Rapper and Chicago native Common said in an impromptu interview that local and state governmental officials are needed in Chicago, not “The Feds” as President Donald Trump believes.
During a short chat with TMZ Wednesday, Jan. 25 at LAX, Common said that residents in the city need to come together to solve the city’s violence and crime epidemic. Trump’s tweet threatening to send in federal officials is not what people need right now.
“For me, I feel like to help Chicago, we got to take care of our own,” he says. “Within the community, we got to do things. There are a lot of people already organizing and doing things. We need our state and local people to do things. We don’t need that type of mentality. So, I’m not focused on the president right now. I’m focused on the people in the city and how we can do it.”
The president tweeted Tuesday in wake of a new report claiming that shootings in the city at the start of this year are up 24 percent compared to the start of 2016.
If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
In Trump’s first major television interview, he blamed political correctness and poor leadership for the city’s rampant violence.
“People are being shot left and right,” he told ABC’s David Muir Wednesday. “This year, which has just started, is worse than last year, which was a catastrophe.”
At the time of Trump’s tweet, The Washington Post reported that through Tuesday, there had been 38 murders, up from 33 at the same point last year. In total, there were 4,368 shootings in the city last year and 252 so far this year, according to The Chicago Tribune‘s Chicagoland tracker.
“They’re not doing the job,” Trump told ABC. “Maybe they’re not gonna have to be so politically correct. Maybe they’re being overly political [sic] correct. Maybe there’s something going on.”
After being pressed by the reporter, Common insisted that he is entirely focused on the people and assisting grassroots organizations in solving the issue: “I’m not thinking about the president. We gonna help each other.”
