Chicago's Holiday Toll Was 82 Shootings, 14 Deaths

[cosmicalstorm]

Wow how is this possible

The spree of shootings in Chicago during the long holiday weekend reached 82 incidents and included 14 deaths, according to a tabulation of police reports.

That number marks a significant jump from the same period last year, despite an increase of "hundreds" of officers on the street to prevent violence.

"It’s groundhog day here in Chicago again," Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said this morning, in an apparent reference to repeated spasms of violence in the city.

Of the 14 fatalities, two were shot dead by police.

More Than 60 Shot, 9 Dead in Chicago's Bloody Holiday Weekend

The Chicago police department released different statistics claiming the weekend saw 50 shootings that included nine fatalities.

The difference in the statistics is the difference in the time frame. Chicago police figures spanned a period from 6 p.m. Thursday as the long holiday weekend began to midnight Sunday. Figures calculated by ABC News' affiliate WLS began at 4 p.m. Thursday to 3:30 a.m. Monday and totaled 82 shootings.

The violent weekend ended with a barrage of 21 shootings on Sunday, McCarthy said.

McCarthy said in a press conference today that the department had deployed "hundreds" more officers over the weekend in anticipation of holiday violence.

"The results were a lot of shootings and a lot of murders unfortunately," he said. "Yesterday was the day that really blew it up for us in our strategy."

"It all comes down to these guns: there's too many guns coming in and too little punishment going out," McCarthy said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel put out a statement Monday afternoon calling the violence "simply unacceptable" and said that it "points out that we still have work to do".

"This violence is unacceptable wherever it occurs in our city and all of us need to take a stand. The only way we will meet this challenge to our future is to join with one another and create a partnership for peace," he said.

McCarthy, who served as a deputy commissioner for the New York police department and then headed the Newark, N.J., police department before taking over Chicago's squad, placed much of the blame on lax gun laws, citing unenforced punishments for illegal gun possession.

"Everyone asks me what the difference is between New York and Chicago and I can tell you quite simply: proliferation of firearms," he said today.

"There's a greater sanction for the gang members to lose that firearm from their gang than there is to go to jail," he said.

He said that during a chase, suspects in New York and Newark would throw away their weapons, but in Chicago they keep them and sometimes fire at police.

McCarthy said that gang members may face "severe beatings" and financial punishment from their gangs if they lose a weapon.

"Possession of a loaded firearm is not even considered a violent felony in state of Illinois," he added.

McCarthy said that the police department's records show 185 people have been murdered in Chicago this year, as compared to 196 who had been killed by this point last year- which marks a 6 percent drop.

A spike in homicides came in 2012 when the city's murder rate jumped from 431 in 2011 to 500, according to Uniform Crime Reports. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made combating gun violence one of his top priorities since being elected in 2011, and the murder rate dropped again in 2013 to 440 deaths.

Fourth of July weekend has been particularly violent in the past as well. ABC News affiliate WLS reported that 12 people were killed and 75 were injured during the same weekend last year, though that spanned more time since the national holiday fell on a Thursday in 2013 as opposed to a Friday this year.

At today's press conference, McCarthy said that "we had the same level of shootings as we did last year, which is unacceptable."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/chicagos-holid ... d=24452637

[Grumman]

"Possession of a loaded firearm is not even considered a violent felony in state of Illinois," he added.

Would somebody buy these idiots a dictionary?

[Sea Skimmer]

With a gang on every city block fighting for the next street corner to sell drugs on this is very possible, the murders are massively concentrated in young black male populations. Some areas of the city have ten times the murder rate of others, and IIRC 85% of everyone murdered by any cause is male. Its almost like the war on drugs made a real war right?

But like it says this is actually a slight drop from last year so far, and a huge drop from the record highs of the early 1990s, more then 50% reduction, as is the case in almost all US cities. A lot of people put that on the phase out of leaded gasoline.

[Highlord Laan]

From other reports I've read, Chicago sometimes gets called "Chiraq" for a reason.

[aerius]

What's the status on Chicago's gun ban these days?
Last I heard it was declared unconstitutional or something but there was still an appeals process to go through before things were finalized.

[Zaune]

Kind of academic if they can't enforce it.

[Sea Skimmer]

What's the status on Chicago's gun ban these days?
Last I heard it was declared unconstitutional or something but there was still an appeals process to go through before things were finalized.

The supreme court full stop said the ban was unconstitutional in 2010. No appeals to that, however they were given years to draft actual regulations on what a not ban would mean. Then Chicago went and declared a ban on all firearms transfers within the city or to any residents to prevent anyone from exercising the rights the supreme court had upheld that same year. That ban in turn has now been ruled illegal by a federal judge but Chicago appealed it as of early 2014. The local government is so massively corrupt they don't even believe they'll actually have to comply with US law at this level and obviousness.

[cosmicalstorm]

I doubt a gun-ban will do much good, it seems to be a problem with large minority groups + dysfunctional culture + drugs + lack of unskilled jobs = Robocop?

The Onion take on it

Environmental Study Finds Air In Chicago Now 75% Bullets

CHICAGO—Highlighting increasingly dangerous conditions within the city, a new study published Monday by Northwestern University’s Department of Environmental Studies revealed that approximately 75 percent of the air in Chicago is now composed of bullets. “Far exceeding the levels of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and even oxygen, bullets now constitute three-fourths of Chicago’s air supply,” said atmospheric scientist and study coauthor John Molina, stressing that the dense and widespread deposits of jacketed lead and copper in the air pose severe and potentially fatal health risks to all Chicago residents. “According to our measurements, the proportion of bullets in Chicago’s overall air composition is significantly higher than that of other cities with comparable sizes and population densities. Frankly, if this trend continues—and there is unfortunately little evidence suggesting otherwise—living safely within the confines of Chicago will be almost impossible.” Molina went on to suggest that Chicago’s 2.7 million residents stay indoors whenever possible in order to minimize their exposure.

[Steel]

I find it interesting that the article mentions how heavily gang members will be punished for losing a firearm. Why would this be the case if criminals acquiring illegal firearms is as trivial as people say when opposing gun control?

[Broomstick]

Wow how is this possible

Entrenched poverty where the only employment opportunities are gangs and drug lords. Those gangs are violent and defend their territory with guns. They don't give a fuck about collateral damage, in fact, they are probably are happy if it keeps the locals in line, cowed, and afraid to go to the police for help. None of these men expect to live long, so they fuck and fight and have their kids young, as do their women, which just keeps the poverty cycle going. Their lives are miserable and they have no hope of a better future they use drugs to feel better, which just helps to fuel the gangs and makes locals invested in maintaining the gangs because that's where they get their drugs. Those who are anti-drug tend to flock to churches (in such neighborhoods the only businesses are usually liquor stores and storefront churches) which all too often expect Jesus to ride in and save people instead of teaching them to save themselves, and in some of them, religion fulfills the same role as drugs do outside on the streets - it makes people feel better without actually doing a damn thing other than taking their money.

While I agree that firearms allow a level of deadly violence other weapons are unlikely to provide, the ROOT problem is not guns - I live in a state with some of the looser gun laws in the US (which is saying something), I am within walking, or at least biking, distance of two gun stores, the local big box stores (most of them) sell ammunition, and it's not that unusual to actually see guns in daily life. Yet we do not have the bloodbath Chicago does. Yes, we do have gun murderers and accidents, drugs and crime, and pockets of multi-generational poverty. We most certainly still have racial bigotry and both the largest city in the county and Lake County as a whole has a lot less money to deal with anything than the City of Chicago does. We have fewer police. We have less money for schools, infrastructure and its repairs, and everything else. Yet while we do have violence we don't have either the actual number of shootings or even as high a percentage of shootings. We're only 15 km from Chicago here, what's the difference?

If you want to bring the gun crime down you have to find that difference and fix what the problem is.

My personal take is that some of it is the legacy of decades of corrupt Chicago politics and arrogance (the overturning of the gun ban is hardly the first time the city has defied the Federal government), the legacy of racial inequality, and in some neighborhoods (as I noted) the lack of opportunity to make an honest, peaceful living.

[Darth Mall]

People also forget that Chicago is a huge city- 3rd largest in the country. When you look at rates by a per capita rate, Chicago is no where near number 1.

Also the vast majority is gang on gang, in rather restricted areas. Not that this is a good thing, but it means the average person in Chicago is unlikely to be shot..

[Broomstick]

Yes, it's mostly in gang-infested neighborhoods, but a major problem is that it's not just gangsters who are victims.

We had two women shot at going down one of the major freeways, one of whom was killed. We have kids killed inside their own homes from gunfire outside. People shot passing through a gang's turf for no more reason than they aren't a member of the gang or any gang. Sometimes, it seems these assholes shoot everyone around them BUT their intended target.

It's not that it's unsafe to be in a gang, it's unsafe to be anywhere NEAR a gang.

And so what if Chicago isn't number one for murder in the US? It's per capita murder rate is way, way higher than other comparable cities outside of warzones.

[Simon_Jester]

I find it interesting that the article mentions how heavily gang members will be punished for losing a firearm. Why would this be the case if criminals acquiring illegal firearms is as trivial as people say when opposing gun control?

Because the people in these communities are very, very poor? And the gangsters, in addition to being poor, are overwhelmingly young, violent, angry man-boys who are willing to beat and kill over relatively small sums of money?

I mean, if a gun costs fifty dollars for a thug to obtain, then that's pretty damn easy to obtain compared to the amount of harm the thug can do with the gun. But at the same time, the same thug might be very willing to beat or even kill someone who takes away a fifty dollar item from them.

...

While I agree that firearms allow a level of deadly violence other weapons are unlikely to provide, the ROOT problem is not guns - I live in a state with some of the looser gun laws in the US (which is saying something), I am within walking, or at least biking, distance of two gun stores, the local big box stores (most of them) sell ammunition, and it's not that unusual to actually see guns in daily life. Yet we do not have the bloodbath Chicago does. Yes, we do have gun murderers and accidents, drugs and crime, and pockets of multi-generational poverty. We most certainly still have racial bigotry and both the largest city in the county and Lake County as a whole has a lot less money to deal with anything than the City of Chicago does. We have fewer police. We have less money for schools, infrastructure and its repairs, and everything else. Yet while we do have violence we don't have either the actual number of shootings or even as high a percentage of shootings. We're only 15 km from Chicago here, what's the difference?

If you want to bring the gun crime down you have to find that difference and fix what the problem is.

My personal take is that some of it is the legacy of decades of corrupt Chicago politics and arrogance (the overturning of the gun ban is hardly the first time the city has defied the Federal government), the legacy of racial inequality, and in some neighborhoods (as I noted) the lack of opportunity to make an honest, peaceful living.

One issue with a corrupt government is that even if it doesn't actively screw up the gang-infested parts of the city, it has no real incentive to fix them, because everything it does it does out of "what's in it for me" motives.

This is why Third World kleptocracies create the conditions for the rise of Third World warlords.

[Steel]

I find it interesting that the article mentions how heavily gang members will be punished for losing a firearm. Why would this be the case if criminals acquiring illegal firearms is as trivial as people say when opposing gun control?

Because the people in these communities are very, very poor? And the gangsters, in addition to being poor, are overwhelmingly young, violent, angry man-boys who are willing to beat and kill over relatively small sums of money?

I mean, if a gun costs fifty dollars for a thug to obtain, then that's pretty damn easy to obtain compared to the amount of harm the thug can do with the gun. But at the same time, the same thug might be very willing to beat or even kill someone who takes away a fifty dollar item from them.

Conjecture is nice, and we can construct many, but I am interested in getting some real evidence on this topic. Is the tossing/not tossing used firearms purely a 'cultural' thing? Is there an economic necessity component at all? Has there been any effect on prices from controls? How expensive actually are guns relative to these people's incomes?

I mean, if gun control can never remove all guns from criminals BUT makes guns so expensive that a whole gang can only afford to have a shootout once a year, then has gun control done some work?

[Simon_Jester]

In that environment, surely it has.

Unfortunately, aside from the work of Sudhir Venkatesh, I know of no one who's been able to analyze this issue; it's tricky to do accurate studies of the affairs of criminals.

[General Zod]

I mean, if gun control can never remove all guns from criminals BUT makes guns so expensive that a whole gang can only afford to have a shootout once a year, then has gun control done some work?

Who says we need to control guns? Why not just restrict ammo purchases? Nothing in the 2nd amendment says we can't restrict ammunition.

[Beowulf]

I mean, if gun control can never remove all guns from criminals BUT makes guns so expensive that a whole gang can only afford to have a shootout once a year, then has gun control done some work?

Who says we need to control guns? Why not just restrict ammo purchases? Nothing in the 2nd amendment says we can't restrict ammunition.

Just like nothing in the 1st amendment says we can't restrict ink.