is a cruel mirage, obscuring the reality of bodies piling up in morgues and communities shattered by grief.
Mayor Johnson’s response to this crisis is not to double down on law enforcement or demand accountability from criminals but to sign a toothless executive order titled “Protecting Chicago,” aimed at thwarting President Trump’s potential deployment of the National Guard to curb the city’s violence; a brazen display of political theater, prioritizing opposition to Trump over the lives of Chicago’s residents. Johnson’s order directs city agencies to file Freedom of Information Act requests to monitor federal actions and insists that Chicago police remain uncooperatively independent from federal law enforcement. This isn’t leadership; it is a deliberate, politically-motivated choice to shield criminals under the ridiculous guise of protecting “Chicagoans’ rights,” as if the true victims—those gunned down in their homes and on their streets—are mere collateral damage in a political war.
“No number of social programs can stop a bullet once it’s fired…”
This pattern of Democrat failure extends far beyond Chicago.
In New York, Los Angeles, and other major cities, progressive prosecutors and mayors have embraced policies that coddle criminals, framing them as victims of systemic inequities rather than perpetrators of violence. From defunding police to reducing sentences for violent offenders, Democrats have consistently chosen ideology over reality, leaving law-abiding citizens to bear the cost in shattered families and lost lives.
In Chicago, this past Fourth of July weekend saw 55 people shot, eight fatally, a brutal reminder that holiday celebrations are no respite from the city’s violence epidemic. Yet, progressive Democrats like Johnson continue to tout their “holistic approach” to safety, which seems to involve little more than pathetic platitudes about youth employment and mental health services while bullets fly.
The insincere, hypocritical gaslighting is staggering. Johnson claims his administration is “building the safest, most affordable big city in America,” yet the blood-soaked streets tell a dramatically different story. His summer safety plan, heralded as a test of progressive governance, has failed spectacularly, with 34 people shot, five fatally, just a few weeks earlier in August. It’s a weekly occurrence that has become mundane to the ear for Chicagoans.
Meanwhile, the mayor’s hollow rhetoric drools on, while his insistence on “investing in people” ignores the harsh truth: no number of social programs can stop a bullet once it’s fired. His refusal to cooperate with federal efforts to curb violence—efforts that could bring much-needed resources to a city drowning in crime—reveals a deeper allegiance to the Democrat Party’s retarded anti-Trump dogma than to his own constituents, and I use that word “retarded” literally.
This intellectually-challenged obsession with opposing Trump at all costs has blinded Democrats to the suffering of their constituents, to the blood that runs in the streets of their cities. When Trump suggested deploying the National Guard to address Chicago’s crime wave, Governor JB Pritzker, an embarrassment to Illinois politics if there ever was one, dismissed it as an “invasion,” and Johnson doubled down with his executive order. Their defiance is not rooted in principle, but in politics—a desperate attempt to maintain their virtue-signaling progressive credentials while their cities burn. Trump’s alarm over the slaughter in Chicago’s streets underscores a reality Democrats refuse to confront: Chicago’s crime problem—and in all major urban areas across the United States—is out of control, and their policies have failed.
The Democrat Party’s broader narrative—that criminals are victims of a capitalist society, deserving of sympathy rather than punishment—has fueled this urban catastrophe. By framing violent offenders as products of systemic injustice, Democrats have excused behavior that destroys lives and communities.
In Chicago, where 205 homicides have already been recorded in 2025, including 170 fatal shootings, making it the murder capital of the United States, the refusal to prioritize law enforcement over failed social justice experiments has deadly consequences. Sincerely-based violence intervention groups, reliant on government funding, are starved by policies executed to maximize votes rather than secure neighborhoods, yet Johnson’s focus remains on resisting Trump rather than addressing the root causes of crime.
The true victims—the families mourning loved ones, the communities living in fear, the shattered families and extinguished futures—are ignored in favor of a narrative that paints criminals as oppressed. A 25-year-old woman shot dead on the South Shore, a 46-year-old man killed in a triple shooting in Pilsen—these are not statistics, they are human beings whose lives were cut short because Democrat leaders refuse to act non-politically. Across America, from San Francisco’s shoplifting epidemic to Philadelphia’s surge in carjackings, the story is the same: Democrat policies embolden criminals while leaving citizens defenseless.
It’s time to call this what it is: a betrayal. Democrat leaders in Chicago and beyond have abandoned their duty to protect their constituents, choosing instead to wage a political crusade against President Trump while their cities descend into carnage and chaos.
The blood of Chicago’s 50 Labor Day weekend shooting victims, and that number will rise, stains their hands, and no number of executive orders or vomitous progressive rhetoric can wash it away.
Until Democrats prioritize the safety of law-abiding citizens over the coddling of criminals, their lust for political power, and their imbecilic hatred of a man who has offered to help, America’s urban centers will remain battlegrounds, its streets will run with the blood of innocents and criminals alike, and the body count will continue to rise.
In Closing…
Before we wrap up, I'd like to highlight a new offering that readers and listeners have been writing in to tell me they enjoy. Underground USA now offers a daily news brief in both written and podcast formats. It’s designed to eliminate the partisan rhetoric and clickbait fluff that have infested mainstream media and many new media sources, all in pursuit of the almighty ad revenue.
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And as we wrap up this abbreviated Labor Day episode, let’s reflect on Chicago’s Labor Day weekend bloodshed—50 shot, five dead, so far, as of Sunday afternoon.
This needless bloodshed lays bare the catastrophic failure of Democrat leadership. Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s defiance of federal help and obsession with opposing President Trump prioritize politics over people.
From Chicago to New York, Democrats coddle criminals, framing them as victims while actual victims bleed. The body count rises, yet progressive dogma blinds leaders to the carnage and chaos, and all because of their deranged hatred for one man who has said continuously he wanted to help stop the violence.
It’s a betrayal of every citizen living in fear. It’s a betrayal of every child buried because of progressive policies. Until next time, stay safe, stay informed, and never stop questioning those in power.
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