By John J. Duncan Jr.

Over the July 4th weekend, 104 people were shot in Chicago, with 18 killed, including two policemen and a six-year-old girl.

This followed more typical recent Chicago weekends, one with 62 people shot resulting in three deaths, and another when 46 were shot with eight killed.

On June 28th, Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a press conference and said that crime in her city was “on the decline.”

She became the laughingstock of the nation and was described on Fox News as “America’s worst mayor.”

Crime is going way up and the murder rate is exploding in almost every major city in this country, and almost all have liberal or left-wing mayors and city councils.

In one of the most liberal cities, Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco, Target just announced it is closing six of its stores there at night because of the great increase in retail crime.

Of course, Speaker Pelosi cannot really be blamed. She hardly ever goes home to her gated neighborhood, spending most of her time in Washington.

People all over the country were astounded when Mayor Lightfoot declared that crime was going down in Chicago.

Of course, Ms. Lightfoot was elected not because of any great ability or record of success, but almost entirely because she is Black and a lesbian.

I am not criticizing her for being Black or a lesbian, but simply pointing out that in Chicago and several other big cities and a few states, blacks, gays and lesbians comprise a very large part, or even a majority of the Democratic Party.

It is unlikely that Lori Lightfoot would have been elected in a Democratic city like Chicago if she had been a straight White woman.

Mayor Lightfoot a few weeks ago said she was going to refuse to be interviewed by any reporter who was not Black or Brown, a very racist statement.

She also sent an angry email to her now former scheduler, repeating 16 times a demand for more private office time, and repeating 13 times, “Have I made myself clear?”

All she really made clear was that she was a deranged, hate-filled woman who is probably mentally ill.

The same liberal cities where crime and murders are exploding are the same cities that were defunding the police and shifting law enforcement money to politically-correct but very ineffective social programs.

I admit that I am biased on this issue because the first time I ran for Congress, all but seven of the members of the Knoxville Police Department signed a petition endorsing me.

When we ran that as an ad, almost all the Knox County deputies signed a petition endorsing me, but we did not have enough money to run another ad with all their names.

I had worked very closely as both a lawyer and a judge with the officers of both the police and sheriff’s departments and always was very grateful for this strong support from our local law enforcement.

Today, unfortunately, on the very rare occasion when a Black man is killed by a White police officer, there are anti-police demonstrations, sometimes all over the county. These White police killing Blacks happen only about 13 or 14 times a year.

I keep wondering when Al Sharpton and other Black leaders are going to do anything about the several thousands of Blacks who are killed each year by other Blacks.