The war of words this past week in Chicago took on a rather bazaar edge for both the mayor and her Top Cop. First, the President of the Chicago Teachers Union called mayor Lightfoot “relentlessly stupid” for her stance on bringing back Teachers into the classroom during a raging outbreak of the Omicron Virus. That was followed up by one of Chicago’s newspapers publishing a front-page headline that said “TOP COP A FLOP? SEE BELOW. That was followed up by yet another volley this time by the Vice President of the Teachers Union in which she stated that the mayor was a “NAME CALLING BAD BOSS-WHO CAN’T GET ALONG WITH ANYBODY-NOT JUST THE TEACHERS UNION-

As of right now, the teachers are indeed back in the classrooms, however nobody has taken back anything that was said either about the mayor or her beleaguered Police Superintendent David Brown. Imagine being a Chicago Cop and gazing at that headline in one of Chicago’s biggest newspapers? “Top Cop a flop.” The very person who literally holds your profession in his hands. Think about all those canceled days off, all those relentless 12-hour shifts, week after week, all those precious holidays away from family and friends, bouncing from one plan after another dictated by a guy who is accused of not knowing what the hell he’s doing.

The question for most people is who is really running the Chicago Police Department? The odds on favorite to that question is Mayor Lightfoot, often accused of being one of the biggest micro-managers in Chicago’s long and storied history of political bosses. It’s no secret that the mayor knows absolutely nothing about how to run a big City Police Department, and it’s no longer speculation that she is calling the shots, and the man she personally selected to lead the Department is hopping all over to deliver her orders to a leaderless, beleaguered, low morale, exhausted rank, and file. Between the two of them, there is no doubt that at times they have stumbled over the truth but the fact is they just pick themselves up and continue to stagger on. There is a reason why that in 2021 Chicago has had 62 Mass shootings,850 murders,4,520 folks shot, and over 3,100 Carjackings in just two years. Between the two of them, they have announced more plans to deal with Chicago’s violence than General Eisenhower did in the invasion of Normandy. One can see by the continued onslaught of shootings and killings and violence that none of their so-called plans have even made a bump in the violence, while all of Chicago live with the fear of being a victim.

Leadership starts at the top and leadership is solving problems, the day that Chicago’s cops stop bringing you their problems is the day to stop leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or have concluded that you don’t care. Either case is a failure of leadership. If one reads past the headline, the story goes on to say the command staff of the Chicago Police department has lost confidence in the Top Cop. The Marine Corps has a saying that applies to this ugly situation-LEAD- FOLLOW-OR GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY-Name calling, finger-pointing, and denial is having no effect whatsoever. Chicago deserves better leadership. The violence is strangeling a once-great city, the stunning level of violent crime needs an immediate response. The present leadership has the idea that their conversation is talking in the presence of others. Nobody is listening anymore.