John Cohen is ABC News’ pet anti-terrorism expert. I guess there wasn’t enough terrorism this week (yet) to occupy Mr. Cohen’s attention. Either that or all the usual Chicago “more gun control is the answer” commentators were enjoying the beautiful weather when ABC needed insight into the Windy City’s staggering shooting stats (August most violent month in Chicago in nearly 20 years) and a recent high-profile crime (Chicago Bulls Star Dwayne Wade’s Cousin Shot, Killed Pushing Stroller on South Side). Here’s Mr. Cohen’s take:
Cohen attributed the violence in Chicago and other cities to three trends: 1. An increased level of confrontational gang interactions; 2. more guns being carried; 3. and local police pulling back in proactive stops.
“It’s primarily being driven by gang-related activity, and the fact that criminals in these communities believe they are less likely to be stopped by police so they are choosing to carry guns,” Cohen said. “So when a confrontation occurs it’s more likely going to turn into a shooting.”
“People are scared of being involved in a confrontation where another person has a gun and they don’t. So people in these communities are carrying guns, because their perceiving the police being less proactive in trying to find people carrying guns, Cohen said. “It’s a whole different risk question for them. … They would rather take the risk of being caught with a gun illegally than not having a gun if they’re involved in a confrontation with another gang member.”
So gang bangers are doing risk analysis and concluding it’s better to carry illegally than not, in terms of staying alive. Makes sense. But why no mention of bad guys using guns to intimidate? Because Mr. Cohen wants his audience to know that PC policing is the root cause of the recent surge in Chicago’s firearms-related death and injury toll.
And “part of the reason they feel more emboldened to carry… they are seeing they are being stopped less frequently by police.” Cohen said. “Criminals ware much more willing to carry guns because they believe they can get away with carrying those guns, because they are also seeing a decrease in police going out in the communities to contact people and get guns off the street.”
Cohen said proactive stops by police “is the primary way you deal with this type of violence.” . . .
Cohen says decreasing gang-related crime is going to take police officers’ going into those communities and aggressively targeting repeat offenders, people on parole and probation, and gang members — “those individuals who we know are involved in violent activity.”
Targeting how, exactly? Stop and frisk! Roust the bad guys. (You might even torture them.) But most importantly, take away the guns. Et voila! Unarmed gang bangers vs. unarmed gang bangers. Much better!
As if. Common sense says the best way to “target” repeat offenders is to lock them up when they’re caught the first time. The second? Third?
Truth be told, Chicago is Chiraq because the city’s in cahoots with the gangs, enabling their growth and power with a revolving door justice system. More stringent sentencing would upset the apple cart. Meanwhile, Darwin roams the streets. As he always does.