This past weekend in Chicago saw another five killed and 40 wounded in shootings, slightly down from Mother's day weekend when eight people were killed and 42 wounded. The two weekends are indicative of what's taking place in the homicide riddled city, in which the number of people shot so far this year is running an astonishing 50% above this time last year – what's worse, summer is not even here yet, which is traditionally the city's most violent period.
Recall that 2016 homicides have already been projected to be at the highest levels since 2011, and at this pace, prior projections from just two months ago will prove to be stunningly low. Which is quite a feat for a city which ranks as one of the most regulated cities in the nation for gun control.
So far in 2016, 1,382 people have been shot and 244 have died from the wounds, up from 904 shot and 157 killed over the same period in 2015. Chicago's police superintendent Eddie Johnson proclaimed "as we look toward the summer months, violence will not be tolerated"… as opposed to all of the violence leading up to this summer which apparently was.
Johnson gave no further detail as to just how he planned to back up his claims to stop the violence other than the department is asking for volunteers to work overtime during Memorial Day weekend.
As we noted before, "It's the struggling economy." One way Johnson could perhaps get some relief would be if the economy were to pick up and some of those that have turned to a life of violence and crime would at least have a viable option as a way out of that life.
As a recent Pew survey showed, by 2014 median income had fallen 13 percent from 2004 levels, while expenditures increased by nearly 14 percent, and the change in expenditure-to-income ratio in the years following the financial crisis show households that are increasingly financially strained.
In the meantime, history has proven that all of the algorithms and "strategic subject lists" in the world won't be able to stem the violence for those that have no choice but to take to the streets to help make ends meet for their families.
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