Mayor Johnson – Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed back against calls for stricter curfews and parental responsibility laws after a Memorial Day weekend marked by violent teen takeovers, including a near West Side crash that injured five Chicago police officers. Aldermen, police le
When the Memorial Day weekend’s flash points spilled from the Near West Side to Hyde Park and then onto Lake Shore Drive, Mayor Brandon Johnson didn’t just respond to the chaos—he challenged the idea that cracking down harder is the fix.
Johnson said Wednesday that 15 arrests were made early Sunday after a car veered into five Chicago police officers and injured them as officers tried to disperse an unruly crowd of youths gathered on the Near West Side. He said those arrests didn’t stop an even larger group from overtaking the 57th Street Beach in Hyde Park and spilling onto Lake Shore Drive on Memorial Day.
That sequence, Johnson argued, is why he remains opposed to what he called “stricter curfew and parental responsibility laws” as a solution to what he described as a recurring problem tied to gatherings fueled by social media.
“It’s happened,” Johnson said, referring to accountability already taken through arrests. “What I also said was. if you look at other cities where they’ve had more aggressive responses to it. has it stopped it from happening?. The answer is no,” he said. “That’s why you can’t have just a one-sided. imbalanced approach… If we believe that incarceration is the best way to keep people safe. America would be the safest place on the planet. We have more people locked up in America than anywhere in the planet and we are. by far not the safest place on the globe.”.
Johnson pointed to investments rather than punishment. He said the “safest cities in America have one thing in common: They invest in people,” and displayed a chart showing dramatic declines in shootings and homicides in neighborhoods where the city hired the greatest number of young people.
“We hold people accountable. But if we give them opportunity, we can create safer communities,” Johnson said. “My investments drive violence down… If it works, let’s do more of that.”
Not everyone agreed that the answer is more opportunity. Hyde Park Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) said the Memorial Day gathering that swarmed Hyde Park was the “third event in less than a month.” Yancy said police confiscated knives, guns, bear sprays and tasers.
“With that sort of weaponry, it’s clear that this is not about having a good time,” Yancy said. “While many of the young people who are participating in these mass gatherings are not the ones who are creating mayhem and mischief, there are those that are specifically there for that.”
Yancy said frustrated residents and police officers who serve them want more tools from the City Council to curb teen takeovers. “We have a pretty wide net for kids with pretty big holes in it,” he said. “I’m not usually a fan of punitive measures. but I don’t know that we have any other things at our disposal now.”.
Public Safety Committee Chair Brian Hopkins (2nd) said there is growing support for a revised curfew ordinance, additional parental responsibility measures, and an effort to hold social media companies accountable.
“The mayor needs to understand that the city is losing patience with our inability to prevent these teen takeovers from happening,” Hopkins said. “For him to rule out effective tools when we need them is shortsighted and counter-productive.”
Police leadership framed Johnson’s stance differently. Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara criticized the mayor’s message as “permissive,” saying it invites more unruly groups to “infringe on the rights” of law-abiding Chicagoans.
“If 15 arrests didn’t solve it the first time, then the next time, you arrest 30. And the next time, you arrest 60. Mob action is mob action,” Catanzara said. He added that the pattern is driven by teenagers who. in his view. are motivated by attention rather than consequences: “Kids just don’t seem to give a damn. It’s all about just taking over whatever spot they want. doing their little stupid TikTok to get more likes to be sensational and stupid and to hell with the rest of society. The only way it’s going to stop is if you start locking them all up and making their parents come and pick them up on the other side of the damned city.”.
Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who led an earlier crackdown on similar flash mobs during then Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure, said he believes a tougher approach works. He said his “hard-nosed approach… largely succeeded” in controlling the flash mobs that plagued Michigan Avenue.
“I didn’t have a mayor like Brandon Johnson who made excuses,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy also pushed back on the language used by officials and advocates. “Let’s stop calling them teen takeovers. That is sending the wrong message. That sounds cute. These are mob actions… There needs to be some sort of accountability for. not just the kids. but the parents and elected officials. Permissiveness is not working. It’s never worked. All it does is cause bad behavior.”.
Johnson’s stance sets up a direct clash in Chicago over what comes next after violent outbreaks and repeated gatherings: whether the city should lean harder into curfews. parental responsibility laws. and enforcement—or whether it should scale up youth-focused investment as the better path to preventing the next takeover.
Chicago politics Brandon Johnson teen takeovers curfew ordinance parental responsibility laws Memorial Day weekend Chicago police officers Hyde Park Lake Shore Drive social media accountability John Catanzara Desmon Yancy Brian Hopkins Garry McCarthy