37 Comments - old pol - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:36 pm: I bet there are more guns in each of Omaha, Seattle and Buffalo than there are in the 11th Police District. - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:41 pm: === in each of=== Maybe combined. - Annonin' - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:42 pm: Gotta wonder how BigBrain works this into his top achievements of 2016? - pool boy - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:42 pm: Don’t know about Buffalo or Seattle, but Omaha is gang related and in a certain area, just like Chicago. It’s been said before, how are young people getting guns and why do they not have any regard for human life? - Railrat - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:48 pm: is there a comparitive number of Heroin related deaths vs that of guns in the same police districts? My guess guns are to blame for that rise also !!? - Lech W - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:51 pm: The tragedy unfolding in Chicago is most definitely not a state problem !! - Casual observer - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:53 pm: What happened to the gun buy-back program? It seemed successful. I know it’s not a solution but it did get guns off the streets and put a little spending money in people’s pockets. - Ebenezer - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:57 pm: @ Annonin’ Aw, nevermind. @ Rich, Have you considered an automated filter that screens for knee-jerk comments that just blame any bad thing that happens on the other side? Annonin’ - and the policy answer to the 11th district murder rate looks like what exactly? - Anony - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 2:59 pm: Stop and frisk. Long forms for a contact with a gang banger. No cooperation with police investigating crimes. Police afraid to act proactively, for fear of losing a career. I’m sure these have nothing to do with the explosion in crime, but at least we’re doing the right thing…. - Last Bull Moose - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:02 pm: Let’s not get sidetracked on the gun issue. The problem is the number of people who are willing to kill to settle matters of commerce or pride. A lot of the shooting seems to be driven by competition in the illegal drug trade. Shooting someone because they disrespected you is acceptable behavior. Personally i would like to have the State sell some of the less dangerous drugs through State stores. This would be similar to State liquor stores in some states. The idea is to cut into the cash flow and the distribution network of the illegal drug suppliers. Interdiction efforts can then be focused on the remaining illegal drugs. I prefer State distribution to full legalization because I do not want anyone with an economic incentive to create more addicts. We have that with cigarettes today. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:06 pm: –In the 11th [police district], shootings are up by 78 percent compared to a year ago, and homicides are up 89 percent. So far in 2016, 91 people have been killed in this district, where only about 74,000 people live.– Welcome to K-Town, with many convenient el stops and exits off the IKE, where budding entrepreneurs compete on a block-by-block basis, every day, for the exploding, lucrative, heroin demand of Midwesterners from all over who no longer can fill an Oxy script. Ride the Blue Line any time, any day of the week, and witness the Rainbow Coalition — all ages, all incomes, all stations — of sick junkies looking to cop, or junkies who have copped and are on the nod. I live a few blocks away in Oak Park. Yet I’m virtually unaffected by this. The honest, working-poor people in K-Town — the ones who make an urban economy viable, whose labor provides the support for people like me to make a living in the Loop — are under assault every day from domestic terrorists more dangerous, right here, right now, than ISIS or Al Quaeda. If this stuff was going on in my neighborhood, the 82nd Airborne would be on the ground. I have no doubt. Pres. Obama, Gov. Rauner, Mayor Emanuel, I’ve got a finger for you. Two, actually. For shame. You’ve all dropped the ball on the scourge of opiate addiction. Do your jobs. - Anon - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:12 pm: ===* And yet, almost nobody in state government wants to discuss this…=== This is probably because the policies that would actually work to address this cost money and the reactionary polices that wouldn’t do much and would make the problem worse in the long term also cost money. And where’s that money going to come from? - Hit or Miss - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:15 pm: I wonder how much money there has been in the unpassed state budgets of the last few years? Has there been any funding even proposed to study the problem? - Anonymous - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:17 pm: - We have that with cigarettes today. - You forgot alcohol, opiates, and speed. These are all already legal, and the latter two are being peddled heavily by big pharm and unscrupulous doctors. - Rogue Roni - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:18 pm: What are you trying to do Rich? Rain on Rauners victory tour? All sneakiness aside this is terrible. People are dying and not a peep. Have to wonder if our leadership wasn’t so bogged down in battling over a budget if someone would attempt SOMETHING. - DuPage - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:19 pm: A small town had fifty-some murders in 15 months, typically they had four or five a year. This caused them to make up a phony news story, in this case a good reason. What reason is there for all the newspapers here to parrot all the phony stuff that Rauner says? Other then he could buy any paper and fire them all if they didn’t go along with him? http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/12/04/police-use-fake-news-in-sting-aimed-at-notorious-gang-in-california.html - DuPage - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:23 pm: My mistake, only 23 murders. - Roman - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:24 pm: It’s useless to compare one impoverished neighborhood to an entire city like Seattle, kinda apples to oranges. But it is useful to compare Chicago’s crime numbers to L.A. and New York, economically diverse big cities that used to have similar crime rates to Chicago but are now much, much lower. - Anonymous - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:24 pm: Good Idea to close all those public schools….now kids are crossing opposing gang turf….. - truthteller - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:29 pm: The issue more than anything is that the closure rate in high shooting areas are much lower than areas of comparison. In 2015 Chicago 1 in four homicides ended with an arrest. My educated guess is that the clearance rate is lower in the high shooting precincts as typically when a shooting death occurs in a low crime area of the city it gets solved. By comparison the national clearance rate for homicides is 2 of every 3. So think about it. If 3 or more of every shooter who kills someone doesn’t get arrested not only is the idea of deterrence by the prospect of punishment vaporized, you have experienced killers staying out on the streets. The quickest way to attack this issue isn’t to buy back guns, it is to make arrests and get convictions. - Ted - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:31 pm: Social media-inspired “honor shootings” are to blame for a growing segment of the violence. Not sure what government program stops someone from shooting a fellow human being because he was disrespected on an Instagram post. - Norseman - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:33 pm: Trump is going to have it fixed by end of January. Believe me. - Chicago_Downstater - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:33 pm: @Lech W Last time I checked Chicagoans are Illinois citizens, so that would make this a state issue. Look I get it. I’m from Central IL & I still have that knee-jerk reaction from time-to-time that Chicago should solve their own dang problems and leave the rest of the state alone. But that’s petty and short-sighted. Not to mention that the drug trade that turns Eisenhower into the Heroine Highway is the same that fuels the I-55 drug corridor issues that stretch across IL. - Liberty - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:38 pm: “They’re going to try to scare people. They’re going to try to say that ‘that Obama is a scary guy,’ “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun” B. Obama - Deft Wing - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:46 pm: Rahm for President in 2020. - denise - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:56 pm: Great article. Not. No solutions. - denise - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 3:57 pm: And yes it is an Illinois problem. This city is the economic engine for Illinois and the Midwest. Get your head out of the sand. - CLJ - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:00 pm: “Honor” is a key word here. “Showing disrespect” should be classified as a leading killer in many of these communities. With the added influence of the drug market with products sourced from legal and illegal manufacturers, access to easy guns from neighboring states, the fragmentation of the larger gangs that did instill some internal order, the failure of government, schools and community to provide a sense of value and connection to a larger community, as well as, being part of a group at the very bottom of the economic order raised in the height of the economic collapse that has still not seen any relief, there is no single public policy that can correct the problem facing these communities. These “kids” have fallen back all that remains for them, their “honor”. To diss is an attack on that. It has been written that much of this is very similar to the historical feuds of the old west and that of the Hatfields and McCoys of appalachia. - Peters Post - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:04 pm: Obama has failed to utilize our federal resources to close down the international drug trade. Chicago was targeted as the prime distribution point for Mexican drugs some time ago and now the consequences of failing to address this are upon us. Trump has stated that he and an unnamed police brass have the solution and will stop the violence associated with drugs. While they likely do not have the solution hopefully his administration will bring resources to the city and bring more pressure on the Mexican government to stop the drugs at their production source. Rahm there is just no understanding how he gets a free pass from the press and public. Police need to stand up and do their job. Unfortunately there is no one sector of the political class or the public that will support them now. Families, churches and communities need to step up. Most drugs will need some form of legalization to stem the tide. Preckwinkle and Dart are trying a few creative approaches within their sphere. Rauner not worth even trying to engage. Did we leave someone out? - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:11 pm: –Trump has stated that he and an unnamed police brass have the solution and will stop the violence associated with drugs.– Yes, he said that. That was an obvious, ridiculous, cynical lie, denied by the cops. What good is that? In his own words: –TRUMP: Well, you know why they can’t solve it because they don’t have the right people in charge. O’REILLY: I know. All right. So, specifically, specifically, how do you do it? How do you do it? TRUMP: I know police in Chicago. If they were given the authority to do it, they would get it done. O’REILLY: How? How? TRUMP: You have unbelievable — how? By being very much tougher than they are right now. They right now are not tough. I mean, I could tell you this very long and quite boring story. But when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very tough police. I said, how do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge to a specific person, do you think you could stop this? He said, Mr. Trump I would be able to stop it in one week and I believed him 100 percent. – - Railrat - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:15 pm: @peterspost “did we leave someone out” ? How about the black caucus in Springfield ? That opposes enforcing existing laws or expansion of gun abuse laws for fear of losing votes ? - Federalist - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:18 pm: Many causes. But high illegitimacy rates and massive immigration of poor people often leads to next generation crime. But very few and certainly even less in political positions are willing to face up to those realities - Amalia - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:23 pm: sure, let’s have the state discuss this. put up legislation that toughens penalties on gun crimes, and guess what? the legislators in parts of Chicago don’t support increasing the penalties. it’s happened before. they are more afraid of someone yelling “my baby, my baby” than they are of yet another person dying. Look at yourself in the mirror, legislators. you could actually do something. but you cave to the gangs. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:24 pm: –Obama has failed to utilize our federal resources to close down the international drug trade. Chicago was targeted as the prime distribution point for Mexican drugs some time ago and now the consequences of failing to address this are upon us. – The market was created by the likes of Purdue Pharma and the docs and insurance companies who created “pain management” as a marketing tool. Once junkies go so bad and they can’t get the legal Oxy, Percs, or Vics, they hit the street for illegal heroin. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times have done amazing work on this issue for years. Seriously, try the google. It will curl your toes on how, in plain sight, “legitimate,” “respectable” businesses and pillars of the community fueled the opiate-addiction epidemic in this country. It wasn’t El Chapo who hooked the country on smack. It was El Marcus Welby. - Railrat - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:26 pm: You go Amalia !!! @ 423 - Anonymous - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:30 pm: Part of the answer might reside in the amount of CPD presence and procedures now vs what they were before controversy and protests erupted. Not just numbers, but types of stops, etc - 47th Ward - Friday, Dec 9, 16 @ 4:42 pm: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Gun violence is the price we pay for freedom apparently. Blame poor black and brown people, blame broken families and absent fathers, blame drugs, blame an economy that doesn’t work for poor urban blacks, blame a failing education system, blame lenient judges and a revolving door prison system. But do not blame guns. This is NOT a gun problem. There are any number of complex socio-economic and historic causes of urban violence that have nothing to do with how absurdly easy guns and ammunition flow into these five police districts. Nope. The violence in Chicago has nothing to do with easy access to guns. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.