43 Comments - MSIX - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:23 pm: ===The FBI processed a record number of firearms-related background checks last year, indicating that more guns were sold in 2015 than in any previous year in American history.=== Seems that increasing gun ownership is not going to reduce crime. Record year for gun sales, largest homicide increase in 25 years. Funny how that works. But go ahead and build that wall. - 47th Ward - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:24 pm: I hope his more gullible supporters are prepared to be disappointed. Hugely. I mean, tremendous disappointment, the likes of which we’ve never seen in this country. Sad. - TheDopeFromHope - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:24 pm: Revamped indeed! - Amalia - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:26 pm: St. Louis is more dangerous, but that would not fit the Trump narrative. he is still in campaign mode….as evidenced by that dark speech of doom….so he has to run against everything that Obama stands for. also, it all screams “I see black people.” code. - wordslinger - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:27 pm: –Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter.– Um, where does this come from? Some specific examples, please, of this problem. Who is violently “disrupting” what? - blue dog dem - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:35 pm: Example of violent disrupter. George Soros. - Precinct Captain - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:38 pm: Scary times. - Grandson of Man - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:42 pm: “to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities” Good luck with that. Where there is demand there will almost certainly be supply. How about trying something else other than the abysmal failure of the war on drugs? “Supporting law enforcement also means deporting illegal aliens with violent criminal records who have remained within our borders” Are they still here? Trump said he’d deport them in the first hour of his first day in office. - JackD - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:42 pm: I doubt a website page is going to change the efforts to reform the CPD. - scott aster - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:43 pm: “Amalia”….elections have consequences and that ref to St L is just mombo jumbo. StL in not on National TV every night. - Incandenza - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:49 pm: -“Amalia”….elections have consequences and that ref to St L is just mombo jumbo. StL in not on National TV every night.- Because being on National TV is the ultimate measure of facts. - Aldyth - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:50 pm: Illinois went very blue in the election. We’re a stronghold for the Democrats. And Obama’s home state, to boot. Of course, we’re going to be a target, especially when facts don’t matter. The how and why of violence in Chicago is lost in the rhetoric and propaganda. - GraduatedCollegeStudent - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:53 pm: ===Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter. Our job is to make life more comfortable for parents who want their kids to be able to walk the streets safely. Or the senior citizen waiting for a bus. Or the young child walking home from school.=== Here’s the thing which Trump and his supporters don’t realize. I bet a lot of the former started out as the latter. Not everyone just wants to see the world burn. - Crispy - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:53 pm: scot aster, no Amalia’s right–according to FBI crime stats released just a few months ago (and reported on this blog), St. Louis has the highest rate of violence of any U.S. city. In fact, while nobody would deny that Chicago has a problem, it doesn’t even make the top 10 in terms of violent crime. But that fact doesn’t jibe with the new political paradigm. - RNUG - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:56 pm: It’s speaking to the fears of law abiding citizens in areas (mostly just small portions of some cities) where crime is perceived to be out of control. Nobody should be surprised; one of his themes was to make things better for people who think they have been excluded from the American dream. If Trump honestly means it and can follow through, I suspect his presidency will be considered a success. - Ghost - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 2:59 pm: since the crime wave does not appear to be related to illegal immigrants deportation and a waste of money wall wont effect this at all. this reads like a distopian press release. we need jobs and activites for kids after school. community programs and financial recovery. - Longsummer - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:04 pm: “Law and Order” is what Nixon parlayed into the same role. Funny how history repeats itself. Economic issues hopefully he will be good, have real concerns about how he will hand racial issues. Real concerns. - DuPage Saint - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:04 pm: Over 790 people killed in Chicago and over 4300 people shot according to Hey Jackass. So are we complaint we are not number one? Overblown rhetoric but would be nice to see murders reduced by 17% more effective policing and more community engagement. But not your president so let carnage continue. Something needs to change because what is being done isn’t working - Anonymous - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:07 pm: @Wordslinger: Ask Bob Creamer about the protesters that he has used. - Anonymous - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:10 pm: “Supporting law enforcement means supporting our citizens’ ability to protect themselves. We will uphold Americans’ Second Amendment rights at every level of our judicial system.” Supporting 2nd Amendment rights didn’t really work out in practice here in Illinois. Brandon Phelps invoked the name of Otis McDonald when promoting his concealed carry bill, but his bill has criminal penalties for every prohibited location, no public transportation carry on CTA buses and trains, and mandatory Duty to Inform so police can Stop and Frisk anyone they want. Phelps, Forby, and the NRA wrote their 2013 carry bill for the small town Trump voters who drive everywhere, not blacks in Chicago taking the bus to work. NRA and the good old boys have a great race hustle going on- use blacks from Chicago for plaintiffs, then sell them out in their bills. If Trump really cares about the 2nd Amendment, he should sever his ties with the NRA. - Earnest - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:11 pm: My thought is where is the Illinois Democratic Party in trying to say “our President has a stand on Chicago violence and stopping it–where is our Governor?” Or, perhaps, advocating for their own approach. - Anonymous - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:13 pm: ==Some specific examples, please, of this problem. Who is violently “disrupting” what?== You mean besides the ones like today breaking windows in DC? - Ron Burgundy - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:17 pm: If they can do something to actually improve the situation, I think I won’t be so hung up on the numbers. Skeptical that they can, however. - AlfondoGonz - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:20 pm: “Thoughts?” I need a drink. - Keyser Soze - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:28 pm: I feel safer in downtown Chicago than I do in downtown St. Louis, or downtown Memphis, or downtown New Orleans. But, if you want to compare the north side of St.Louis to the south and west sides of Chicago, forget about it. Nobody feels safe in those places. If someone has a fix for those places, God bless them. - Pawn - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:39 pm: Maybe if we had a functional budget that funded things that worked, like Cure Violence, we would not have “thousands” of shootings in Chicago. I am consistently surprised that very few people outside of Rich have drawn attention to the rise in violence happening at the same time as the budget impasse. - allknowingmasterofracoondom - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:43 pm: Fix home, fix the school, and the violence will shrink big time. - Obamas Puppy - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:43 pm: Did IPI write that press release? - CrazyHorse - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:47 pm: ==I hope his more gullible supporters are prepared to be disappointed. Hugely. I mean, tremendous disappointment, the likes of which we’ve never seen in this country. Sad.== More disappointment than the last 8 years? Gonna be hard to top that at least for me. - Amalia - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:50 pm: more than anything else as we deal with this new president, facts matter. it is crucial that the news media, and those of us who may have to stand in as media is squelched and disappeared, scream the truth, deal in facts. Chicago is not the most violent place in the nation. Facts matter. - Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:54 pm: President Obama has been mostly silent on the carnage in Chicago. Whatever you think of Trump (and the majority of people do not approve so far) he is at least going to put those politicians and members of the justice and police departments who have allowed this to happen in our city back on their heels. Our laws for illegal use of weapons should be just as severe as NY and other big cities with far lower murder rates and they are not. - CrazyHorse - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:57 pm: ==Um, where does this come from? Some specific examples, please, of this problem. Who is violently “disrupting” what?== See Ferguson, Charlotte, Portland, Milwaukee, etc. There were plenty of people smashing storefronts, damaging cars, etc. One man was shot in the head by a protester in Charlotte. In Milwaukee they burned down a BP gas station. - Ward Heeler - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:59 pm: What type of dance moves does Rahm Emanuel use now? It is hard to see him making a neat pirouette out of the current predicament that he finds himself in. He nimbly parachuted into the mayoralty before he was forced out as White House Chief of Staff. It was one of the worst kept secrets in Chicago that Emanuel imagined himself as a cabinet secretary or agency head in a Hillary Clinton administration which would have been a welcome escape from City Hall. He went all in for Hillary and he has nowhere to go. - Anonymous - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:00 pm: @Crazy Horse: I predicted that Wisconsin would switch from blue to red on account of the riots in Milwaukee. I was not surprised on election night. - RNUG - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:01 pm: ==Some specific examples, please, of this problem. Who is violently “disrupting” what?== … the people burning cars today in D.C. - Texas Red - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:03 pm: ==MSIX Two reality checks – Only legal gun owners get (or at least pass) the background checks so you have to be joking that after decades of a gun ban in Chicago along with a few years of making gun sales illegal and even now with gun ranges severely restricted that these greatly impact the illegal gun related crime problems in Chicago. Secondly according to a University of Chicago - Chicago Crime Lab study only 2 to 2.9 percent of Chicago criminals arrested in gun crimes bought their firearms in stores – the rest were illegally obtained. This closely matches national numbers that indicate less than 3 percent of firearm involved crimes were committed by legal gun owners. - RNUG - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:04 pm: == wrote their 2013 carry bill for the small town Trump voters who drive everywhere, not blacks in Chicago taking the bus to work. == Are you suggesting allowing concealed carry on public transport? - gdubya - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:19 pm: Calling for martial law - CrazyHorse - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:22 pm: ==I predicted that Wisconsin would switch from blue to red on account of the riots in Milwaukee. I was not surprised on election night.== There were also videos of thugs grabbing white people from cars and yelling “If they’re WHITE beat them up.” They used much more colorful language than I did. I probably would have to agree with you. I don’t know if it was the single largest factor that turned the tide in Wisconsin but I’m sure it definitely changed the minds of quite a few voters. - Precinct Captain - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:28 pm: ==- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 3:54 pm:== False, false, false, but that’s nothing new for your commentary here. http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/efforts-of-homegrown-president-couldnt-stem-chicago-violence/ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-15/news/chi-obama-chicago-violence-20130215_1_cleopatra-cowley-pendleton-gun-violence-gun-control - Ward Heeler - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:31 pm: @Amalia: Would dealing in facts also include not trumpeting bogus polls that predicted that Hillary was going to being elected in a landslide victory? Chicagoans are living in a bubble. Every single state bordering Illinois went red in 2016. Could it be that we are the outlier? - Gooner - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:44 pm: Considering that Chicago needs funding on a relatively urgent basis to save Lake Shore Drive (a federal highway), the focus on the negatives of Chicago is not a good sign. It will interesting to see how federal funds are dispersed but I’m concerned that Trump is the kind of person who will direct federal funds to states that fell into his column. - wordslinger - Friday, Jan 20, 17 @ 4:48 pm: –You mean besides the ones like today breaking windows in DC?– And what role would you wish the national government for that? A national police force? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.