A violent Christmas in a violent year for Chicago: 11 killed, 50 wounded

[yallerdawg]

Source: Chicago Tribune, by Peter Nickeas, Megan Crepeau and Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas

*****

A total of 61 people were shot in the city during the holiday weekend and 11 of them died of their wounds, according to data kept by the Tribune. Seven people were killed on Christmas Day alone, more than on the holiday the past three years combined. Three people were killed in 2015, one in 2014, and two in 2013.

The number of people shot over the holiday weekend also sharply outpaced recent years. During the Christmas weekend in 2015, 29 people were shot and seven of them died. In 2014, when Christmas fell on a Thursday, the four-day weekend included 35 people shot and seven people killed, according to Tribune data.

This past weekend's toll pushed the total number of people shot in Chicago this year to more than 4,300 and the number of homicides to around 770. Last year, there were 2,989 shooting victims and 492 homicides.

*****

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said 90 percent of those killed during the weekend "had gang affiliations, criminal histories and were pre-identified by the department's strategic subject algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim of gun violence."

*****

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-christmas-shootings-violence-47-shot-holiday-weekend-20161226-story.html

America has a solution.

"Buy more guns!"

[Charles Bukowski]

1. NY and LA 12+ million people

Yet they had fewer combined homicides than Chicago (2.7 million).

That's just mind-boggling.

[cwydro]

2. No one seems to care about this sort of violence here on DU.

Really an interesting oddity.

[yallerdawg]

4. Guns and unions.

It is odd.

[jmg257]

3. "...90%...had gang affiliations criminal histories and were pre-identified..."

Wow - you think the judicial and legislators in Chicago would come up with better ways to deal with the people they KNOW will be responsible for this violence (and victims of it).

<1400 people in a city of 2.7 million are responsible for 80-90% of the violence...AND THE POLICE KNOW WHO THEY ARE! There on a frigging list!

[citood]

5. I live in a much smaller town (Topeka, KS)

But one day, facing budget cuts, the police chief spoke in front of the city council. He rattled off stats about the known 'bad actors' in town - how many were presently in jail or prison, how many were on parole, how many were free, how many were unaccounted for. He then gave stats about their geographic locations throughout the city.

I got the distinct impression that he knew exactly where 90% of the troublemakers in town were. Sadly, the police chief can't control the courts, prison over-crowding, etc. I suspect it is similar in Chicago.

[HoneyBadger]

7. profiling not allowed

what happened to stop and frisk in NY?

[jmg257]

10. Not a profiling issue - it is past history; they already KNOW the perps by NAME. nt

[HoneyBadger]

6. You ever see the Untouchables

Where Costner is the new kid and Connery explains that they know where all the crime is, you just have to be off the take and willing to stick your neck out

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Being A Chicagoland Native. . .

. . .i find it distressing that Chicago is seen as Dodge City or Tombstone today. And yet, if it's bad guys killing bad guys (for the most part) i can sort of see the human nature of cops thinking they should just let the bad guys sort it all out.

The worst part, of course, is there are innocent by-standers, like Dwayne Wade's sister. It's not all bad guys, but with this many guns, and so many bullets per gun, not sure what anybody can really do.

(Well, aside from removing the profit motive of the drug trade by stopping the WOD.)

[yallerdawg]

9. In a country that worships "the gun"...

it's very hard to have double standards.

Unless, of course, you are black, confronted by the police, have or suspected to have a gun or similar shaped object or any shaped object or even imaginary object possibly somewhere in the area.

Then we see the "right to keep and bear arms" disappear in a hurry.