Imagine a single American city that in less than nine months tallies more homicides than 32 entire states had in all of 2020. That’s Chicago. Otherwise known as Chiraq, or Mogadishu on Lake Michigan. This past weekend, Lori Lightfoot’s domain blew past the 500th homicide total for the year and stands at 504.
What used to happen in most cities when they experienced historical levels of homicides? Police worked to investigate, arrest, and prosecute the criminals who commit the majority of violent crimes.
But not on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s watch. Or that of the Soros-funded Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Or the corrupt party machine that has run Chicagoland for generations. Instead of arresting criminals and jailing them in an effort to make the city’s streets safer, they have defunded police (while Lightfoot maintains a 90-officer strong protective detail) and made cops’ jobs tougher.
How bad is it? Generations of strict gun control laws, only recently relaxed with Illinois’ Concealed Carry Act, have kept firearm ownership by good people to a minimum. That’s made victims easy marks for violent criminals.
What’s worse, thanks to the “no snitch” culture, less than 15% of murder suspects are identified, much less arrested. It was only 13.52% as of Sept. 1st to be more precise. And last year, over half of identified suspects weren’t even prosecuted.
Earlier this year, one of those uncharged murders included a man with 33 arrests who cops say shot another man five times then used a hammer to strike the now-dying man at least twenty times in the head. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx refused to charge the case, citing self-defense.
In just the past few days, one woman was robbed of her shoes while she waited on Lake Shore Drive for her driver to return with gas for the car.
In another case, a man wounded in an earlier gun battle – out on “affordable bail” on another felony arrest – engaged in a rolling gun battle after a road rage incident. He was only – “only” – the 36th suspect accused of shooting or killing another person while out on affordable bail so far this year. A total of 70 victims have gained perforations thanks to accused felons out on “affordable” bail pre-trial release. 17 of those have died.
As for the remaining residents, calling 9-1-1 isn’t really an option. Last year, dispatchers didn’t have enough cops to answer over half of the highest priority 9-1-1 calls, including over 1350 shooting victims, 887 stabbing victims and 14000 and change violent domestic calls.
And they wonder why they’ve got a crime problem in Chicago.
In even worse news, Illinois’ No Cash Bail law kicks in on January 1st.
I know a certain PMC that will be offering Purge style deluxe tours through Chiraq pic.twitter.com/iLC1M000K1
— Louis vil LeGun ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@LouisvilleGun) September 9, 2022
At that point, unless there’s a specific threat made against a specific person, the accused must be released without posting a penny for bail. These include crimes like Second Degree Murder, drug-induced homicide, arson, aggravated battery, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated DUI, drug offenses and theft, just to name a few.
In fact, some have noted that police may hold a suspect on a domestic violence arrest if they threaten their domestic partner. On the other hand, if they kill their partner, they’re no longer a threat to a specific (living) person and as such, they should be released under the new No Cash Bail law.
We’ll be covering this more in the coming months. In the meantime, know that Chicago simply isn’t safe. For anyone.
