While speaking to Poppy Harlow on "CNN This Morning" Wednesday, Johnson acknowledged Chicago was plagued with out-of-control violent crime and declared that the "full force of government" would solve the crisis. The brilliant idea from the mayor: $500,000 in reparation checks. 

"These are the first dollars spent in this city to begin the process of studying both restoration and reparations," Johnson said.

He said, "When residents who have experienced neglect and disinvestment for generations speak out of their pain and their trauma, this administration and the Black Caucus we hear you."

All of the "neglect and disinvestment' of the black folks in the metro area have been under nine decades, or nearly a century, of Democratic mayors. But the current mayor will never mention that inconvenient truth. 

Johnson believes he can spend his way out of an imploding metro area: 

"A quarter of a billion dollars to address homelessness, $100 million for violence prevention. We added 80 million more dollars to our youth employment program of which we hired 25,000 young people just this summer. That's a 20% increase from the previous year."