Focus on Gangs in Chicago Puts Major Dent in Killing Trend

By artappraiser on Tue, 06/11/2013 - 12:43pm |

By Monica Davey, New York Times, June 11/12, 2013

Home page teaser: Homicides in the city have dipped to a level not seen since the early 1960s, a decline credited in part to a comprehensive analysis of suspected gang members.

CHICAGO — A year after this city drew new attention for soaring gun violence and gang bloodshed, creating a political test for Mayor Rahm Emanuel in President Obama’s hometown, Chicago has witnessed a drop in shootings and crime. Killings this year have dipped to a level not seen since the early 1960s.

So far in 2013, Chicago homicides, which outnumbered slayings in the larger cities of New York and Los Angeles last year, are down 34 percent from the same period in 2012. As of Sunday night, 146 people had been killed in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city — 76 fewer than in the same stretch in 2012 and 16 fewer than in 2011, a year that was among the lowest for homicides during the same period in 50 years.

In recent months, as many as 400 officers a day, working overtime, have been dispatched to just 20 small zones deemed the city’s most dangerous. The police say they are tamping down retaliatory shootings between gang factions by using a comprehensive analysis of the city’s tens of thousands of suspected gang members, the turf they claim and their rivalries. The police also are focusing on more than 400 people they have identified as having associations that make them the most likely to be involved in a murder, as a victim or an offender [....]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/us/chicago-homicides-fall-by-34-percent-so-far-this-year.html?hp

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SLIDESHOW: Soaring Gun Violence Declines in Chicago

GRAPHIC: Chicago Killings at 1960s Level

by artappraiser on Tue, 06/11/2013 - 12:49pm

Given this article written just over a month ago, I have to wonder if Mayor Emanuel has tweaked the gun control laws at all. I tried doing a Google search on the topic but didn't find anything that seemed very relevant. Given your sizeable political knowledge, I thought you might be able to point to any interesting Chicago (or Illinois or even Indiana) gun control laws that could also be linked to this decrease in killings.

by Verified Atheist on Tue, 06/11/2013 - 3:06pm

I don't know if they tweaked anything since this January NYT article describing having some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation for quite some time. I know I have read that illegal guns were their main problem. It would follow that targeting the gangs who help traffic in them with more police presence would help in that regard. I know that focusing on illegal gun sales and prosecuting with a heavy hand is one thing Bloomberg and like thinking mayor friends have long been a proponent of.

So I do think you may be barking up the wrong tree here, in that illegal guns are the main problem and tweaking of local laws wouldn't make much of a difference when they've already got some of the strictest around.

Let there be no confusion: to target illegal guns costs a great deal of money in police work and comes at a cost to civil liberties (especially to young men) in the targeted neighborhoods. And it often comes down to a question of whether the inhabitants prefer rule of law by gang or by police, and make no mistake, some law-abiding citizens do end up preferring the former. Strict prosecution for a young man caught with a gun but not doing anything with it isn't always highly popular either.

I believe one of the mayors' coalition's favorite things is to try to get more support on the federal end on the trafficking of guns across state lines. As far as internet sales, I know personally that they sure can get tough on cigarettes by mail or any other delivery service (an Indian tribe just lost the ability to deliver via it's own delivery service,) so it's not like that's not possible.

by artappraiser on Tue, 06/11/2013 - 3:43pm

I would like to add something. Some might argue that people have a civil right to form gangs and similar associations and police targeting those who join them is anathema. But one thing I think everyone can take away from these stats that there's no arguing that gangs are a major part of the deadly violence problem in Chicago. Those that hate the targeting, what other suggestions do you have?

I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Juan Cole from a totally different context (this post), implying that security in a democracy is hard because tribes/gangs/cults will do what democratic government would ideally prefer to stay away from doing:

Legislators in democratic societies who are thinking about how to respond to this problem should give serious thought to RICO-like laws that could be used to curb religious cults, which typically isolate members, indoctrinate them, manipulate them, and sometimes coerce them. Cults avoid scrutiny by harassing critics and whistleblowers, often in ways that police find it difficult to respond to. The enormous problems modern societies have had with groups like Christian Identity, the Koreishites, Aum Shinrikyo, and now al-Qaeda, suggests that current legal frameworks are inadequate to address this problem. Ex-members, victims and critics of cults need a legal basis for protection from the cults.

If the rule of law in your 'hood is a gang, it's not so easy to tattle on them....you can start your own war or you can just put up with it.

by artappraiser on Tue, 06/11/2013 - 3:57pm

Focus on Gangs in Chicago Puts Major Dent in Killing Trend

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