A Chicago woman experienced firsthand the consequences of the city's inability to ensure its citizens receive police protection.
The woman, identified only as 'Michelle', waited for hours for a police response on Wednesday after experiencing a home invasion WMAQ TVthe NBC station in the Windy City.
The suspects entered the home in the upscale Wicker Park neighborhood after Michelle walked her dog around 12:30 p.m., WMAQ reported.
When she saw two men wearing masks in her home, she screamed, “I'm calling the police,” she told WMAQ.
“And they took off,” she told the station.
She was lucky they did.
Michelle called 911 after the incident, where a dispatcher told her to wait outside for officers.
However, according to WMAQ, the police did not show up.
She called back repeatedly, the station reported. When she called back for the sixth time, she asked to speak to a supervisor.
“A gentleman got in and said, 'Sorry we don't have any units to send you,'” Michelle told the station. “Then there was an awkward pause.”
The man, apparently a 911 supervisor, even went so far as to ask Michelle to lobby her councilor to provide the Chicago Police Department with adequate funding.
“He also advised me to call my councilor and I said, 'Why?' and he said to encourage him to hire more police,” Michelle told WMAQ.
When officers finally arrived, they apologized for the lack of a timely response, Michelle said.
It took no less than four hours and six different 911 calls for police to respond to the scene.
“The officers who did show up were concerned and apologized for taking so long to get them there,” she told WMAQ.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has had a hostile relationship with the city's police department since his inauguration last year.
The mayor refused to attend the funeral of slain Chicago police officer Luis Huesca after the deceased's family asked him to stay away.
JUST IN: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will *not* attend Officer Luis Huesca's funeral. We're told the family has asked Johnson and other politicians, who they believe do not support the police enough, to stay away.
Statement from the Mayor's Office… pic.twitter.com/2WrjEfmuvp
— Ben Bradley (@BenBradleyTV) April 29, 2024
Michelle told WMAQ that she has contacted her local councilor's office and is waiting for the chance to meet him in person.
She was also adamant that she did not blame the police in the case.
'I don't think it's the police's fault [understaffed] and overwhelmed,” she said.
This article originally appeared on The Western Journal.
