Chicago Under Siege: The Cost of the War Economy

On September 30th, in the middle of the night, hundreds of men dressed in tactical military gear descended upon an apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore. Blackhawk helicopters were circling above. The agents threw flashbangs and began kicking down front doors. When residents looked out their windows, they saw masked men holding guns with lights fastened to them, pointed at their homes and shining into the windows. Children awoke to the flashbangs and the commotion. Along with their parents, they were zip-tied and thrown outside. Every resident of the 130-unit building was separated by race and loaded into trucks, where they were held for hours. Over thirty people, including children, were kidnapped, while the rest of the residents had their zip ties cut off and were sent back into their destroyed homes. Children’s stuffed animals were found in the dumpsters, mattresses were overturned, and windows were smashed. 

This sounds like an incident from one of the United States’ many endless wars around the world, where special ops were sent to raid homes—leaving trauma and destruction in their wake. Chicagoans, especially on the southside, are no strangers to state violence and neglect, but this was a more dramatic iteration that stole headlines all over the country. 

When asked about the raid in South Shore, U.S. Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino said, “No rights have been violated today”—a common phrase turned by the same people with the power to determine which “rights” we are really entitled to in the first place. 

There is a 30-year difference in life expectancy for Chicagoans between the north and south sides – people in Streeterville average 90 years, but only 60 years in Englewood.

Around the same time of this raid, Condé Nast voted Chicago the “Best Big City in the U.S.” for the ninth year in a row. His award is being waved in the face of the Trump Administration in response to their attacks on the city—insinuating that crime and violence can’t be that bad if the country’s taste makers like it here so much. But Chicago does have problems—and they flow from the same sources of power that tout their attacks on immigrants and allow military helicopters to descend onto neighborhoods on the South Side. Consider former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who bloated police budgets while closing 50 public schools on the South and West Sides of the city.  Neoliberal solution” to our cities’ problems is the problem itself – and their “solution” to our “problem” also happens to be lining their pockets: unfettered Pentagon spending increases at the cost of disinvestment to the people.

The South Shore neighborhood “had the highest number of eviction filings in Chicago from 2015-2019.” The deputy director of Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Veronica Castro, who was at the building in the aftermath of the raid, said she couldn’t tell how much of the damage had resulted from the raid, and how much had been present before.  The building’s elevator didn’t work, and the stairwell smelled foul, the stench getting worse the further that people went inside. 

There is a 30-year difference in life expectancy for Chicagoans between the north and south sides – people in Streeterville average 90 years, but only 60 years in Englewood.

While millions of people live in dilapidated buildings and neighborhoods starved of resources, politicians living comfortably in DC blame the state of the economy on immigrants. But when the ICE raids come, immigrants and citizens alike are brutalized like they were in the South Shore—and even those who dare to stand up for their neighbors, like many Chicago protesters, become targets of federal violence. The Trump administration’s disdain goes far past the immigrant community. It includes anyone who lives alongside them and anyone who dares to care about them.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is from and still resides on Chicago’s West Side, has articulated this point well: When we invest in people, crime goes down. When we invest in education, housing, mental health, and healthcare, our city is better off.

Chicago remains one of the most segregated cities in the U.S. Any investment in social welfare programs would benefit the poorest in Chicago, who are disproportionately Black and brown people on the South and West Sides of the city. Every cut to social spending also disproportionately harms Black and brown Chicagoans. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” kicked thousands of Chicagoans off Medicaid and food stamps and funneled that money into ICE—the same agency terrorizing the southside now. 

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is from and still resides on Chicago’s West Side, has articulated this point well: When we invest in people, crime goes down. When we invest in education, housing, mental health, and healthcare, our city is better off. Investing further into an ever-inflating police budget doesn’t reduce crime—it takes money away from the programs that actually do. This isn’t just rhetoric; it’s proven. Chicago’s murder rates hit a historic low this summer—before ICE started throwing smoke bombs at people trying to grocery shop and shooting pepper bullets at pastors—which are also common scenes of Trump’s escapades in our city. 

The obsession with investing in the policing budget locally is a trickle-down effect from the federal policy of constant investment in the Pentagon budget. It’s also a microcosm of deliberately misplaced priorities that harm working-class people all over the country. Republicans and Democrats alike have increased the Pentagon budget year after year, to the point where it is nearing one trillion dollars annually. Half of that money goes to private contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and lots of that money seemingly goes missing – the Pentagon has never passed an audit.

While these war profiteers loot our economy and force millions into poverty, the politicians they’ve bought and paid for condemn the people suffering from disinvestment as criminals.

Not coincidentally, the companies that benefit from the trillion-dollar military budget are also some of the biggest spenders on lobbying and campaign contributions to the very same politicians who vote in favor of their government contracts every year! 90% of Lockheed Martin’s revenue comes from government contractors, rendering their business model completely impossible without endless war spending on behalf of the United States. 

While these war profiteers loot our economy and force millions into poverty, the politicians they’ve bought and paid for condemn the people suffering from disinvestment as criminals. It is no surprise that a country that only invests seriously in war would sic its military personnel on its own people. “Fighting crime” is just another way to keep the war industry running, and political careers alive. 

What happened in Chicago is likely to happen everywhere if we don’t stop it now. It is the natural trajectory of the violent path the Trump Administration is set on. In the short term, solidarity and rapid response teams to resist the kidnapping of our neighbors are a good first step. In a decent society, people wouldn’t have to stand on corners and blow whistles to stop workers from being kidnapped by the state. If we don’t want to live in a country that allows militarized immigration officers and the military itself to occupy our cities and roam our streets, we have to reckon with something a lot bigger: an economy centered around war and violence, instead of around people. It is fundamental that we reject the notion that in the “richest country in the history of the world” we don’t have enough for people to live in dignity. It is critical that we embrace the values that will lead us to divest from war and policing and invest in things that actually serve the people.