A violent Labour Day weekend left Chicago streets awash in blood, with 54 people shot, seven fatally, as US President Donald Trump and Illinois governor J B Pritzker clashed over whether the National Guard should be deployed in the city. According to Chicago police reports reviewed by ABC News, at least 32 separate shootings took place between Friday evening and noon on Monday. The gunfire ranged from drive-bys to tragic crossfire incidents, including a 17-year-old girl shot through the window of her own home and a 25-year-old woman killed after being hit thrice.
‘We’re coming’
The surge of violence coincided with a political storm. On Truth Social, Trump blasted Pritzker as “weak and pathetic” for resisting a Guard deployment, warning, “We’re coming” if the governor doesn’t “straighten it out, FAST.”
‘No troops in Chicago’
Pritzker pushed back hard, calling the idea of troops in Chicago “an invasion” and vowing to sue the Trump administration if federal forces hit city streets. Mayor Brandon Johnson echoed the defiance during a Labour Day rally, declaring, “No troops in Chicago. Invest in Chicago.”The showdown comes as Trump points to sharp declines in violent crime following troop deployments in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles earlier this summer. In DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser said violent crime has plunged 45% since the president declared a crime emergency.
‘Troops on American streets don’t belong’
But Pritzker insists Chicago’s crisis, though deadly, is not grounds for military intervention. “Troops on American streets don’t belong unless there is an insurrection or true emergency — and there is not,” he said.Chicago recorded 573 murders in 2024 — far more than New York and Los Angeles, though still with a lower per-capita rate than cities like Detroit, Washington, DC, and Atlanta.As the city tallies its bloody holiday weekend, the political war over how to stop it is only just beginning.
