New interviews with the Chicago Police Department gave some striking testimony.
However, police point to increasingly powerful guns — military-style assault rifles, which make crimes that occur in the city more lethal — as part of the problem, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Police officers patrolling certain areas have been warned of the risks of approaching gang members because the rifles they use can pierce body armor, the newspaper reported.
This stunning excerpt came in an article displaying the fall in murders in Chicago last year.
The good news is that violence actually declined in Chicago in 2017.
The bad news is that it remains alarmingly high.
As of mid-December, there had been 635 murders in Chicago — a 15 percent drop from the previous year, according to the Chicago Police Department.
The total number of shootings incidents was down 21 percent to 2,719.
Still, murders remain at levels unseen since the 1990s, when the crack cocaine epidemic ravaged communities across the United States and fueled a spike in crime.
As the city’s gun violence spiraled seemingly out of control last year, it raised alarms among officials and residents alike, and brought about a number of initiatives to help stem the tide.
They have attributed better policing to this drop.
City officials have credited the reduction in murders and shootings this year to a push to hire 1,100 additional police officers and a focus on new crime-fighting technologies.
“Communities that were once under a cloud of gun violence are beginning to see signs of optimism and hope,” police chief Eddie Johnson said this month.
The city has relied on more data crunching to help predict violence and deployed more high-tech devices that help detect gunshots and alert police even before residents can make an emergency call.
– Powerful guns –
Police also are becoming increasingly adept at finding criminals through social media.
In December, they infiltrated an invitation-only Facebook group where drugs and guns were being sold — netting dozens of arrests.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Facebook representatives will meet city officials in January to “better collaborate to stop illegal activity online before it leads to violence on our streets.”
Although there was a crime drop the fact that we are seeing illegally obtained military grade assault rifles in the hands of gangsters is troubling. As many in the area have said the keep guns due to the fact they want to be able to protect themselves. Sadly, in a gun-controlled climate like Chicago, these people are sitting ducks for these gang members. Not only are the residents sitting ducks but the Police Officers as well. What happens when a member of the Chicago Police department is forced into one of these areas? The answer is simple, he’ll be dealing with heavily armed gang members. The solution is not gun-control it’s taking the restrictions off policing and stopping illegal guns from getting into the streets Chicago. By allowing lawful gun owners to own guns and allowing Police Officers to do their job you will this trend of less violence on the streets of Chicago continue.
