The Shock of Ordinary Gun Violence

[SecularMotion]

Only in America: A computer algorithm about guns has been created to predict who is most likely to be shot soon, or to shoot someone.

The Chicago Police Department, desperate to reduce gun violence by street gangs, authorized this unusual tool three years ago and has been using it to track and caution the most likely offenders.

It is a remarkable state of affairs that local governments must resort to such an approach to deal with the reality of gun mayhem. Yet it is sadly understandable, too, as a timid Congress cowed by the gun lobby fails to enact stronger gun-control laws for a nation increasingly flooded with high-powered weapons.

As a rule, a public anesthetized by gun abuse tends to pay attention to the ubiquity of guns in this country when massacres seize the headlines, like the San Bernardino terrorist attack that left 14 dead, or the shooting of 20 schoolchildren in Connecticut. But the full problem is far more widespread, deadly and almost routine, according to a survey by a team of reporters from The Times reviewing a year of these multiple shootings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/opinion/the-shock-of-ordinary-gun-violence.html

[Straw Man]

1. Crime problem? Blame the NRA.

Nice screed, which complete sidesteps the thrust of the study it references. From the linked study:

Supporters of Chicago’s list say that it allows the police to focus on a small fraction of people creating chaos in the city rather than unfairly and ineffectively blanketing whole neighborhoods. But critics wonder whether there is value in predicting who is likely to shoot or be shot with seemingly little ability to prevent it, and they question the fairness and legality of creating a list of people deemed likely to commit crimes at some future time.

Sounds like profiling to me.

[DonP]

2. Who is shooting who in Chicago?

Go to HeyJackass.com

Not only the numbers, neighborhoods and race of shooter and shootee, but where physically they got shot, including those that wound up shooting themselves (selfies) and in the junk or ass.

http://heyjackass.com/

[Eleanors38]

4. "Selfies."

[DonP]

5. "Shot in the Junk" is another good one n/t

[jmg257]

3. "In a city of 2.7 million people, about 1,400 are responsible for much of the violence..."

In a city of 2.7 million people, about 1,400 are responsible for much of the violence, Mr. Johnson said, and all of them are on what the department calls its Strategic Subject List.

So far this year, more than 70 percent of the people who have been shot in Chicago were on the list, according to the police, as were more than 80 percent of those arrested in connection with shootings.

Chicago Police Dept. Plagued by Systemic Racism, Task Force Finds APRIL 13, 2016In a broad drug and gang raid carried out last week amid a disturbing uptick this year in shootings and murders, the Police Department said 117 of the 140 people arrested were on the list.

“We are targeting the correct individuals,” Mr. Johnson said. “We just need our judicial partners and our state legislators to hold these people accountable.”

And there is your solution.

[ManiacJoe]

6. The Chicago tangent is an interesting one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/us/armed-with-data-chicago-police-try-to-predict-who-may-shoot-or-be-shot.html

When you start analyzing human behavior, the bad behavior is easier to predict.