Thread: Murders rise in Chicago

Murders rise in Chicago

July 2, 2008Recommend (2)

By Frank Main, Sun-Times News Group
Killings are up nearly 13 percent in Chicago this year.

Through June, the city had 229 murders compared with 203 for the same period last year, unofficial police department figures show.

Despite the rise, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the number of murders remains relatively low in comparison with Chicago's murder rates during the past four decades. She also said this year's figures have been skewed by nine multiple killings that involved 25 victims.

Total crime in Chicago was up more than 2 percent between January and May, police said.

Last week, the department announced hundreds of officers will move from desks to foot patrols, helicopters will sweep parks and neighborhoods for curfew violators, and SWAT officers will be deployed in a new effort to curb summer crime.

"Our suppression methods are working," Bond said.

But Art Lurigio, dean of Loyola University Chicago's criminal justice department, said Tuesday that he wonders whether new police Supt. Jody Weis' approach is too heavy-handed.

"He is saying things that alienate the communities - like blaming the parents for the little boy who was shot (recently)," said Lurigio, who called former police Supt. Phil Cline's anti-gang strategies more "targeted."

Lurigio also decried a loss of state funding for CeaseFire, a group that intervenes in gang violence - something he termed "aggressive prevention."

Other cities, including New York and Los Angeles, also are seeing a rise in homicides and other crimes.

In New York, there were 250 killings through June compared with 231 for the same period of 2007 ---an 8 percent jump, according to the New York Police Department.

http://www.southtownstar.com/news/10349 ... me.article

What do they expect to happen in Illegal Alien Sanctuaries?

That handgun ban is really working in Chicago, isn't it?

Last week, the department announced hundreds of officers will move from desks to foot patrols, helicopters will sweep parks and neighborhoods for curfew violators, and SWAT officers will be deployed in a new effort to curb summer crime.

Did it ever occur to you idiots to just stop letting these criminals live there!