John Garrido

In Order To Create a Safer Community We Must…

It has been well doc­u­mented that the City of Chicago has a short­age of police offi­cers. The 16^th District that makes up most of the 45^th Ward and the 17^th District that makes up a small por­tion of the Ward have both seen an influx of gang mem­bers and a reduc­tion in police per­son­nel. Criminal street gangs have suc­cess­fully estab­lished footholds in sta­ble neigh­bor­hoods and local parks, while Pat Levar has stood idly by as valu­able police resources have been depleted from our community.

Portage Park is on the front line of this bat­tle, and we need all the resources we can get to keep this and other ward neigh­bor­hoods safe. I know and under­stand how the Chicago Police Department works, and I also know that it is attempt­ing to do the impos­si­ble, in that it is attempt­ing to reduce crime with less avail­able offi­cers on the street. As alder­man, I will demand that our com­mu­nity is pro­vided with the nec­es­sary police man­power and equip­ment to com­bat these vio­lent gangs and keep our streets safe.

We Must Allow Concealed Carry for Trained, Responsible Gun Owners…

I’ve seen first hand that crim­i­nals do not fol­low gun laws. In spite of a Chicago “gun ban”, gang bangers con­tinue to shoot at each other on a daily basis. Restrictions on law-​​abiding cit­i­zens only fuel the oppor­tu­ni­ties for crime and vio­lence in our com­mu­ni­ties. Responsible gun own­er­ship, with vig­i­lant enforce­ment and effec­tive train­ing, is nec­es­sary for our cit­i­zens to pro­tect them­selves. Our crime rate actu­ally increased after the gun ban was imposed more than 20 years ago.

Offenders know that 9 times out of 10, our cit­i­zens are unarmed. What can send a stronger mes­sage to offend­ers than the recent news reports of cit­i­zens defend­ing their homes? Those who would do us harm will think twice once we allow law abid­ing cit­i­zens the oppor­tu­nity to exer­cise their right to defend them­selves. I will push for a com­mon sense con­cealed carry ordi­nance with a manda­tory train­ing course, manda­tory yearly qual­i­fi­ca­tions, and a two year revo­ca­tion of the priv­i­lege with a mis­de­meanor conviction.

Once again, the bad guys do not fol­low our “strict” gun con­trol laws. We need tougher penal­ties for the ille­gal use and pos­ses­sion of firearms. We should be tar­get­ing the offend­ers, not infring­ing on the rights of the good guys.