Why Chicago?

The editors of the Chicago Tribune lament the large number of shootings in Chicago:

A day after Chicago’s weekend from hell, when outbreaks of gunfire killed 12 people and injured at least 62, the carnage continued.

Derrick Hall, 22, was waiting for a bus in the 9100 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue on Monday morning when a man approached and shot him to death, the Tribune reported. In the afternoon, three men were shot on West Iowa Street in South Austin. Later, a man was shot in the wrist by someone in a passing car. A man was hit in the stomach. A man was struck while getting into a vehicle. At least 10 people were shot in eight incidents Monday on the South and West sides.

Don’t look for a pattern. Gun violence in Chicago is random the way destructive wind gusts are random. You can brace yourself but still not anticipate the location or severity of a blast. Monday easily could have been the quiet after the storm. We know of no connection between a man killed at bus stop Monday and a 17-year-old girl killed at block party Sunday, except that both were homicide victims in a city awash in illegal guns, and tormented by gang activity and the drug trade.

But why Chicago? Back in the early 1990s, the homicide rate in Chicago was as ugly as it was in New York and Los Angeles. Then began a steady national decline, Chicago included — until the abrupt recent upswing in violence here.

Allow me to answer their question.

1. Chicago and Illinois politicians are in bed with the gangs.
2. Chicago has a larger, more concentrated black population than New York or Los Angeles.
3. Chicago’s population and economy are declining.
4. Chicago and Illinois are more corrupt than New York, Los Angeles, New York State, and California.
5. The Chicago police have essentially given up on the six neighborhoods in which most of the killings take place
6. The communities in those neighborhoods have given up on the police.

Shorter: thanks, Mike Madigan.