The Chicago Tribune reports that the number of homicides in Chicago in 2016 has topped 700:
In a year of relentless violence, Chicago has hit another grim milestone, exceeding 700 homicides for the first time in nearly two decades, according to official Police Department records.
The 700 mark was reached about 6:20 a.m. Wednesday when a 25-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and back as he drove, crashing into a bus shelter in the 9300 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue on the South Side, said Frank Giancamilli, a police spokesman.
According to the invaluable resource HeyJackass!, the total number of homicides in Chicago for November was 736. If present trends continue that means that more than 800 people will have been killed in Chicago in 2016, the most since 1995.
I don’t think we should take any solace in that 800 is lower than the 943 homicides in 1992 or the 970 in 1974. In 1992 Chicago’s population was 10% higher than it is now and in 1974 it was 20% higher than it is now. That means that the number of homicides per 100,000 population is very close to what it was in those record years.
Yeah, Baltimore came near a record set in the 1970s last year. (I don’t remember if they passed it or not.) But the population of the city was about 50% higher back then, so they had hit an all new high, by a lot, rate-wise. Black Lives Matter continues to take its grim toll, but at least Soros thinks it’s working to create an atmosphere conducive to social justice, so there’s that.
How much crime affects you is not measured by the headline number. It’s dependent on the rate per 100,000 population.
What this is saying is that Chicago is as dangerous as it’s been in the last 50 years and maybe ever. The stats usually cited are just the last 50 years.
Nearly all of those homicides are young black men killing other young black men or collateral damage from young black men trying to kill other young black men.
I,,,I just wish it didn’t have to be so. So many whites who shy away from black neighborhoods just don’t want to die. But the Black families living there have little choice. They watch their sons grow up from cute little kids to targets, and then, super predators. My hope is that D.J. Trump is right. What these neighborhoods need is “Law and order”.
The first thing any organized society needs is a monopoly on the use of force. This is what’s wrong in Mexico. People there and people in Chicago perceive that the police are of no use, powerless. But the gangs and the cartels show power every day, In the taking of life.
Do you think Black residents of Chicago would object to a 24/7 police presence on every dangerous corner? No, what they hate is no police, and then a call and then police swoop in, ignorant of situation, and take violent action against their kids. You need more police, on the ground, day and night. Until things settle down or the city runs out of money. because closed businesses pay no property taxes, nor do vacant homes.
I think that people are voting with their feet. I think that black folks are leaving Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, etc. and moving to Texas, Georgia, and the Carolinas. We’ll have a better idea when the next decennial census is taken. Unless they use estimating techniques in which case the world will look increasingly surreal.
Dave, you sound like you are giving up. “Thats just the way blacks are.”
I don’t believe that. First, their family structure is broken by incarceration of males, second this situation is romanticized by rappers and social philosophers.
I really hope that Trump means it when he says, “law and order”. Most working class, ordinary ,Blacks, and Whites are praying for that.
If the law can be enforced on a daily, CONSISTANT basis, Blacks will come around. Right now, to them, the gangs are holding a monopoly on force. That needs to change. Yes, it’s hard to do, but if not now, when? And if not us , Who?
Young black kids should not be gunned down in the streets, and they wouldn’t be if law enforcement took charge.
I’m not giving up. I think that city officials have given up on the South Side.
The federal government doesn’t have a lot of impact on the inner city of major cities but city governments can. Can you imagine anything but a Democrat committed to the status quo being elected in Chicago? I can’t. And Chicago’s establishment Democrats are in bed with the gangs.
I have never voted for the present mayor, Rahm Emanuel, for any job he’s ever run for. He’s been elected anyway.
At this point the government of the city of Chicago largely exists to pay the pensions of retired public employees.
Thank you for your’ honesty. Keep the pressure on Gov’t. Black folks don’t deserve this in our America.
An oldie, but a goodie:
“The Springfield, Ill., metropolitan area ranks third on our list [of America’s Most Dangerous Cities] with 855 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2010. The Illinois state capital confounds analysts who try to interpret its relatively high crime rate. The unemployment rate was lower than the national average at 7% as of July so the economy wouldn’t seem to play a major role in crime. The area’s relatively young population – 66% of the city is under the age of 44 – may be a factor, as younger areas generally have higher rates of crime.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngiuffo/2011/10/03/americas-most-dangerous-cities/2/#40c3a125d8e2
That’s following Detroit and Memphis. I believe Chicago submitted non-conforming data to the FBI, so who knows.
Lest it be thought that Chicago’s “non-conforming data” is anything but self-serving obfuscation on the part of city officials, Chicago has a long history of that sort of practice. They’ve been doing it in their reporting of the performance of the CPS and in the city’s budget.
Have you ever tried to read Chicago’s budget? It is obviously designed to obscure.
Chicago is also one of the few American cities whose terrorism emergency response plan, contrary to DHS recommendations and policy, is a state secret.
Chicago used to be called “the city that works”. Those were the days.
Springfield police response to that story was we’re more honest in our records. The FBI apparently told Forbes to stop lumping smaller metros with the major metros, because it was misleading. My response is that the violence was primarily rape and aggravated assault and the city has one of the highest ratios of women:men in the country. This is either a city where women should be afraid, or where women report.
I’ve not read Chicago’s budget, but I know Springfield and the county will argue about where the murder happened when a body is dumped in the country. All we got is numbers and the people entering the data know that.
Somewhat OT: Dave had asked for predictions about what Obama would do after his Presidency, and I had thought about writing that I hoped he would return to Chicago and find someway to exert a positive influence on the young people who are killing each other. That struck me as a little too, Obama-as-black-messiah, so I didn’t write it, but still I’m a bit disappointed he’s not returning, though I suppose he’ll be there frequently at the Presidential library.
It’s incredibly sad – unfortunately I don’t think things will change.