As gun violence in Chicago increased exponentially over the past decade, African Americans were overwhelmingly impacted. Local leaders continue to grapple with how to combat the surge while opposing the Trump administration’s plans to deploy federal agents in the city.
From January 1, 2010 to July 8 of this year, black homicide victims accounted for 4,374 of the city’s murders, according to figures provided by the Chicago Police Department to Fox News. The second largest group affected by gun violence, Hispanics and Black Hispanics, totaled 785 murder victims during the same period.
The murder rate of black victims remained stable, never exceeding 400 annually until 2016. That year, 607 black people were killed, according to police. From January 1 to July 8, the city reported the deaths of 291 black people.
Whites had significantly fewer homicides, followed by people of Asian descent and Native Americans.
Chicago police officers investigate the scene of a Chicago shooting outside a funeral that left 15 people injured. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
While many cities saw their crime rates drop in recent years, Chicago made headlines for increases in shooting and murder. On May 31, while most communities were engulfed in protests over the murder of George Floyd, Chicago saw 85 people shot and 18 killed in a 24-hour period, according to the University of Chicago Crime Laboratory.
The figures made it the deadliest day in the city in six decades. Crime Lab numbers only date back to 1961.
Garry McCarthy, the former Chicago police superintendent who was fired in 2015, said he came to work with a crime-fighting strategy similar to that implemented by the New York Police Department, where he held executive positions.
New York police tactics, some of which were highly controversial, contributed to large reductions in crime in the 1990s and 2000s, making New York one of the safest cities in the United States.
“It is not heavy-handed police surveillance, it is intelligent surveillance. It is data-based surveillance … knowing where to be to avoid the next shooting,” McCarthy told Fox News.
McCarthy was named Chicago’s best cop in 2011 and was fired in 2015 amid criticism of the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of officer Jason Van Dyke. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel credited McCarthy for reducing crime, noting that he had lost public confidence.
CHICAGO POLICE TRIES TO FIGHT POLICY-BOUND VIOLENCE LIMITED VIOLENCE: FORMER CHIEF
According to data provided by the Chicago police, murders increased significantly after McCarthy’s departure, from 491 in 2015 to 778 in 2016. In 2017, the city reported 659 homicides and 577 in 2018.
As of July 8, Chicago experienced 364 murders this year.
The figures come during a nationwide trial of the role of the police in society and how they treat people of color in the Floyd death on May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. .
Some progressive leaders and racial justice activists have called for police departments to be cut so that law enforcement budgets can be diverted to community resources, housing and other social programs. Some cities have enacted laws to limit the police use of force and to press for increased accountability of officers.
The Chicago Police Department did not respond to a Fox News request for comment on the increase in murders and violent crimes.
Protesters gathered at Federal Plaza on Thursday after a collection of Chicago groups announced a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department and others to prevent officers from arresting or detaining people without probable cause. (AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago’s murder rate and increased shootings are telling. As the overall crime rate decreased during orders to stay home to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the shootings still increased in May and June. Shootings increased 71 percent in May and murders 60 percent.
“The narrative was, unlike many people who stayed home, and because it reduced the probability of victimization, people in those communities affected negatively with respect to Covid and crime did not necessarily change” their behavior, David Olson, professor of criminal justice and criminology at Loyola University in Chicago, told Fox News.
Tio Hardiman, executive director of Violence Interrupters, a community-based organization focused on reducing violent crime in cities across the country, said he was not surprised by police data, noting that “it has been that way for a long time.”
“My theory is that it is the responsibility of the black man to reduce armed violence in their communities,” Hardiman, a Chicago resident who is black, told Fox News. “You see, many of us are still waiting for the police to stop the murder. We are still waiting for programs to stop the killings. But really it’s all about [how] the black man must rise to the occasion and really address the issue of armed violence in our community. The numbers will never surprise me. “
He stressed that the loss of a life is too much.
“I think there is something different in the air right now because there seems to be no method for the madness that is happening across the country, like in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, many different things cities,” said. “What is happening is that it is a learned behavior. It is passed down from generation to generation … there are people out here who are shooting just to shoot people. That is what makes it more dangerous.”
Hardiman added that young blacks “are asking for help now.”
“There is a need for some form of justice programming here in the city of Chicago,” he said. “What I would like to recommend to community politicians and opinion leaders, take a good look at restorative justice, because that could be the wave of the future when it really comes down to reducing gun violence here in major cities.” . across the United States. “
To combat the increase in crime, President Trump said he will deploy federal agents in Chicago despite opposition from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and local leaders. The move is part of Operation Legend, which deploys federal forces in cities experiencing violent increases.
Several groups have filed lawsuits to block federal intervention in matters that they say should be handled by local authorities. Agents are already located in Portland, Oregon and Kanas City, Missouri. In addition to Chicago, the Justice Department also added Albuquerque, NM, to the list.
“The effort to shut down the police in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, violence, assassinations,” Trump said of Chicago during a White House speech this week.
In a letter earlier this month, Trump criticized Lightfoot and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing Democratic leaders of putting their interests above public safety and comparing Chicago to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“His lack of leadership on this important issue continues to fail the people he has sworn to protect,” Trump wrote.
Lightfoot’s office said it spoke to Trump after his announcement, making it clear that if there is any deviation from what was announced, it will look for all available legal options to protect Chicagoans.
The president’s announcement came a day after the shooting erupted outside a funeral home in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood, where 15 people were injured. Hours later, a 3-year-old girl was shot in the head while in a car with her parents.
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