Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Chicago, guns, and reality


Fourteen people were shot in fifteen hours in Chicago at the start of last weekend, leading to another (predictable) outburst from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Six people were killed and at least eight people were wounded, including an 11-month-old boy and a 2-year-old boy, during a bloody start to the week in Chicago that saw 10 of the victims shot at two scenes less than 3 miles apart on the South Side.

. . .

The burst of violence follows two straight weekends when more than 50 people were shot in Chicago. That's the first time that has happened on back-to-back weekends over the four years the Tribune has been tracking shootings. In August, more than 40 were shot on four consecutive weekends.

So far this year, at least 2,300 people have been shot in Chicago, about 400 more than during the same period last year, according to a Tribune analysis. Through Sunday, homicides have risen to 359, up 21 percent from 296 a year earlier, according to preliminary data from Chicago police.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday addressed the shooting in Back of the Yards, saying he was angry and “enough is enough.”

As he often does, Emanuel railed against the poor values of gangbangers. “Wherever you live, you should be able to get out of your car and go to your home,” said Emanuel, who attended the opening of a renovated Red Line CTA station at Clark and Division streets.

The mayor then returned to his oft-repeated themes of making all Chicago neighborhoods equally safe and calling for tougher penalties for crimes involving guns.

“You can say this happened in the neighborhood of the Back of the Yards, but everybody (who) woke up this morning, or heard it last night, felt a pain of anguish, and it’s time that our criminal justice system and the laws as it relates to access to guns and the penalties for using 'em reflect the values of the people of the city of Chicago,” Emanuel said.

There's more at the link.

My question to Hizzoner:  When your city tolerates over fifty gunshot victims in a weekend, and an average of well over eight persons shot every single day this year (so far) . . . are you really sure you want your "criminal justice system and ... laws" concerning guns to "reflect the values of the people of the city of Chicago"?  Sounds to me as if those values are pretty damn low, and pretty damn lethal.  I'd want a much higher standard than that, thank you very much!

Peter

4 comments:

WL Emery said...

You point out the obvious flaw in Mayor Fattax's speech, but sadly you're in the minority. The moonbats in Chicago either don't listen or they know what Hizzoner really meant.

Whenever I read about Chicago, it reminds me of moving to and from Mad City, WI. My entire gun collection was in the trunk, and the car was riding low. If any Chicago cop had so much as a glimpse of what I was carrying, they would have felt threatened and I'd have been shotgunned by a Chicago SWAT team.

Bruce said...

Well if Illinois had a death penalty that was applied to homicides, it might cut down some of this black on black murder. But it's only black on black so it dosen't matter? Right?
I find it amazing that these mysterious, horrible guns are running around killing people without human intervention, I always thought someone had to point the gun and pull the trigger. I am reminded of the David Drake short story about a malignant rifle that exercised mind control over the user and would morph itself into a different caliber,...
If Rahmalamadingdong and McCarthy would target the black gangsters who use the guns instead of the guns themselves that might accomplish something but no, that would be racist.

Anonymous said...

Hi Peter, I note that both of your links are to the
Chicago Tribune.
There is a source of news about the happenings in Chicago that often do not get reported by the Trib or Sun times.
It is a blog maintained by a Chicago policeman.
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/
The language is not nice and a lot of the talk is about what Chicago has done with their pensions but you can also find a lot of things that happen on the streets that do not get reported in print because that might discourage tourism if people found out the dangers of the city streets.

WL Emery said...

My thanks to Anonymous for the link. I used to read SecondCityCop, then I lost the link and couldn't find it.