By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A group of Chicagoans are asking President Donald Trump to help to fight crime and corruption in the city.

Chicago Flips Red founder Zoe Leigh spoke at a downtown news conference Thursday and said the city needs federal intervention.

“President Trump, I am pleading. Come to Chicago. Come to Illinois. Help us save our city before it’s too late,” Leigh said.

Lupe Castillo, a Republican candidate for Congress in Illinois’ Fourth District, said Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson are cowards for saying Chicago is one of the safest cities.

“I dare one of them to walk down by my neighborhood, La Villita, at 10 o’clock at night without any bodyguards, because that’s all they have. They don’t go anywhere without their bodyguards,” Castillo told The Center Square.

Castillo said public safety in Chicago is nonexistent.

Chicago Flips Red vice president Danielle Carter-Walters said the Democratic Party machine tolerates and encourages violence, from campus rallies to city streets. She said silence has gotten residents nowhere.

“Silence is what has allowed crime to explode, corruption to spread and our communities to suffer. We will not be silenced any more,” Carter-Walters said.

Carter-Walters said people are tired of Pritzker and Johnson claiming they speak for the citizens of Chicago and Illinois.

“Let’s be clear. They do not represent us. The people deserve their own voice, and that is exactly what we are here to give them today,” Carter-Walters said.

Pritzker and Johnson have said they don’t want the National Guard or Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help fight crime in Chicago.

Carter-Walters called on Trump to help.

“We are asking for your leadership and your actions, because the people of Chicago cannot wait any longer,” Carter-Walters said.

A day after the fatal shooting of Illinois native and conservative leader Charlie Kirk in Utah, Carter-Walters said she and her colleagues refuse to let evil win.