* From the Tribune’s coverage of the US Attorney General’s visit to Chicago yesterday to announce a new “strike force”…
The strike forces — a mix of federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other law enforcement agencies — will be tasked with identifying and disrupting pipelines that are responsible for bringing illegal guns onto city streets. Law enforcement officials for years have blamed lax gun laws in neighboring states like Indiana and Wisconsin for making it easier for Chicago criminals to obtain guns when they’re not allowed to own them. […]
The teams are the latest strategy in the federal government’s effort to fight gun violence, and Chicago has been a focal point of that fight.
Last year, under the Trump administration, Chicago and other cities received a surge of federal agents to fight violence as part of Operation Legend, named in honor of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed in Kansas City, Missouri. In Chicago, the operation involved a few hundred federal agents from the ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Chicago police and other big-city police departments routinely work with federal law enforcement on criminal investigations. Such partnerships over the years have included Project Exile, aimed at shifting more gun prosecutions to federal court for tougher penalties, and Project Safe Neighborhoods, designed to better coordinate federal resources and local intelligence on crime.
The difference this time, however, is the federal government is providing grant money for violence prevention and violence interruption, on top of the state’s significant appropriation.
- truthteller - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 9:48 am:
??? They already know the pipeline out of Indiana and Wisconsin gunshops who sell the bulk of weapons used by gangs and criminals in Chicago. The problem are laws and interstate commerce
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 9:50 am:
Adding violence interrupters is great news. It’s not enough to get the state’s “revenge” on the killers. Preventing the killing in the first place is infinitely better.
And irrational people don’t think of consequences in the first place.
- Chicagonk - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 9:51 am:
It’s not just guns, it’s repeat offenders. Aggressively prosecute the repeat offenders and get them off the streets. And that includes juvenile repeat offenders.
- Publius - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 10:02 am:
Sounds like the ATF needs to go to these gun shops and just revoke their Federal Firearms License.
- cermak_rd - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 10:08 am:
Can’t the agents just stake out the businesses and use cameras and facial recognition software to figure out if indeed people legally barred from guns are acquiring them there. They could also get a handle on who probable straw purchasers are that way.
I like the idea of deviating repeat gun violators out of the state system into the federal one. Saves the state some $$ on jail and assures a stiffer sentence.
I’m not sure if any violence intervention works. If the people shooting are indeed irrational or if they are rational but focused on a rational goal like profits or vengeance.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 10:08 am:
===I’m not sure if any violence intervention works===
Research proves you wrong, but you do you.
- Give Us Barabbas - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 10:17 am:
Those anti violence programs were showing results when they were defunded under Rauner and Trump. Gun crime stats started shoo…, Um, escalating… Soon after. Funding is policy GOP thinking on crime has always been reactive, not proactive.
- Boone's is Back - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 10:44 am:
This just doesn’t give me much hope. It’s like plugging one hole on a boat with endless leaks in it. I’d also like to see a multi faceted approach that doesn’t just heavily rely on some strike force. Crime is truly at a new level of boldness in the city.
- 17% Solution - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 11:06 am:
== Crime is truly at a new level of boldness in the city.==
And still way lower than the 1990s.
Plug the leaks.
- Sad - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 11:29 am:
Where was Pritzker….??
He’s staying as far away from the Chicago crime/violence issues as he can get, all the while living there.
- All this - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 11:37 am:
== He’s staying as far away from the Chicago crime/violence issues as he can get, all the while living there.==
Nope.
https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20210706/pritzker-signs-bill-expanding-covered-medicaid-services
Mental illness treatment, substance abuse, all good ways to get crime down.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 11:39 am:
This is very good news. I would like to see fewer nonviolent drug offenders and more violent people and serious weapons violators in prison. Maybe we should retool our police and court systems to accomplish that.
- Sir Reel - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 12:30 pm:
“Chicago Strike Force” sounds like a Law & Order spin-off.
- Captain Obvious - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 12:37 pm:
All of this is good as far as it goes, but it feels like we are mitigating symptoms without curing the disease. Do any of these programs have the potential to cure the root cause of the violence?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 12:43 pm:
===cure the root cause===
When you come up with something, let us know.
- Amalia - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 12:48 pm:
One good thing is that Chicago has a large contingent of officers -50-dedicated to fighting illegal possession of weapons. that is new. and prosecuting at the Federal level means Kim -if they don’t have a record and get arrested because they possess a gun illegally that isn’t fighting the problem-Foxx won’t have a chance to screw up a case. those people running around with a gun illegally but not a record are exactly the type of people used to pass guns around. Police have to step it up with social media analysis. Betting that party bus action was posted or even live streamed and easy to locate and shoot up. 82% of the murder victims this year in Chi are Black. If Black lives really matter, step it up and turn in the bad guys, including someone possessing a gun illegally.
- 17% Solution - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 1:15 pm:
== If Black lives really matter=
Wow. I’m hoping that was a caffeine induced typo.
- 14th ward - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 1:44 pm:
I walked out of St Leo H.S in 1983, started in the trades in 85. Most of my work was CTA contract work, I witnessed the 90’s Drug epidemic. These cats are younger and more vicious.
- Mayo Sandwich - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 1:53 pm:
==These cats are younger and more vicious.==
Lol. You graduated HS in 1983? Of course everyone is younger. I stood in line behind a cop at an ATM. When he finished and turned around I resisted an urge to ask him what he wanted to do when he grew up.
- Mason born - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 2:08 pm:
I hope this works, especially the violence prevention steps, we should be harsher with straw purchasers though they are often the most sympathetic of criminals. I wonder how many people who aren’t involved in firearms or their legislation understand what a straw purchase is. Yes the form says it but that’s hard to counter what they may be hearing from the one asking them to buy.
- Fly like an eagle - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 2:20 pm:
“If the people shooting are indeed irrational or if they are rational but focused on a rational goal like profits or vengeance.”
Some are rational like the scheming nephew that poisons his rich old uncle to get the inheritance earlier.
And some are irrational like the parent that bashes his toddler against the wall because he had a bad day and she won’t stop crying.
We need to find ways to prevent/react to all kinds of murders, there isn’t a one size fits all solution.
- Just Me 2 - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 3:29 pm:
What Chicago needs to fight crime is jobs. Unfortunately at every opportunity available the City Council tells employers, “We don’t want you here.”
- Frumpy White Guy - Friday, Jul 23, 21 @ 3:42 pm:
The shooter is just as much a victim as the one being shot. Most of the Chicago shooters have been the victim of implicit bias, systemic racism and police brutality. We need more federal money to deal with those issues and the emotional damage done to these precious wounded sparrows.