Today’s number: 50 percent
Monday, May 23, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
The number of people shot in Chicago is running 50 percent above this time last year as the city braces for the summer, traditionally its most violent period.
So far this year, at least 1,382 people have been shot in Chicago and at least 244 of them have died of their wounds. Last year at this time, 904 people had been shot, 157 of them fatally.
May already has seen summerlike gun violence. More people have been killed so far this month than in all of May 2015.
The toll from this past weekend was five dead and 40 wounded. Two weeks earlier, over the Mother’s Day weekend, eight people were killed and 42 were wounded in Chicago, the city’s most violent since the end of September, according to a Tribune analysis.
- Ghost - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 12:47 pm:
We need to let the city go bankrupt and contract out police services, maybe to OCP…..
Because Rauner
- CCP Hostage - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:28 pm:
But I’m supposed to believe that people are moving out of Chicago because of prevailing wage and property taxes…
- Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:30 pm:
When is anyone in Chicago going to acknowledge they’ve had a gang war going on for the past 10 years, and nothing is being done to end it? Come on Mayor, admit to the obvious please, enough people, particularly innocents, have died.
- Looker - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:35 pm:
Chicago is at the bottom of the list of cities using the Feds to prosecute gun crimes, i.e felon in possession
- Belle - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:46 pm:
The bulk of it is still happening in 3 or 4 areas. I feel for the people trying to live normal lives in these places. It is horrid. They must be frightened all of the time.
- lake county democrat - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:49 pm:
If the residents in these areas were white, there’d be cries for some sort of immediate response: curfews, increased police, calling out the guard, etc. -something commensurate with the level of violence. Education and social services are great, but the first responsibility of a government is the safety of citizens. Like the drug war, nothing significant will happen unless and until the problem starts touching middle class whites.
- lake county democrat - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:52 pm:
Also, please Rahm, don’t blame the victims like Daley used to. You wouldn’t lightly risk your and your family’s safety by being a witness to a gang related crime.
- JDuc - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:52 pm:
The vast majority of gun crime is concentrated in a few hot spots. Almost all gang related.
It’s terrible, but it sin’t representative of the city as a whole.
- Hit or Miss - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 1:54 pm:
The Washington Times on Aug 24, 2014, carried a story titled “Chicago crime rate drops as concealed carry applications surge”. Considering the state of current events, one needs to ask what effect has concealed carry has had, if any, on crime in Illinois. Has there been any research on this topic?
- Ghost - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 3:13 pm:
Lake County that is a nice sentiment but it reflects the current problem, the idea that a quasi military force brings peace. many of these naighnorhoods dont want more police. so rave baiting by suggesting more law enfrocement would be applied if it incocled whites ignores the reality that minorities do not feel safer with more police it also ignore the root cause… why are there gangs?
lack of socioeconomic supports is a big cause. One of the more effectice tools at keeping kids out of gangs is grps like the Jesse White tumblers. we need more activities and structure for the youth in depressed areas. without that you cant starve the hangs of new memebers, so you just become and occupying military force, and the police create opportunities to recruit and targets for violence. occupations dont end violence, pretty much ever
- Honeybear - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 3:55 pm:
I think Chicago is going to absolutely erupt in violence.
- Anonymouth - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 4:47 pm:
=== If the residents in these areas were white, there’d be cries for some sort of immediate response: curfews, increased police, calling out the guard, etc. -something commensurate with the level of violence. ===
If this was happening in white areas, the residents would simply move.
- Anonymouth - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 4:49 pm:
=== I think Chicago is going to absolutely erupt in violence. ===
Why do you think that? The majority of Chicago neighborhoods are not plagued by gang violence.
- Anony - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 5:02 pm:
Might have something to do with police officers not wanting to take chances with aggressive policing. Might end up in the news, or court. Why take a chance? Also, contact with gang bangers now requires long forms be filled out. Why bother? We have set up a system with disincentives to preventing crime, and the chickens are coming home to roost.
- Doi Chef - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 5:26 pm:
How many people were shot in Litchfield, Havana, Galva, and Paxton since the first of the year? None. Not a gun issue. It is a people issue and its time this state stop coddling the criminals. We need to get tough and stop using culture or societal setbacks as excuses.
- anony - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 8:23 pm:
I thought concealed carry was going to make the streets safer when the “good” guys could legally carry. That’s what concealed carry proponents predicted. What went wrong?
- RNUG - Monday, May 23, 16 @ 10:14 pm:
More accurately:
If the residents in these areas were RICH, there’d be cries for some sort of immediate response: