Submitted by Joseph Jankowski via Planet Free Will
Chicago is starting the year 2017 much like it did 2016: plagued with violence.
The number of shootings in the month of January nearly duplicated the tally from the start of last year, which was the bloodiest year in Chicago in more than two decades.
According to Chicago police, January ended with 51 murders, one more than last year. Per HeyJackAss!, here is how the daily murder totals trended over the past month:
From ABC 7 Chicago:
Police recorded 51 murders across the city last month, one more than January 2016, the department said. Although, the department said in a release last year that 51 people were murdered in Chicago in January 2016
Three police districts on the city’s South and West sides – the Englewood, Harrison and Austin districts – accounted for about half of the city’s murders last month.
Police counted 234 shooting incidents – eight fewer than in January 2016 – with 299 victims, an increase of eight compared to the same period last year.
The Deering District, which was one of the city’s top three districts for murders in 2016, saw a 50 percent reduction in murders last month compared to January 2016, police said. The department said 59 of the city’s 77 neighborhoods either remained flat or saw a reduction in murders last month compared to last January.
Officers recovered more than 600 guns last month, an increase of more than 60 percent over January 2016, police said. The department also noted that gun arrests overall have more than doubled compared to January 2016.
At a meeting with members of the African American community on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that if Chicago officials don’t take steps to curb the violence, "we’re going to solve the problem for them.”
“Because we’re going to have to do something… What’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country,” Trump said.
Trump called the violence in Chicago “totally out of control.”
Darrell Scott, an Ohio pastor who campaigned for Trump and who was present at the Wednesday meeting, said that he was talking to members of “top gangs” in Chicago who wanted to sit down and discuss how to lower the body count inside the city. Per CBS Chicago 2:
“They reached out to me, because they’re associating me with you. They respect you. They believe in what you’re doing, and they want to have a sit-down about lowering that body count. So in a couple weeks, I’m going into Chicago,” Scott said. “I said we’ve got to lower that body count. We don’t want to talk about anything else; get that body count down, and they agreed that the principals that can do it – these are guys straight from the streets, no politicians, straight street guys – but they’re going to commit that if they lower that body count, we’ll come in and we’ll do some social programs.”
“It’s a great idea,” Trump said about a possible meeting involving gang leaders and social programs.
http://up.anv.bz/latest/anvload.html
On January 24, President Trump tweeted that if Chicago is unable to stop the “horrible carnage” going on, he would be willing to “send in the feds.”
If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Chicago saw a huge surge in violence in 2016: 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims, according to police.