Chicago crime victim says Dem leaders are doing ‘disservice’ by not working with Trump to fight criminals

Kathleen Miles, a woman who got assaulted in downtown Chicago, said on Friday that Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson are doing a “disservice” by not working with President Donald Trump to fight crime.

A man with a lengthy criminal record randomly punched Miles in the face as she was walking toward Union Station on Aug. 19, leaving her with several broken bones, a black eye and a concussion, according to Chicago-based ABC 7 Eyewitness News. She stated on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” that Pritzker and Johnson’s refusal to bring in federal assistance in Chicago is only hurting law-abiding people.

“I would like to see help,” Miles said. “As a mom, when there’s an issue that I can’t tackle alone or a problem that seems to be escalating, I have [in] my entire life [sought] out help to rectify that problem to get assistance and to move forward. And I think it’s a disservice to all of us citizens of this state and of this city to not accept the help to minimize the problem and come up with a solution.”

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Police identified the suspect as 32-year-old William Livingston, who has 13 mugshots dating back to 2012, according to ABC 7 Eyewitness News. A large number of those arrests were for aggravated assault and battery of women and police officers.

In 2017, Livingston faced charges for randomly attacking two women in separate instances, though both of the cases were dropped, ABC 7 Eyewitness News reported. He was later sentenced to five years in prison in 2022 for the assault and attempted robbery of four women within 20 minutes. He was released on July 26, 2023.

Pritzker and Johnson have insisted that crime has gone down in Chicago and have pleaded with Trump to not deploy the National Guard. The Illinois governor said that they will “immediately go to court” if Trump’s administration follows through with sending National Guard troops to Chicago.

In 2025, a total of 278 homicides occurred in Chicago as of Aug. 31, according to The Chicago Tribune. At least seven were slain in the 54 shootings that happened in the city over Labor Day weekend.

The number of homicides in Chicago reached a 25-year high in 2021, and have remained significantly higher than the numbers recorded in the last decade, The Chicago Tribune reported. Aside from June 2014, no other single month of June has had fewer than 40 murders in Chicago since at least 1970, according to WTTW, a PBS affiliate.

In response to the Labor Day weekend shootings, Pritzker told NBC 5 Chicago on Monday that the focus should be on Trump attempting to “target” Chicago.

Johnson also dismissed the idea of increasing police presence in the city during an Aug. 26 appearance on “Morning Joe,” instead saying that Chicago needs more “affordable housing” and mental health services to reduce crime.

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