While Chicago debates ideology, El Salvador’s tough-on-crime approach has made it one of the safest countries in the world.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has a new theory: prisons are immoral, unholy, and—brace yourself—addictive.
Yes, according to Johnson, incarceration is basically nicotine patches for “misunderstood” offenders.
And with the confidence of a man who has never walked alone on the CTA after 10 p.m., he insists, “We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence.”
Really? Because the evidence suggests we absolutely can.
Or at least, El Salvador can.
The Chicago Delusion: Compassion for Criminals, Indifference to Citizens
Johnson’s November 2025 remarks painted incarceration as “racist, immoral, and unholy,” as if the bars—not the behavior—are the problem.
He wrings his hands over the number of incarcerated people in the U.S., skipping over the stubborn detail that crime — not racism, history, or “systems” — is what puts people in jail.
By Johnson’s logic, because sewers haven’t eliminated human waste, we should stop using plumbing and let it pile up in the streets.
This is governance by magical thinking.
Meanwhile, Chicagoans face:
- 378 murders this year
- 16,000 felony thefts
- 1,300 shootings
- 5,000 robberies
All while their mayor worries more about the comfort level of repeat offenders than the citizens who must live with them.
Tell that to Bethany MaGee, the Chicago woman who was set on fire by a criminal with seventy-two prior arrests.
But sure, the problem is “the system,” not the guy who has been arrested more times than most Chicagoans have taken the L this month.
El Salvador: The “Impossible” Strategy That Worked
Now let’s compare this soft-on-crime poetry with a leader who actually treats public safety as a responsibility rather than a philosophy seminar.
Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, didn’t just tweak policy.
He went to war against criminals — and won.
- Over 70,000 gang members incarcerated
- Homicides fell from 103 per 100,000 (2015) to 1.9 in 2024
- Tourism: 1.7 million → 4 million
- Gang control: effectively dismantled
- Civilian casualties during crackdown: zero
Chicago, with fewer people than El Salvador, racked up more murders than the entire Salvadoran nation.
Let that sink in.
A Central American country that was once the murder capital of the world is now safer than an American city that can’t keep tourists from fleeing downtown before sunset.
Bukele’s stance cuts through the intellectual gymnastics:
“You can literally incarcerate your way out of violence.”
And he proved it.
Who Do Leaders Protect — the Wolves or the Sheep?
Elon Musk captured the point perfectly in June 2025:
“He who spares the wolf, sacrifices the sheep.”
Bukele protects the sheep.
Johnson lectures the sheep about their “privilege” while letting the wolves roam free.
This is not leadership.
This is ideology masquerading as compassion.
What’s actually “racist”?
Allowing minority neighborhoods to drown in violence because acknowledging the role of criminals is politically inconvenient.
Salvadorans didn’t want “context.”
They wanted safety.
They wanted accountability.
They wanted their kids to walk to school without getting shot.
And they got it.
Accountability Isn’t Oppression
The real world still runs on cause and effect:
- Make crime painful → less crime
- Make crime consequence-free → more crime
Yet Johnson keeps preaching about history, systems, and structural forces, as though personal decision-making is a myth.
Crime is a behavior, not an identity.
Victims deserve protection.
Criminals deserve consequences.
It’s that simple.
Chicago Doesn’t Need Another Lecture — It Needs Law and Order
El Salvador’s success isn’t complicated or mysterious.
It’s the basic equation progressives refuse to accept:
Lock up the violent people → fewer violent people on the street → fewer violent crimes.
Bukele didn’t reinvent policing.
He enforced laws.
Chicago doesn’t need another sermon about morality.
It needs a mayor who cares more about residents than offenders.
A safe society is not built on sympathy for criminals.
It is built on accountability.
Everything else is deadly theater.
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