I’ve been saying for some time that we’re seeing a low intensity rebellion against the civil authorities. We see it every weekend here in Chicago in the body count on the South and West Sides. What I believe is happening is that alternative governments are being established and they’re contending for power both among each other and with the civil authorities.
I sincerely hope that we’re not seeing the beginning of a more general rebellion against republican government in the aftermath of the election. Make no mistake: if you rebel against republican government you’re rising in support of authoritarianism. In a country as large and diverse as ours those are the alternatives.
I think that there is something more going on in Chicago than just gang violence, and I think there is corruption in the police department regarding the drug trade. Either rogue units or precincts are dirty, and my guess is that the violence is not random or even on all sides.
I would be interested to know the stories the people in those neighborhoods can tell – not as witnesses but for background information. I suspect that their is either police abuse or police absence. The police are either providing security or are running the drugs themselves, or they have designated those neighborhoods as “no-go zones” where they only respond to calls. (It could be unofficially if the officers just do not patrol there.)
Back in the 1980’s, New Orleans had ongoing gang wars, and it turned out that NOPD was involved. It was not the whole department, but not a lot of citizens were filing complaints because it could get a contract put out on you (quite real).
In my parish (county), the Sheriff had a “goon squad” (my phrase for his drug and gang unit), and he found some of them were involved with the drug trade. It was more than a few, and he determined that the number was enough to taint the entire unit. The appropriate discipline or arrests were made, but he also disbanded the entire unit because, he felt, the public could not trust them.
@Tastybits, Dave is better informed than me, but part of what stands out is that there about 3 neighborhoods where a majority of the shootings are happening. Also, the more dangerous the neighborhood, the younger the officers.
Take a look at the invaluable site Hey, Jackass which I believe to be run by a Chicago police officer, for info on Chicago homicides. A quarter of all of the homicides year-to-date have taken place in just two neighborhoods: Austin on the West Side and Englewood on the South Side. The neighborhood accounting for the next highest number of homicides, a little more than half the number of Austin or Englewood, is Garfield Park on the West Side.