Trump slams Chicago crime rate despite new numbers showing improvement

President Donald Trump continued criticism of the city of Chicago and its crime rate Friday, despite new numbers from the Chicago Police Department showing a significant drop in murders and shootings in October.

The Chicago Police Department announced early Friday that Chicago experienced the lowest number of shootings and murders in any October since 2015. Additionally, murders for the month of October fell more than 20% compared to October of last year.

Despite the numbers, Trump tweeted hours after the announcement: “Chicago will never stop its crime wave with the current Superintendent of Police. It just won’t happen!”

Trump has frequently stoked racial tensions while in office. He’s also sharply criticized so-called “sanctuary cities” — a broad term applied to jurisdictions with policies designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions — and Chicago is one of them.

He has also continually criticized Chicago over the city’s handling of crime. He cited “problems like Chicago” at last year’s annual police chiefs meeting and recommended the city implement a “stop and frisk” policy.

Earlier this week, Trump visited Chicago and delivered remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference. During his remarks there Trump slammed the Superintendent of Police, Eddie Johnson, for not attending.

“There is one person that’s not here today. I said, ‘Where is he, I want to talk to him.’ In fact, more than anyone else, this person should be here because maybe he could learn something. And that’s the superintendent of Chicago, police chief Eddie,” Trump said Monday.

Before Trump’s Chicago speech, Johnson said the President’s planned address at the conference didn’t “line up with our city’s core values, along with my personal values.” Johnson’s decision not to attend later a prompted the board of the city’s police union to issue a no-confidence vote in him.

In his Friday tweet, Trump also hailed Chicago’s police officers as “GREAT” adding they will have “tremendous crime fighting potential if allowed to do your thing!”

While the new numbers from Chicago show a significant improvement, crime continues to be a problem. On Halloween, a 7-year-old girl was shot trick-or-treating in the city and remains in critical condition.