Chicago carnage: 500 murders

Chicago has won the race nobody wants to win. In one bloody weekend, the windy city has recorded its 500th murder.

While the murder rate is lower than it was last year, that’s no comfort to the ten people killed last weekend, including three gang members shot with a high-powered rifle, and two pregnant women. More people are killed every month in Chicago than U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2015.

Perspectives

2 Pregnant Women Shot in Chicago in Less Than 36 Hours – NBC Chicago

A pregnant woman was injured in a shooting on Chicago’s South Side early Saturday, according to police, the second pregnant woman shot in less than 36 hours of violence across the city.

A woman expecting a child was one of four people found dead in a vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood Friday night.

As violence persists, CPD murder ‘clearance rate’ continues to slide | Chicago Sun-Times

Seven months into 2017, the city’s police department had “cleared” fewer than 20 percent of murder investigations involving homicides that had taken place since Jan. 1, adding to a recent dip amid a decades-long trend of unsolved homicides in the city, according to the police data studied by crime analyst Jeff Asher.

A homicide is considered cleared when an offender is arrested, charges are filed, or when the suspect is dead or has fled the country. Asher’s figures are based on cases closed in the same calendar year in which they occurred.

Chicago marks 500th homicide of the year: ‘It’s never over’ – Chicago Tribune

A 20-year-old man became the 500th homicide victim in Chicago on Sept. 17, 2017, when he was shot at the intersection of West 24th Street and South Western Avenue. The shooting victim was later pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital

Karen Leahy, who lives down the street, had just driven through the intersection from shopping at a local grocery store. She was stunned to find out that she had missed the shooting by a few minutes.

“I’m freaking out because I just went through here,” she said.

 Reactions

If you're ever perplexed about the violence in #Chicago, it's always helpful to remember, @BarackObama was the #CommunityOrganizer there🤔

— David Higgins (@dhiggins63) September 18, 2017

Guys, what's going on in #Chicago? 500 homicides in 9.5 months is way too many. Not sure how to stop this violence…

— Beth Hart (@Hart_Beth) September 18, 2017

Final thoughts

It’s really unconscionable that a city like Chicago, with some of the strictest gun laws in America, can’t keep gang members from self-destructing in spasms of violence. Perhaps Mayor Rahm Emanuel should talk to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani about the best way to clean up his city. President Trump may be correct: sending in the feds might be just what Chicago needs to stem a flood of violence unseen since Prohibition.