President-elect Donald Trump should not criticize Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the high homicide rate in the city, former Chicago Police Officer Dimitri Roberts said.
"Donald Trump doesn't have the right to criticize the mayor," he told CNN's Chris Cuomo on Tuesday's "New Day." "The community members that are losing their lives, the community members that are in this city that are fighting this fight everyday, those are the folks that can criticize the mayor."
"I can criticize the mayor. Not Donald Trump," he added.
Trump tweeted Thursday that Emanuel should call for help if he cannot lower the homicide rate.
"I'm not impressed with Donald Trump leading from his Twitter account," Roberts said. "What I'm looking forward to is seeing where Donald Trump is going to put resources in areas like Chicago and really address these issues."
According to The Chicago Tribune, the city saw its highest homicide rate in 20 years, with over 750 killed in the Windy City last year.
"I welcome President-elect Trump to come here to Chicago and look at these issues at the ground level, and then put some real resources behind them once he gets into the Oval Office," he said.
Emanuel's administration said it is looking "forward to working with" Trump to combat crime in the city.
"As the president-elect knows from his conversation with the mayor, we agree the federal government has a strong role to play in public safety by funding summer jobs and prevention programming for at-risk youth, by holding the criminals who break our gun laws accountable for their crimes, by passing meaningful gun laws, and by building on the partnerships our police have with federal law enforcement," Adam Collins, the mayor's director of communications, said in a statement, according to CNN.
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