The Chicago Police Department worked hard over the Independence Day extended holiday weekend. Their bosses told them to put a lid on the all-too-well-known violence in America’s largest open-air shooting gallery. Sadly, their efforts failed. Despite canceling days off, paying a ton of overtime and mandating work for their corps of cops, violence over the holiday weekend exploded. Chicago’s generations of strict gun control failed to make it a crime-free utopia once more.
Preparations for the holiday began weeks in advance. Just as the weekend kicked off, Mayor Rahm’s top cop talked tough. From US News & World Report:
CHICAGO (AP) — After a month in which nearly 15 people were shot every day, Chicago Police announced a July 4 weekend show of force that will include thousands more officers on the streets, officers toting high-powered weapons at airports and teams of officers patrolling the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods, tourist attractions, train stations and parks.
“I’m sick and tired and I know that the people living in those communities are tired of it (the gun violence),” said Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Friday. “If it takes 5,000 officers over the weekend, then it takes that.”
…”We are making it abundantly clear that we will not tolerate violence in our neighborhoods,” he said.
Apparently, Superintendent Johnson failed to make it abundantly clear enough to Chicago’s criminal class. They didn’t give a damn about his edicts. Instead, according to HeyJackass.com, they more than doubled last year’s body count with 15 dead. Tw0-thirds more people accrued (non-fatal) perforations over last year, according to HeyJackass with 89 people shot (101 per the Chicago Sun-Times).
Keep in mind that in 2014, 54% of American counties did not have a single homicide. Chicago – just one city in Cook County, Illinois – had 15 in one holiday weekend. Yes, gun rights activists, with the help of the courts, have succeeded in loosening Chicago’s strict gun control in the past few years. However, decades of an entrenched gun control mindset doesn’t change overnight.
The FBI had a hand in contributing to the “illegal” gun problem in Chicago over the weekend as well. An FBI agent who left his Chevy Equinox running as he fueled it “momentarily” walked away. That did not end well for him.
Police say a 17-year-old hopped in and took it for a drive, leaving the G-man flat-footed and red-faced. Second City Cop reported that the kid got away with not only a full tank of gas in the SUV, but also an M4, a GLOCK 17, a GLOCK 22, a GLOCK 27 and not one, but two sets of body armor.
Cops found the car after someone issued it a parking ticket. They eventually found the offender, but made no mention of recovering the guns. Which likely means they didn’t recover them.
Rahm’s Mogadishu on Lake Michigan has a long way to go before its residents can live in anything resembling peace and tranquility. Continued efforts to inflict failed gun control upon them will not help.