Crime is surging in Chicago, yet Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been employing a special security detail to guard her upscale home. It’s good to be Queen of Chicago, isn’t it?

Lori Lightfoot and Unit 544

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that this detail isn’t a recent development, either; we’re just finding out about it now. In July, 2020, the Chicago Police Department sent out a memo requesting officers sign up for the new “Unit 544.” Also called the “Government Security Detail,” the new unit came about to “respond to threats.” The memo read:

“The unit’s mission will be to provide physical security for City Hall, the mayor’s residence and the mayor’s detail command post. Through the coordination of intelligence and resources, officers will respond to all threats related to the mayor’s physical properties to ensure its protection.”

As of March 21, Unit 544 has grown to include 65 officers, five sergeants, and a lieutenant, for a total of 71. The unit, by the way, is in addition to the 20-officer bodyguard detail, which previous Chicago mayors have used.

So why does Lori Lightfoot need this detail? For one thing, she had a scare in February of this year when a man stalked Lightfoot at her home. He was angry about — of all things — parking tickets, so he went to her home with a gun. CPD stopped the man, who returned a few days later and fired his weapon about a mile from her house. Police arrested Joseph Igartua on charges of stalking and reckless discharge of a firearm.

Okay, fine — but why did she need Unit 544 almost two years ago?

Because Trump and Republicans!

Lori Lightfoot doesn’t apologize for using nearly 100 law enforcement professionals to guard her and her home. In fact, she blames the need for Unit 544 on … you guessed it … Donald Trump.

Lightfoot said:

“When the president of the United States uses the world’s largest megaphone and platform to target you personally, terrible things happen. And he not only blew a dog whistle, he pointed really evil and dangerous people right at my doorstep.”

So Donald Trump, who has been out of office for over a year, sent Joseph Igartua to stalk Lori Lightfoot, apparently.

Screenshot/Chicago Contrarian/Twitter.

But Lori Lightfoot isn’t stopping with 71 additional officers to protect her home and her sorry tuchus. Chicago Contrarian is reporting that she now wants an additional 20 on her security detail. The Contrarian also reminds Chicagoans that she still has a SWAT team in place to protect her home:

“According to our contacts, an additional 20 from Patrol may soon join Mayor Lightfoot’s security detachment. It should not be forgotten the SWAT team assigned to protect Ms. Lightfoot’s home remains in place…”

“This is no longer a security detachment. It’s becoming a Praetorian Guard for a Roman emperor.”

Alderman Raymond Lopez, who has long been the burr under Lightfoot’s saddle, also tweeted:

“A far stretch from when she wanted federal marshals protecting her! Notwithstanding the additional PO’s pulled from districts to be assigned to assist on a daily basis, Lightfoot has the equivalent of half a district protecting her.”

The safety of Chicagoans be damned.

Lori Lightfoot Shows Her Thin Skin

Lightfoot may despise Donald Trump, but her relationship with the media is just as combative. However, while the White House Press Corps seemed to work as a united front to pile on the former president, the Chicago mayor doesn’t tolerate any contrarian reporter who dares to criticize her leadership. Watch this exchange from last week:

Lightfoot may parse the numbers, but crime is soaring in Chicago. That includes murders, carjackings, and violent assaults. Meanwhile, she uses extra CPD manpower to protect her digs.

Black attorney Leo Terrell said on Fox News on Tuesday morning:

“The Democratic elite, those who run the city, run the state like California, they don’t have the rules that apply to them. They love security when it comes to them. They love police protection 24/7 like you have there in Chicago. But as far as the average citizen, Black-on-Black crime… The Chicago crime rate has gone up.”

And, as John Catanzara, president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, told the Sun-Times: 

“While murders are soaring, while districts are barebones for manpower, all that matters is protecting her castle.”

Yes, indeed. It’s good to be Queen of Chicago, isn’t it?

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Featured image: Brand X Studio.