Reflecting on Chicago’s Murders

As Chicago closes in on its highest number of murders in a year in decades, this Associated Press article on the subject naturally caught my eye:

An analysis of the August toll shows more clearly than ever who’s dying in the Chicago slaughter and what’s behind it: surging violence in a handful of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods, which are riven by loosely organized street gangs.

Young African-American men are the chief victims. In a city that’s one-third black, the overwhelming majority of those murdered in August — 71 — were, like Malik, African American. Another 11 had Hispanic surnames. Almost half were in their teens or early 20s.

And more than 70 percent of those shot to death appeared on the Chicago police’s “Strategic Subject List,” which includes 1,400 people considered likely targets of violence based on gang involvement or criminal record.

There is one credible explanation: gangs. Another possible explanation: that gangs are consistently portrayed as exciting and glamorous. There is one slightly less plausible explanation: guns. There is one implicit explanation in the article: drugs.

The article also included one incredible claim—that larger, better organized gangs would result in fewer murders:

According to community activists, the eagerness to kill wasn’t as great years ago when these neighborhoods were dominated by larger, more organized gangs that concentrated on carving out and defending drug turf.

Now, “I don’t hear much about Gangster Disciples against the Vice Lords,” said Marshall Hatch, a minister in the East Garfield Park neighborhood where Causey lived. “I hear block against block.”

Unmentioned is whether the “community activists” quoted are present or former gang members

The article fails to mention any number of other prospective explanations including inadequate economic opportunity, social dysfunction, self-serving politicians, and decades of nonexistent, incompetent, or even malevolent police work.