He didn’t bring the same fire as his bosses, but Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did carry the same message about Chicago and crime as he spoke Thursday night at the annual dinner of the Chicago Crime Commission.
“Chicago is one of America’s great cities, but it has a serious crime problem,” Rosenstein said during a 20-minute address. “The city is afflicted with gangs, drugs, violent crimes, shootings and murders. We can spend hours debating the root causes, historical circumstances that compel people to commit crime. … But we do not have the luxury of time to stop the killers.”
Rosenstein didn’t go as far as President Trump, who has called the city a “total disaster” because of its violence. And he didn’t blame the violence on Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city, as Attorney General Jeff Session has, linking policies on undocumented immigrants to soaring crime rates.
But he did note that the more than 4,300 shooting victims and 760 homicides in the city last year translated into a person shot every two hours and two people killed each day.
Rosenstein took issue with some recent decisions by the Chicago Police Department, including a requirement that officers fill out forms for routine investigative stops. They were ordered after the American Civil Liberties Union released a study showing minorities have been predominately targeted for stops here.
The information was intended to help a retired federal magistrate judge evaluate whether officers were following the constitution when they make street stops. But the police union has claimed traffic stops declined 80 percent because officers found the forms burdensome. They have since been streamlined twice.
Rosenstein said the requirement contributed to a “dramatic disruption in policing” that has contributed to the spike in violence crime. “Deterrence is about fear,” he said. “If dangerous criminals are not afraid, then law-abiding citizens are not safe.
“So when we see a surge in violent crime that follows a dramatic disruption in policing, as happened in Baltimore and Chicago, it’s obvious there is a lapse in the deterrent effect of law enforcement,” he continued. “The debate about what caused the lapse will endure, as will efforts to remedy the root causes and improve relationships between police officers and residents of high crime neighborhoods.”
Rosenstein implored the law enforcement officials at the dinner to “rededicate themselves to nonpartisan principles of law enforcement” and their commitment to serving high-crime neighborhoods.
“We must never give up on the people who live in those neighborhoods,” he said. “The majority of the residents are not violent people. They struggle every day to survive violence that surrounds them. They are our people and it is our duty to protect them. Every city should be a sanctuary where people live in peace, not afraid.”
Earlier in the day, Rosenstein met with Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson for two hours at a strategic decision support center in the Englewood police district, according to chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. The department says the level of violence in Englewood has dropped to its lowest point since 1999, and it credits the decline to the expansion of gunshot detection technology and analytic tools.
Rosenstein said he found the decrease “very encouraging” and praised the department proactive policing, including raids on people on a “strategic subject list,” a compilation of people most likely to commit or be targeted by violence.
“Targeting dangerous repeat offenders is not a zero tolerance strategy. It does not involve arresting random people for minor offenses,” Rosenstein said.
Much of Chicago’s top brass, including Johnson, were not at Rosenstein’s speech because it coincided with a Chicago Police Board meeting. Many suburban police chiefs, including those from Maywood and Robbins, were among several hundred law enforcement officials in attendance.
Rosenstein’s appearance came after months of blistering criticism of the city from the Trump administration.
After the mass shooting at a Texas church, Trump downplayed the need for gun control, incorrectly asserting Chicago has “the strongest gun laws in our nation.” He described the city as a “total disaster.”
Rosenstein’s immediate boss, Sessions, has feuded with Chicago and other “sanctuary cities,” threatening to withhold grant money if local law enforcement doesn’t cooperate with immigration agents.
Rosenstein has been embroiled in controversy over much of Trump’s tenure.
Trump initially pointed to a memo from Rosenstein as a basis to fire FBI director James Comey, who had been overseeing the investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election.
Sessions later recused himself from the matter and Rosenstein, the department’s second-in-command, appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel.
Rosenstein joked about the audience he drew in Chicago, fielding questions from law students at John Marshall Law School in Chicago. “I have not answered so many questions since my last congressional hearing,” he said.
