(June 09, 2014)
There were at least 29 shot in Chicago over the weekend [according to NBC Chicago] -, and some of those were fatal gun shots. Chicago had another weekend of violence. The first fatal shooting of the weekend was back on Friday afternoon. An 18-year-old was found by police in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. He was one of four that died of gun shot wounds during the weekend. NBC Chicago reported on the violent weekend on June 8..... and more chillingly .......
The shootings did not only involve civilians though. Two officers were also shot [emphasis added] over the weekend, according to NBC Chicago. Malik Shabazz has been charged with five counts of first degree murder after shooting two officers during a routine traffic stop on Friday night. The officers pulled over Shabazz around 11:30 p.m. on Friday night. When the officers stepped out of their vehicle to approach, the man opened fire on the officers. The officers returned fire, and the man and woman inside the vehicle were wounded.
One officer was wounded during the incident. A 38-year-old officer was shot in the knee, and he was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center. He will recover from his injury. The second officer at the scene took the bullet in his bullet proof vest, and he was released from the hospital after treatment. Shabazz was still in the hospital for his injuries on Sunday. The woman that was with him in the car was shot in the shoulder. She was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital for treatment.
That Chicago has become America's Shooting Gallery is not news. Apparently, the shooting of CPD officers is also not news.
Where else have you read about this?
Compare the lack of reportage of CPD shootings with the shootings of two Las Vegas officers, which as been WIDELY reported.
You might think that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel would find it significant that 30 people being shot over a weekend would NOT cause a furor in the national press.
Are the police officers in Las Vegas more important than those in Chicago? Or is it that just "business as usual" for the mayor?
Well ... yes, and no.
Nobody doubts that the mayor of Chicago would love to stop the shootings. In the first place, the people getting shot (at least, those old enough to vote, and presumably the parents of victims to young to vote) are his constituents. And in the second place, this continuous round of violence makes the mayor and his administration appear ... oh, what's the word?
Inept?
Incompetent?
More concerned with the credibility of his office, than the lives of the city of millions which he rules as The Supreme Leader?
The point is, Rahm has accepted (graciously, we're sure) the votes of The People based on his promises that he will make Chicago "A Safer Place To Live".
How's that "Hope and Change" thingie working out for you, eh?
At the risk of repeating myself:
Rahm has taken steps to cut down the number of reported shootings on the required annual report to the city. These steps haven't actually reduced the number of SHOOTINGS, but they do make the (reported) statistics look better!
. Last year, he had his Top Cops juggle the numbers of murders by reclassifying them as 'non-homicides', and other extreme measures to make the "numbers come out right" ... which means, make the number of murders seem less than in the previous years ("NOT ON MY WATCH!")
. When the Supreme Court decided that Chicago's gun-control laws (among the most stringent municipal laws in the nation), he reluctantly allowed the establishment of retail establishments where citizens could purchase firearms ... and imposed restrictions to the effect that 95% of the land area in Chicago was off-limits.
. In the same "swell foop", he imposed draconian restrictions on purchases by legal gun-buyers, including one-gun-a-month limits.
. And as a continuing exercise, he has (realistically) accepted that murders are more important than less-than-homicide Major Crimes, and Property Crimes. Which means the overworked cops that are left are working unpaid overtime (and he wonders why he can't hire more cops?), 911 responses are not only dramatically longer but often the response NEVER comes, and reports of property loss and damage are artistically rewritten by police Watch Commanders to make them seem minor, rather than something which any honest city would at least acknowledge and perhaps even solve?
In the meantime, property crime and "simple assault" rates soar, and the people feel increasingly less safe in their homes.
...
Remember the "Broken Windows" policy of New York City? When even minor vandalism is treated as a crime, then major crimes decrease.
It has not been proven to be the final answer, but it DOES have some effect on neighborhood safety. (Not least because those who engage in vandalism exhibit a tendency toward lawlessness which is encourage when the police do not response.)
Stopping minor crime isn't the answer. But it's a step in the right direction, in that it imparts a message to the neighborhood the the police DO care about the people. Often, when a resident can report a property crime, and the police react, and the crime is solved, it at least punishes the minor criminal and may dissuade him from moving on to more dreadful crimes.
"If it saves just one child" is a dreadfully overworked phrase, which doesn't negate the intention of those who want to be safe.
The mayor can NOT stop gun violence by legislating against private firearms ownership by law-abiding citizens.
Gun violence isn't about guns, it's about violence.
The first step is to curb the violence.
It's not the whole answer. But it's better than hoping people will change their evil ways.
1 comment:
It is nice to have the main stream media looking out for us. they know the Chi-town situation is distressing and so don't report it.
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