NBC’s Chicago P.D. television show draws lots of viewers each week (for a network series, anyway). Like just about every other cop show, detectives and beat cops work together, in the Windy City, of course, to solve homicides. Every week the brave good guys and gals get their man, or woman. Yet here in the real world . . .
Chicago’s streets run red with the blood — just like on the TV show. In fact, Murder City USA saw 812 homicide victims and thousands more wounded in 2016.
Unfortunately, real-world cops identified suspects in just 20 percent of those homicides. Keep in mind cops didn’t arrest and convict suspects in all those cases. They merely fingered a suspect.
This year, Chicago’s finest have suspects in barely 10 percent of homicides in the first two months. That number plummets to an anemic 6.1 percent if one factors out the police-involved fatal shootings and the lone justifiable homicide so far this year.
Even when police manage to ID suspects, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office doesn’t always prosecute them. In 2012, 94 percent of non-fatal shootings saw no prosecution. Why? Because the SA’s office wants cops to find an eye-witness willing to testify.
Like that’s going to happen.
Residents tend to keep quiet, unwilling to risk their lives to testify against dangerous criminals. Police offers of protection in the form of some cash to move to another neighborhood mean little.
People know gangs in Chicago enforce the “no snitch” culture. One witness took such a deal to testify in a high profile case in 2012. She moved to a new neighborhood. The gangs found her. They shot her 20 times, including three rounds to the face. She never made it to the witness stand.
Finding cooperative witnesses is even harder when today’s victims become tomorrow’s suspects.
Unsolved and unprosecuted violent crimes contributes to the public’s “no confidence” vote in the criminal justice system. Residents vote with their feet in turning away from helping cops solve crimes. The gangs see this and become further emboldened.
Of course, the cycle just continues to worsen. Innocents get caught up in the crossfire between gang members shooting it out on a regular basis.
How bad is it? Watch this video of the gunfire, posted by some Chicago cops. Note where they parked to record the mayhem back in early December 2016. There’s a reason we say Chicago is America’s largest open-air shooting range.
Until and unless local residents stand up to the violent gangs and help police root them out of the city, nothing will change.
Can’t say I’m surprised.
It’s so bad I’m actually surprised there isn’t more ‘thrill kill’ tourism by nutcases across the country. I mean, if I *had* to kill a guy in cold blood, I’d probably want to do it some place where it would almost certainly be lost in the shuffle.
Although, didn’t we the rate was like 10% in “safe place” NYC? Sounds like murder is simply easy to get away with in already high-crime/high-population areas (go figure)
I’m not surprised either.
If something like 80% of Chicago homicides is gang on gang violence why would the police interfere with the gangs doing their job for them?
The question that has to be answered is which of the homicides constitute the 6% or so in which suspects are identified an/or apprehended? Are they part of the 20% that is non gang related? If so that wouldn’t seem quite so bad.
As for thrill-seeking CCW holders (I doubt there are really that many, mostly we just want to be left alone), if they really existed they would be making forays into these neighborhoods, visiting the clubs and bars, and taking out the provoked homies just for sport. Perhaps the Chicago tourism council should be looking into this?
That’s about the ugliest group of hookers I’ve ever seen loafing on a corner.
“That’ll be 20$ for a stop-n-frisk, 50$ for the habeus corpus, and 100$ for a detailed deposition”
You win the interwebz???All those NBC Chicago shows(4?)are complete and utter BS…
“Utter BS” is an understatement. One episode of Chicago PD shows the protagonists trying to find out who is behind an influx of steel tipped 5.56 rounds that shoot through 3 brick walls and a car engine block lol. They also dub .22lr as the “assassin’s bullet” and other utter nonsense. Oh and all of the “intelligence” department has full auto weapons.
I liked the slush fund of hundreds of thousands of bucks, which apparently lost their way between the drug dealers and the evidence locker. I considered that quite believable.
Watching that video, listening really…. I can’t imagine. It does sound like war.
‘Chiraq’
That truly is shocking. Never imagined how entirely screwed up that city is.
At my former residence, before I moved to Vegas, if the wind was right I could frequently hear gunfire far into the night, often full-auto.
Of course, I was down-wind from Fort Lewis, Washington, so the sound of U.S. Army Infantry practicing was actually comforting, not like this crap in my home town of Chicago. Left there 48 years ago. Haven’t missed it.
Why would you help the cops if they can’t defend you and they won’t let you defend yourself?
Nope. There’s no assurance that people this incompetent and slothful will show any gratitude.
This is utter incompetence and sloth.
Fire them all. The CPD at this rate is an expensive liability. Fire them all, allow the citizens to pack guns, and call it done. “Vigilante” justice would have a higher closure rate than this.
pro-RKBA people need to memory these facts about PD’s in large urban areas, and trot them out for the consumption of the pearl-clutching women who are stamping their fashionably shod feet, demanding attention. When laid out for the public to see, almost no one but those rich enough to hire private security will tolerate the idea of their PD having this level of epic sloth and incompetence. The thing is, with many of these urban area PD’s, there is no mechanism to force them to improve other than to fire them. The unions have cut a pretty good deal.
I’d start with the prosecutor’s office first.
lol and, aside from firing the cops, what exactly do you suggest to help the homicide rate?
Sorry, “do a better job” is worthless. Because while some of problems do involve cops lessening proactive policing (thank the ALCU and Rahm for that) most of the issues are community based.
Also I’d point out that cops do stuff aside from solving homicides. People still call the cops when someone is breaking into their house, for example. And In case you haven’t been paying attention, you can own and get a permit to carry a gun there, if that’s your bag.
You can get a permit to carry in Cook County? Ha! Next you’re gonna tell me you can do the same in Hawaii….
Illinois is a shall issue state. You jump through the hoops you get the permit. It is expensive but if you want one you pay the fees and get one
I’d go with fire all the city politicians, probably a good number of state ones too, maybe a good portion of the PD admin… I garuntee you police themselves could make a damn good dent in the crime rate there if their hands weren’t tied. And also, a vigilante system in a place like Chicago wouldn’t look much different from what it does now. The gangs would simply get even stronger as they would over power the weak and ignorant populace who would welcome them as liberators from the “oppressive police.”
I’d go with constant, forced relocation of all prisoners & gang-affiliated ex-cons for several years to multiple urban centers around the country. That kind of trauma to distribution & power networks would bring this problem back down to a very local level. Failing that, recognize the reality of things, give the gangs Tribal Status, and designate their fetid shitholes as quasi-independent reservations.
Exporting the problems will only spread the issue around. Besides that where exactly would be a magic place to send them?
“Besides that where exactly would be a magic place to send them?”
Mogadishu comes to mind.
Mogadishu? Please. I was thinking the bottom of Lake Michigan.
What do you think gang violence is if not “vigilante justice?” This is what it looks like; groups forming in the absence of meaningful governing authority, illicit economy popping up in the absence of legitimate employment, and in the absence of court & the rule of law, assassinations and street violence to settle scores. Illegal or not, I’d wager the vast, vast majority of these killings are committed for a reason, as opposed to someone’s cheap thrills (btw killing to impress and maintain your power is a very real thing in the jungle, so that is also a real reason in an anarchic environment)
“What do you think gang violence is if not ‘vigilante justice?'”
Nah. A vigilante is “a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate.”
Gangs are not undertaking law enforcement. It’s just gang warfare.
Wow, anyone who would be willing to expand the energy and riskto form a group and take up arms against the gangs would more likely just move.
If you honestly think that gang-on-gang, with innocent bystanders, is the same as a vigilante action…. well, there’s part of our problem right there.
You are vaguely right. It isn’t vigilante justice as much as self organization when the rule of law collapses. It is what anarchy looks like. This is what the faux Libertarian Utopia looks like.
Any person who testifies against a gang member would be dead within a few days. The Law of The Jungle Rules the Jungle. Blame it on rude cops, if you want, but it’s fear and cowardice that are to blame.
Identification and prosecutions of murderers will continue to plummet, which will further embolden the thugs and create additional increases in violence until the big blue cities are like Caracas Venezuela.
The 21st Century will be the bloodiest on record.
Or until we send in the Marines and deal with this properly. Round up all the gangbangers line them up against a wall and put a bullet in the back of their heads. It’s not rocket science.
Sending in the military would be unconstitutional. Declaring Chicago a free-fire zone, murders will not be investigated, the police are on a 6-month unpaid vacation, would not be unconstitutional, and offering a bounty for tattooed skin or pierced pieces would not be, either.
The gangs are forming their own governments and we won’t like what they come up with. They have money,arms, power, and huge numbers.
It won’t be confined to the big blue cities either. Coming soon to a small town near you. Just look at mexico.
Nope. The cartels get massive support, at the regional and national levels, from the military. Plus most cartel gunmen are ex Mexican soldiers. Hell, they even give you a cash bonus if you desert and bring your own automatic rifle.
Better to just takeoff and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
I still don’t see the problem. Let the gangs bump each other off. The death of a gangster probably prevents ten thousand crimes, and their coffins are cheaper than their prison cells.
The problem is that large numbers of innocents (including small children) are frequently hit by stray rounds, often fatally. But I’d be all for a state-sponsored combat handgun marksmanship program in the ghettos. I tend to agree; if they gang bangers eanna slaughter each other by the truckload, let’s let them and help them!
My problem is that I believe not all gangbangers are created equal. To me the prohibition economies created and enforced in places like chicago create a hothouse environment for Bullies to grow into full trained Blood Predators. Due to their status they “draw” often times with threats of violence to those who resist, others into the life.
Get rid of the “innate” blood predators and the gangs lose much of their power.
You hear many people complaining about the Child soldiers of africa.. while chicago enrolls and spends the lives of their own, in battles over turf and logistic chains. Drugs, guns, sex trade, what ever prohibition economy you name it the fight over the profits.
How do you know it isn’t going on? With such an abysmal clearance rate, there may very well be “Hostel-esque” things going on, but there is no way to know for certain. With no “usual suspects” to question it would be even less likely that the cops would solve it.
Don’t know for sure (maybe some compugeek can tell) but I do not think that the date given for that video is correct. I believe it was recorded at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
1) Do not know about other cities but in Chicago shooting guns into the air is traditional at Midnight on New Year’s eve.
2) This was filmed from under an overpass. That is where cops frequently park on New Year’s eve to protect themselves from descending bullets.
2) There is a pattern to the sound of the shooting of guns on New Year’s eve and this vid clip matches it. Source: Me I live on the South side of Chicago and have for over 25 years.
Again I do not know for sure but I do question the date.
NukemJim
PS Yes the shooting into the air was worse last New Year’s eve than for a very long time. Purely subjective of course.
Of course, it’s tough to stand up to the heavily armed gangs when you yourself are such a raging coward that the mere sight of a .22 sends you into a panic attack, and when you elect politicians who suffer from the same ailment.
The parents have some of the blame when a kid gets hit. Most of the time a parent is the target. If they want to move out of the thug life, they can move out of the city. They choose not to and thier children suffer a like fate.
Too simplistic.
Do you have the resources to move to a neighborhood that is an economic class step above the one you live in?
If your car breaks down will it affect your keeping your job?
If you consider yourself middle class then can you move to an upper class neighborhood? Can you afford private school if necessary? If you can afford the mortgage do you have the down payment? Did you have a house to sell? Were you renting? Do you have equity in that house so that it covers your down payment? To qualify for that loan how long have you been on your job? Do you have debt that prevents you from qualifying? Do you have large student loans? Is your credit score above average? Will your parents lend you $25,000 or $50,000 for a down payment?
Would you feel comfortable in that upper class neighborhood? Is your English pristine? Are your cars “appropriate”? Do you have furnishings that fit that home?
How’s your health insurance? How much money are you putting away for your kids college per month?
With all due respect. Would you want that family to move in next to you?
Why would Democrats imprison more of their voters?
Ding, ding, ding.
Say the magic words, the duck flies down, and you win $100.
“Ahh, Groucho!”, “Ahh, Cisco!”
The police were pulled from certain neighborhoods due to funding cuts (the $$$ was funneled to Rahm’s cronies in the Chicago Loop via TIF abuse). Then the gangs went nuts. The only fix now that will work for gangs nationwide is to attack them with a modernized version of the RICO Act: if you’re a member of one of these domestic terrorist groups, then it’s life in prison for you. Wearing a gangster tattoo would be enough to get you sent to jail.
Trump has said he’s going to send the troops in.. let’s see where he goes with that. The status quo is unacceptable.
One thing Trump could do is direct the US attorney to prosecute gang-connected gun crimes in federal court.
I don’t think Trump said anything about sending troops in, and either that *or* trying punks in Federal court and sending them to federal prisons is a fine way to transfer taxpayer money from Texas, Virginia, or Florida directly into the pockets of Rahm Emmanuel. Don’t be a sucker.
Actually I think sending troops in is the wrong move.. take those kids arrested and send them through marine boot camp, if that doesn’t work send them through army boot camp, then try the navy. If that doesn’t work have them spend their time in leavenworth as guerilla combatants.
When the troops get home the gang-leaders will end.
My other is to simply arm every grand-parent in chicago that is receiving food stamps with a cheap snubnosed .38, three weeks training and three speed loaders.
As a grandpa my self I know what I’m saying.