Chicago Off To Deadliest Start In Nearly Two Decades

[Purveyor]

Source: Jeremy GornerContact ReporterChicago Tribune As

By Jeremy Gorner
March 31, 2016

As the first quarter of 2016 nears an end, violence in Chicago has reached levels unseen in years, putting the city on course to top 500 homicides for only the second time since 2008.

As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, homicides totaled 135, a 71 percent jump over the 79 killings in the same year-earlier period, official Police Department statistics show. That represented the worst first quarter of a year since 136 homicides in 1999, according to the data.

Shootings have jumped by comparable numbers as well. As of Wednesday, at least 727 people had been shot in Chicago so far this year, a 73 percent rise from 422 a year earlier, according to a Tribune analysis of department data.

Worse yet, that jump follows two consecutive years in which shootings rose by double digits, the analysis found. Homicides also rose by about 12.5 percent last year over 2014.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chicago-homicides-first-quarter-met-20160330-story.html

[closeupready]

1. Having left there years ago, I can't imagine myself EVER living there again.

Mostly, yes, because of violent crime. It's almost as bad as Detroit or Atlanta now. No. Way.

[romanic]

2. Too many criminals with guns.

Chicago has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation no? If banning guns isn't the solution, then what is? Addressing poverty, fatherless homes, kids with nothing to do but join gangs, sling dope and kill over "beef" and "territory"???

This is a major issue and we have to get the reigns on it.

[ManiacJoe]

3. That, and CPD has been putting in a lot less effort into policing.