(Video: Fox News)

The crime in Chicago is worsening and it seems the situation has never been more dire.

“It’s a lawless land right now,” Anthony Napolitano, a Chicago alderman and former police officer, told “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones on Monday. “We’re the land of the lost here. Crime has taken over. People aren’t afraid of the police anymore…Politicians have vilified the police. You have your defund the police movement. Nobody wants to be the police anymore.”

Napolitano’s statements come after news that Kwame Amoaku, Director of the Chicago Film Office, was beaten, robbed, and carjacked by three men outside of his Chicago home. The 51-year-old man, appointed by Chicago’s Democratic Major Lori Lightfoot in 2019, is recovering in a hospital from a head injury and fractured arm.

Meanwhile, in remarks she made about the crime crisis on Saturday, Lightfoot observed: “There are too many young people…who do not feel loved. Too many. And we’ve got to change that around if we’re going to change around the trajectory of their lives.”

Needless to say, Napolitano wasn’t exactly sold on Lightfoot’s “love” theory of policing.

“I don’t think these are unloved children,” he said, “I think they’re unprosecuted children…We’re not going to have that moment with these kids where we give them a hug and tell them it’s not their fault,” he said. “They’re robbing people at gunpoint, they’re beating them within an inch of their lives, and they’re stealing their cars. We need more of a prosecution moment here; it’s not the ‘non-love’ factor, it’s the non-prosecution factor, and these kids know it. They’re getting away with crime everyday.”

At the same time, across the country, the number of attacks on police officers is skyrocketing. The Fraternal Order of Police has reported that 101 police officers have been shot in the line of duty already in 2022, which represents a 43% increase over the same period last year. And last year wasn’t exactly a slouch in that department, either—2021 witnessed a record number of attacks on officers, with 346 shot in the line of duty.

🚨NEW REPORT: These historic numbers are horrific and are an absolute stain on our society. When the vast majority of media elites decide that this issue isn’t worth covering, it speaks volumes as to where our society is heading.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Report: https://t.co/HivVfOmKEX pic.twitter.com/mhc1hpvJEO

— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) April 1, 2022

Napolitano, for his part, knows exactly where to place the blame.

“It’s unsafe out there,” he said, “there’s no backing from our city, there’s no backing from our administration, and we need society to step up and start putting these children and these criminals in their place. If we don’t do it, and I always say it when I’m here, we’re going to lose Chicago, and it’s happening. It’s happening at a quick pace.”

The solution, as Napolitano sees it, is a simple one—but it’s going to take some serious commitment from politicians, which doesn’t seem forthcoming.

“You have to get more politicians, more of the federal government behind these police officers,” he explained.

“You have to let them know that what they’re doing out there is, as I always say, in a crazy way it’s the Lord’s work because they’re putting their lives on the line to fight crime every day, day in, day out. They have to know that when they’re going out there doing this job, that someone’s going to back them,” he told Jones. “When they’re not backed up, they’re doing just a little bit less work because they’re in fear that they’re going to lose their house, they’re going to lose their life, they’re going to go to prison for some frivolous cases.”

“They call it—right now, in Chicago, they call it the ‘Chicago Lottery.’ Every time a cop does something, someone sues the city of Chicago and makes millions of dollars,” Napolitano added.

And in the meantime, Chicago continues to hemorrhage experienced police officers, while the policies of city leadership seem unlikely to change anytime soon.

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Todd Jaquith

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"Originally from South Florida, Todd Jaquith now lives in sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico. He holds a degree in Anthropology from Florida Atlantic University."

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