Just another day in Chicago

Chicago sure isn’t the Second City when it comes to street shootings; Dodge City is more like it.

Certainly the outburst of handgun homicides that has plagued Chicago in recent weeks puts New York’s recent surge in perspective.

Thus far, Chicago has seen 275 murders in 2012 — up 38 percent over the same period last year.

That’s 22 percent more murders than New York has experienced this year — and keep in mind that Chicago is one-third the size of Gotham.

Direct comparisons are always tricky, of course. But when it comes to causality, it’s no secret that aggressive policing can make a huge difference.


AP
Rahm Emanuel
And Chicago’s approach is decidedly more laid-back than New York’s.

It doesn’t use stop-and-frisk to counter its gang-fueled violence — but it does publicly plead with its criminals to move their crimes someplace else, so no one besides the intended victim gets hurt.

Really.

“[If] we’ve got two gangbangers, one standing next to a kid, get away from that kid,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel told CBS News.

“Take your stuff away to the alley. Don’t touch the children of the city of Chicago. Don’t get near them.”

This is what passes for crime-fighting in the Windy City?

Well, yes. That and demolishing vacant buildings that have become gang hangouts. (Other, more structurally viable buildings are just boarded up.)

Oh, Chicago does stop people on the street. But cops usually don’t frisk them in search of weapons, though they’re authorized to do so.

Instead, the Police Department fills out “contact cards,” which document incidents that “may serve a useful police purpose but do not otherwise require any written reports.”

And they include a “gang information section” — though that’s only to be filled out if the police officer “determines that the circumstances may involve gang activity.”

All this constitutes what Emanuel calls “sending a clear message to gang members.”

Alas, it doesn’t seem to be sinking in.

Again, experience shows that a strong police presence — stop-and-frisk especially — pays big dividends.

It’s a key reason why New York’ s crime levels have been so low.

And why this city’s mayors have not been reduced to begging thugs to go commit crimes where no one can see them.



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinio..._and_beg_iqx01JMxKT20iqSNqvnBiO#ixzz20MvPBaKN

 

See that's what they are doing wrong. They need to say "Hey, a benjie for every cap you pull out of state! Every mugging from another distrioct gets you a Lincoln! Even just crossing the state line (felons only) gets you a Washington!"

 

Alderman say's we're at Defcon 3, need the National Guard. Communities are living in a state of terror.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/...-community-center-devastating-ald-austin.html

Credit given where credit is due. This is a good start.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityha...-tearing-down-vacant-gang-hives-thursday.html

 

It's disgusting. But I'm really not surprised. You want Rahm at the wheel? Well, reap what you sow.

 

Close, but not quite. Martial law is a joke and basically normalizes a Military Junta inside the US. One day they're rounding up gang-bangers in Chicago, and the next, they're running internment and reeducation camps in the heartland. Not exactly what the Founders intended, eh?

Perhaps a better solution is to act within the confines of the law (since we're supposed to be a nation of laws)? How about the Feds triple or quadruple police budgets in America's most gang-ridden cities, in exchange for guarantees those cities triple/quadruple the number of police officers on the street? This is essentially what you're suggesting, except uses lawful and legal means to accomplish the same goal: heavy, HEAVY Policing.

 

Nope. Not going to work. Here in Chicago we've already done that. We keep putting more and more cops down there and nothing changes. Honestly, our police force is so stretched at this point, it's a joke. Spending more and more tax dollars on ideas that are failing is not something I support.

See, this is what people don't get. In NY when Giuliani came in and cleaned up the streets of NY, he basically just closed down the porn shops, got rid of the hookers on the streets and the drug dealers on the street corner. He was not dealing with gangs. That problem was one where simply adding police presence could solve the problem. This is not a petty crime issue. Honest to God, I don't think you people outside of Chicago get it. This is like Bosnia.

 

Chicago has ~12,500 cops, on the payroll.

Assume the average cost per additional officer (equipment, pension, management, overhead), is 160K, per year.

If we quadrupled that number to 50,000 cops on the street (37,000 additional officers), that's 6 Billion dollars a year, in "grant" money from the Federal Government. Peanuts. Chump change. Problem solved.

 

I don't think Chicago quadrupled it's police force, in the past 10 years. Overwhelming force is the answer. How could martial law work, but 4 times as many cops on the streets, not? It's the same thing. More hired guns. Think about the effect that would have. 37,000 MORE COPS working the hoods. Easy man.

 

I'm not endorsing martial law either. Seriously man, you need to think about this. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but the city of Chicago is broke. The state of IL is broke. The federal government is broke. Our police pensions in IL are so far under water that it will take 150 years to make them whole. And you want to add 37k more cops to our broke under funded police pension? I'll tell you what, you do that after I leave Chicago so I don't have to pay for this.

 

Solution within the law? That's the rub. We have a problem, and not a small one. There's no way to clean this up legally. There are too many of them, (gangs), they're too well armed, completely indifferent to any rational conversation, fearless at this point, the value of life has absolutely no meaning to them, they're making a shitload of money, and the law is on their side. That law being we just can't send a cop, or a military man in and just start smoking them where they stand. However, that's just what it's going to take. There just isn't an easy way out of this. It's gone too far. We've past the tipping point.