One of the highest murder rates in the US. The guy is not an accomplished law enforcement leader. How do Chicagoans elect such poor leaders who appoint such poor leaders year after year?
When Lori Lightfoot led a nationwide search for a replacement for Gary McCarthy who took the fall for covering up the CPD killing of Leqaun McDonald they came back with three names. Eddie Johnson was not one of them.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a typical Chicago Machine Outfit move pulled Eddie Johnson's name in a last minute scam.
Eddie Johnson's reputation is less than stellar personally and professionally. He is not beloved nor trusted by black Chicago civilians.
There is no excuse nor explanation for Chicago having more homicides than Los Angeles and New York City combined. No excuse nor explanation for Chicago solving half as many homicides or less than any other major city.
Eddie Johnson should have been fired or had the honor to resign in embarrassment and shame.
Good riddance!
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@Blackmamba Right. Drive-by shootings are common because the murderers never get caught. Last week we even had one here in Lincoln Park.
Phone and purse theft on the North Side, increasingly common, doesn’t even get investigated as due to Kim Foxx they will let them go. Nonviolent crime in Chicago is just considered proactive redistribution.
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@Anne
Rekia Boyd was shot to death by an off duty white Chicago Police officer. He shot into a crowd of ' loud black people'.
And Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez accidentally on purpose brought the wrong criminal charges against him. He was acquitted.
That is why she lost to Kim Foxx and is no longer Cook County States Attorney.
Phone and purse theft woold be a nuisance on the South and West Sides. The cops don't come to the hood except for shootings. Calling 911 is futile for anything else.
But a zoo and a history museum and entertainment venues would be a blessing.
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Come on NYTimes. The reason he had the vote of no confidence is because he blew off Trump. Not mentioning those together is very misleading. He improved things a lot. We are a better city because of him.
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Thank you Chief Johnson, I admire your integrity and dedication to a city I still love.......have a super retirement!!
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I don't know if even Superman and/or Wonder Woman can save this city from its plethora of problems.
But I have always liked Superintendent Eddie Johnson. He came from this city, he was a cop in this city and he rose through the police ranks and became the Chief of Police of this city.
I especially applaud his integrity and courage for NOT attending the Trump bashing at the police conference. That took some real brass.
But Supt. Johnson was not perfect. He did make mistakes. But show me one mayor, one police chief who hasn't made mistakes.
At the end of the day, I always trusted his judgement over the previous chiefs. I always felt he believed in this city and its residents. I cannot thank him enough for doing such a difficult job for so long.
I wish him the very best of luck in his next venture and hope he finds "retirement" enjoyable.
I do know from our son who retired off the job, that the moment the badge, the gun and the uniform are no longer the first things you put on every day, it does take awhile to adjust to being "just another regular person".
Overnight you suddenly become yesterday's news.
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My wholehearted wishes of a happy retirement to Mr. Johnson.
As a resident of a town bordering Chicago, I much prefer not to rely on city police for the protection of myself, my family, and my abode. I adhere to two sayings, one attributed to Wilhelm Tell, the other to King Charles IX of France.
The former says, one lacks one's arm when one lacks one's weapon. The other is a French verse about "King's arm being beautiful and faithful for the defense of the faith, but menacing and cruel to his enemies" ( the verse rhymes in French).
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Asleep in the car? Come on, cut us cops some slack. Graveyard shift is tough enough, even with that name, but stakeouts are exceedingly boring; so lighten up.
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Jerry: No, he was asleep in his car. He is the Chief of police. Not on a stakeout. Driving home after dinner and drinks with friends, he passed out in his car. On the side of the road. Inference is that he had too much to drink.
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Superintendent Johnson deserves our thanks. He was a competent implementer of court mandated policy changes and Politically driven changes order by Rahm Emanuel. But, like the Titanic, there are still a dozen flooded compartments and the ship is still going down. Mayor Lightfoot needs to select a replacement that can design and implement a totally new and more aggressive approach to ending the gang warfare that is resulting in 8 year olds being executed in alleyways and 15 year olds shooting randomly into crowds. Law and order must be restored to Chicago’s south side.
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He fell asleep behind the wheel. Literally too.
To be honest, there was not much he could do with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in office, a social justice warrior who is extremely soft on nonviolent crime.
The only result has been an uptick of thefts on the North Side.
Kim Foxx even has the audacity to twist the fact that the result of her policy, fewer people going to jail, as proof that the crime rate is dropping.
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@Anne
' Because that is where the money is' attributed to bank robbers as their primary motivation for robbing banks.
Prison is not the solution for enduring endemic systemic separate and unequal education, health, housing and socioeconomic miserable conditions that fall upon and weigh down the black community.
Cook County Jail is the most populous mental health and drug rehabilitation facility in Illinois.
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Eddie Johnson wasn't a perfect chief but he proved much more effective in his short tenure than McCarthy. I hope his successor can handle the job and fix the relationship between communities and police, because it's still severely strained.
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