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By: Matt Rosenberg, Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Chicago, New Orleans were the nation’s murder capitals in 2022
Just 90 minutes into the new year came Chicago’s first criminal homicide of 2023. Dead was 38-year-old Austin McAllister. No activists picketed City Hall the next morning. No one cried, “Say His Name.” Why? 2022 had just ended with far too many Chicago homicides to remember any names – a nation-leading 697.
In Baltimore, after yet another December murder, Mayor Brandon Scott could only ask, “why are people shooting and killing each other?” And in New Orleans, when pressed for answers on the city’s nation-leading homicide rate, Mayor LaToya Cantrell could only resort to blaming covid and guns.
Local governments in America’s homicide hot-spots continue to falter in their role as protectors of public safety, even though the nation is now more than two years removed from George Floyd’s murder and the pandemic is largely in the rear view mirror.
Wirepoints surveyed publicly-available crime data from the 75 largest U.S. cities to identify which suffered the most and least criminal homicides in 2022, and to track the upward trend in violence since 2019. That was the year before George Floyd’s death roiled the nation and helped spark an ongoing wave of violent crime. See Appendix A for the complete 75-city ranking.
This report ends with a deeper look at the causes of the crises occurring in the nation’s worst homicide hubs. Chicago suffers from a trifecta of failure: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, the county’s Chief Judge Timothy Evans and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have crippled criminal justice and destroyed police morale. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner blames everything but his own permissive policies for his city’s crime wave. And New Orleans’ ethically-challenged Mayor Cantrell has shown no leadership in dealing with her city’s worsening violence.
This report’s key findings include:
- Chicago’s 697 criminal homicides in 2022 were the most in the nation for the 11th-straight year. Philadelphia suffered the 2nd-most with 516. New York City (438), Houston (435) and Los Angeles (382) rounded out the top 5. By contrast, cities with the fewest homicides out of the 75 surveyed were Plano, TX and Gilbert, AZ. They suffered 1 and 3 murders, respectively.
- New Orleans’ 2022 homicide rate of 74.3 homicides per 100,000 residents was the nation’s highest of the 75 cities surveyed. Rounding out the top 5 were St. Louis (68.2), Baltimore (58.1), Detroit (48.9) and Memphis (45.9). By comparison the nationwide homicide rate was 6.5 per 100,000 in 2020 (the most recent reliable national rate).
- The safest of the nation’s 75 largest cities by homicide rate was Plano, TX with just 0.3 per 100,000. Following were Gilbert, AZ at 1.1 per 100,000, Henderson, NV with 1.6, Chandler, AZ at 3.2 and San Jose, CA with 3.6.
- The nation’s safe havens are increasingly concentrated in the West. All but one of the 10 cities with the nation’s highest homicide rates were located on or east of the Mississippi River in 2022. Of the 10 cities with the lowest homicide rates, all but one were located west of the Mississippi.
- 2022 homicide rates were typically much worse across the nation’s 20 “homicide hubs” compared to 2019. Half of those cities experienced a 50 percent or higher increase in their homicide rate versus 2019. Pittsburgh’s homicide rate grew 92 percent between 2019 and 2022. New Orleans’ rate grew 139 percent and Milwaukee’s 129 percent.
The 75 cities surveyed for this report are the largest by population in the United States for which 2022 homicide data were publicly available.
Chicago, Philadelphia led nation in number of homicides
Chicago led the nation in criminal homicides again with 697 murders in 2022. That was by far the most among the top 75 cities. Only Philadelphia came remotely close with 516 homicides. It was the 11th-straight year Chicago led the nation in homicides.
Rounding out the top 10 were New York (438), Houston (435), Los Angeles (382), Baltimore (335), Detroit (309), Memphis (288), New Orleans (280), and San Antonio (231). See Appendix A for the complete 75-city ranking.
Hopes for Chicago were high in 2019. The city’s 500 homicides were far lower compared to the murderous years that defined the city from the 1970s through the 1990s, and almost back in line with the relatively peaceful period of 2004 through 2015. (See Appendix B.) The city seemed ready to turn the corner. But then came a new wave of deadly violence in 2020 after George Floyd’s death. It hasn’t let up yet.
Second-place Philadelphia suffered 516 homicides in 2022. That was 46 fewer than in 2021 but still far more than its 2019 total of 353. Murders have gotten so bad that officials there have debated bringing back the controversial police practice called “stop and frisk.” It hasn’t happened yet, except on a limited test basis. But that such a politically reviled, yet legitimate, practice was again on the table reveals how serious Philadelphia’s problems have become.
Third-place New York City experienced 438 homicides – a high total but one of the lowest homicide rates (5.2 per 100K) of U.S. cities.
Houston had the fourth-highest number of criminal homicides in 2022 and the 23rd-highest homicide rate. That’s no victory; the city’s rate (19.0 per 100K) is more than triple the national rate. The city reported a slight one-year drop in criminal homicide totals for 2022, but the year’s 435 murders remained far higher than the 280 in 2019. “There’s still work to be done when people are dying in our city,” Police Chief Troy Finner warned. The city needs a comprehensive plan, he added, focused on “getting violent defenders where they need to be – prosecuted, in jail, and then convicted.”
New Orleans, St. Louis led nation in homicide rates
New Orleans suffered the nation’s worst big-city homicide rate in 2022 with 74.3 homicides per 100,000 population. The Big Easy was followed by St. Louis (68.2), Baltimore (58.1), Detroit (48.9), and Memphis (45.9). Rounding out the worst 10 were Cleveland (45.7), Milwaukee (37.6), Atlanta (34.2), Kansas City (32.8), and Philadelphia (32.7). Those homicide rates are all multiples higher than the 2020 national average of 6.5 per 100,000, the most recent reliable national calculation available.
New Orleans is failing to tamp down its runaway homicide rate and the issue of political leadership sticks out as a reason why. In mid-2022, two city council members blasted Mayor LaToya Cantrell for failing to develop a violence mitigation strategy. They claimed she has downplayed rampant deadly violence to protect the city’s reputation as a tourism destination. They also said she has prioritized public appearances and sound bites instead of leading a strong response to the city’s killings.
St. Louis ended 2022 with the nation’s second highest homicide rate of 68.2 per 100,000 residents. The city’s long history of homicide has helped drive a dramatic population decline from more than 600,000 in 1970 to less than 300,000 in 2022.
As killings mounted last summer, Third Ward Committeewoman Lucinda Frazier remarked, “I am so sick of this violence. I don’t think it’s drug dealers. I don’t think it’s gang bangers. I think a lot of these crimes are being committed by young people who feel like they’re going to be dead at a certain age, so they might as well do what they want. It’s unconscionable.”
Among the nation’s 20 biggest cities, Philadelphia suffered the highest homicide rate of 32.7 per 100,000. Chicago was second with 25.8, followed by Indianapolis with 23.8, Houston with 19, and Dallas at 16.6 homicides per 100,000.
Safe havens mainly concentrated in Western U.S.
Most of the safer cities among the nation’s 75 largest, whether based on total homicides or homicide rate, are located in the Western United States. Plano, TX was the nation’s safest big city with just one reported murder in all of 2022. That’s a homicide rate per 100,000 of just 0.3.
Next-safest was Gilbert, AZ, with just three homicides and a rate of only 1.1 per 100,000. Rounding out the five safest cities – based on homicide rate – were Henderson, NV; Chandler, AZ; and San Jose, CA.
There was one notable exception to the “western-cities-equal-safer” observation. Las Vegas was among the 20 cities with the highest homicide rates in 2022. And a handful in the eastern U.S. – Jersey City, Virginia Beach, New York City, and Boston – were among the 20 cities with the lowest homicide rates.
The pattern of safe sanctuaries clustered in the West fits with the ongoing exodus of Americans from many Northeastern and some Midwest states to more hospitable locales in the Southeast, South, and West. High taxes, higher costs of living, failing urban public schools and poor job climates – on top of violent crime – all play a role in the nationwide shift.
Most 2022 homicide hubs much worse off compared to 2019
There’s been an explosion of homicides since George Floyd’s death in 2020. Half of today’s top homicide hubs saw jumps of 50 percent or more in their homicide rates compared to pre-Floyd 2019.
Chicago’s homicide rate climbed to 25.8 per 100,000 in 2022 from 18.6 in 2019, a 39 percent increase. Philadelphia’s rate jumped almost 50 percent, to 32.7 from 22.3. Atlanta’s homicide rate climbed 75 percent.
But it was the smaller cities that experienced the most dramatic increases. Pittsburgh’s homicide rate grew to 23.6 per 100,000 from just 12.3 in 2019, a 92 percent spike. New Orleans’ homicide rate more than doubled to 74.3 in 2022. Milwaukee’s rate also more than doubled from 2019 – up 129 percent to 37.6 per 100,000.
Finally, there were a small handful of the most-homicide-prone cities in 2022 that fit a different profile. Call it “steady-state mayhem.” The homicide rates of St. Louis and Baltimore were already dramatic outliers in 2019 and stayed relatively unchanged in 2022.
A closer look at Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans
The 2022 homicide data as a whole prompts a number of questions, including: What is driving the dismal state of affairs in the most murder-prone U.S. cities? To explore that question more fully, this report takes a closer look at Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.
Chicago: A case study in failed leadership
Law and order has taken a big hit in Chicago after the city’s 2020 riots and looting. Right on the heels of George Floyd’s death, Chicago murders reached 18 in one May day and then 105 in July. There was a dramatic annual surge in Chicago murders in 2020 and 2021. At center stage have been the failed policies of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, and the county’s Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
Emblematic, horrifying stories abound. A woman out on bail for stabbing a random pedestrian was charged with doing the same thing again to four people. Little thought was given to the dangers posed by pretrial release of an accused stabber. It’s one more dismaying episode among hundreds in recent years which capture the revolving door in Chicagoland criminal courts and the surrender of the city’s streets to violence and disorder.
Much of the deadly violence traces back to a broader decriminalization effort by officials that has increased tolerance for lower-level crimes. Foxx has effectively decriminalized retail theft under $1,000, while state legislation successfully pushed by her political mentor, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, has limited the practice of prosecuting armed juvenile carjackers as adults.
Since then, young carjackers granted leniency in court have subsequently been charged with killing drivers in new carjacking attempts. As the killing continued, Preckwinkle seemed to want it both ways: giving lip service to horror at deadly violence yet in the same breath offloading responsibility for it on “historic disinvestment and marginalization” among communities of color. The county government chief’s remarks came after a 49-year-old black mother of six who worked as a hairdresser was senselessly slain as she parked her car to hustle to a 5 a.m. client appointment on Chicago’s South Side.
Foxx dropped 30 percent of felony prosecutions in her first three years as state’s attorney versus 19 percent in her predecessor’s last three. Her highest dismissal rates were for defendants charged with narcotics offenses, escape, and retail theft. Foxx has also found new ways to sidestep prosecution of suspects charged in fatal shootings by calling them “mutual combatants.”
The state’s attorney’s policies have contributed to an exodus of staff from her office. One former top official said, “…exposing the population of Cook County to dangerous criminals who every reasonable person agrees should not be allowed to walk the streets should not comport with anybody’s sense of integrity and morals and ethics, and that’s why I’m not surprised that all these [prosecutors] are leaving in the numbers that they are.”
Top Cook County Judge Tim Evans has played a big role, too, in Chicagoland’s ongoing violent crime problem. He issued a “bail reform” policy in late 2017 that tipped the scales so local judges began to let even serious offenders out before trial on low-cash or no-cash bail. The result by midyear 2022 was an additional 15,000 new offenses for charged suspects already awaiting trial. Some get released to electronic home monitoring, but too often the ankle bracelets have failed to deter pretrial defendants from racking up new charges. Adding to Chicago’s grave public disorder is lax sentencing seen in murder charges for suspects who were already on probation, parole, or out on bail before trial.
Meanwhile, Lightfoot’s leadership and executive temperament have faltered as crime has mounted. When McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski rightly warned that outsized crime threatened the city’s economic future, Lightfoot wouldn’t hear of it and said he needed to “educate himself.” She calls her critics on crime “haters” even as the city in 2022 clocked a 41 percent increase in major crimes vs. 2021, and a 33 percent increase since 2019.
Police morale has plunged under Lightfoot’s management. Many officers have fled regular patrols for assignments in special units. Retirements and resignations are common; more than 1,000 officers left in 2022. A string of suicides has rocked the department. Replacements are being hired but sworn officer staffing levels are down 12 percent between January of 2019 and January of 2023.
All that contributed to the more than 400,000 high-priority 911 calls put onto “backlog” status in 2021 because no police were available to respond.
Increasingly Chicago Police suffer political abuse and are unable to do their jobs. Foot and car chases by police are effectively banned. Activists stand ready to accuse them of murder and link them to racism even when they’re acting in justifiable self-defense. A political party representing several city council members called the police department “white supremacist” and a council staffer called them “pigs.”
From City Hall to the county prosecutor’s office and the county courts, Chicago is a case study in failed leadership during an ongoing urban violence crisis.
Philadelphia: The debacle of Larry Krasner
As in other high-homicide cities, Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner has focused on the rights of the accused and social programs instead of tough prosecutions and sentencing.
Data from Krasner’s office shows a sharp drop in the conviction rate for weapons offenses tried by his staff in recent years. There has also been a large jump in weapons cases withdrawn or dismissed by his prosecutors.
Unsurprisingly, Philadelphia murders reached a record high of 562 in 2021.
Yet Krasner blamed the stunning climb in homicides on covid and shutdowns of after-school and arts programs and remarkably claimed, “We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness. We don’t have a crisis of crime. We don’t have a crisis of violence.”
This prompted a tart reply from black, Democratic ex-Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter. In a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed, Nutter wrote, “Krasner should also use his words to send a message to the shooters, murderers, and criminals of this city by committing to actually prosecute them, rather than coddle them, make excuses, reduce or drop charges. He should commit to locking them up for carrying illegal weapons or shooting people. If Krasner does not have the fortitude or the guts to carry out those duties, he should resign and turn things over to someone who is not trying to sell Philadelphians on the false choice of having either public safety or police reform.”
Krasner’s excuses for the city’s violence were torpedoed by 2022 year-end data. With Covid largely in the rear-view mirror and programs restored, Philadelphia’s homicide rate was still 32.7 – up nearly 50 percent compared to 2019.
The conflict between Krasner and Nutter neatly captured the tensions which persist in major U.S. homicide hubs. But Philadelphia is more than just the story of dueling narratives around homicide. The city also illustrates that structural issues in local governance – including the timing of elections – play to the advantage of officials who emphasize their vision of social justice over traditional notions of criminal justice.
Krasner was re-elected in an off-year election in November 2021 which garnered a scant 22 percent voter turnout. This happened just a month before his claim that the city’s new homicide record didn’t indicate any sort of crime or violence crisis.
Off-year contests are common to many other major cities including Chicago and New Orleans. Though 2023 may be an exception in Chicago due to growing crime concerns, they often lead to anemic turnout in local elections easily dominated by well-organized special interest groups. Mayor Lightfoot won her 2019 Chicago mayoral run-off with just 33 percent turnout. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was reelected in 2021 with a turnout of 28 percent.
New Orleans: Fiddling while the city burns
New Orleans has also suffered from misguided priorities in prosecuting crime. The city’s first progressive prosecutor Jason Williams took office in 2021 and vowed to be “more selective” about prosecutions. He delivered. The percentage of violent felonies accepted for prosecution dropped to 21 percent in 2021 from 57 percent in 2019.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s missteps also haven’t helped in a city of runaway homicides. She raised hackles among police, political allies and victims when she attended the sentencing hearing of a juvenile defendant who got probation for multiple carjackings committed in two days with a fake gun. The mayor sat with his family and spoke during proceedings to the defendant and his mother. It left many wondering whose side she was on.
Cantrell created more controversy in early 2023 when she appointed a task force to develop a homicide-fighting plan; its members are mainly city bureaucrats who’ve presided over the city’s decline.
Then there are the mayor’s ethical troubles. Cantrell has been under fire for violating city policy by using $30,000 in taxpayer funds to pay for first-class airfare upgrades. She refused to reimburse the city, saying the upgrades were necessary for her protection as a black woman. She later reversed course, but only after a finance staffer called her out for violating city policy.
Currently, Cantrell is at the center of a scandal regarding her use of city property for personal purposes and related allegations of a possible extra-marital affair with a member of her security detail. The mayor has angrily denied those allegations, but the city’s Inspector General is investigating.
In a city as heavily beset with violence as New Orleans is, a real leader would elevate the common good and minimize personal and political missteps to enlist the public as key allies to stem bloodshed. Cantrell’s troubled reign underscores the pitfalls of failing that test. Leadership requires focus and personal integrity. But if officials are battling persistent allegations of misfeasance, the bad guys will have even more leverage than if leaders were fully engaged.
It’s still Condition Red in Crescent City. New Orleans’ new year began with a dozen homicides in 11 days.
Perhaps the city is beginning to figure things out: in February New Orleans police announced they’d be offering gun safety classes.
Wanted: A new class of urban political leaders
In the end, Chicago is Philadelphia is Memphis is New Orleans is St. Louis is Milwaukee. Cities with outsized homicides all suffer from similar social and political maladies which stand in the way of permanently reducing homicide to far lower levels.
Solutions to contain urban homicide require real bravery to implement. But instead of bravery, political careerists abound in our nation’s homicide hubs. They put the interests of the criminal class above the safety of their communities and the blacks and Latinos who are overwhelmingly the real victims.
U.S. homicide hubs need a new class of urban leaders who can bring more than the tired and defensive political rhetoric of the past to a now stubbornly pervasive threat. Sadly, it’s very unclear if or when that time will actually come.
And until it does, the tragedies will continue.
Austin McAllister – the Chicago homicide victim that led off this paper – was a father of six, an Iraq War veteran and a fitness trainer. He’d been working as a bouncer at a hookah lounge when he was slain by an angry patron.
Austin’s sister, retired Chicago cop Denotra Allen, lamented the senselessness of his death: “He got hurt in Iraq to come home to Chicago and be killed because he turned a patron away from the hookah lounge? He wasn’t out there partying. He wasn’t drinking. He was out there working for his kids and for himself…He was at a job, protecting other people while they were enjoying themselves. We got to stop allowing this to be OK. We’ve got to stop letting the next story come two minutes later or three minutes later.”
“We need people to care.”
Appendix A: 2022 homicide data table
Appendix B: Chicago 2022 homicide charts
Appendix C: Data collection and source notes
- In this report “homicide” refers to “criminal homicides” and, where specified, non-negligent manslaughter. Accidental homicides or those found to have been committed in justifiable self-defense are not counted toward criminal homicide totals.
- The 75 cities surveyed for this report are the largest by population in the United States for which 2022 homicide data were publicly available. The following cities were not covered because there was no reliable 2022 homicide data available at the time this report was prepared in early 2023: Anaheim, CA; Corpus Christi, TX; Riverside, CA; Anchorage, AK; Chula Vista, CA; North Las Vegas, NV; Madison, WI; Santa Ana, CA. The next most populous cities were added in their place.
- Homicide totals for 2022 were first sought from local police department data, and if that data was not available, from reputable media outlets. When no better data could be found, we referred in some limited instances to the 2022 Violent Crime Survey by the Major Chiefs Association.
- Wirepoints used the latest 2021 population data from the U.S. Census Bureau to calculate cities’ 2022 homicide rate per 100,000 residents.
- The most recent reliable national homicide rate is 2020’s 6.5 per 100,000. National homicide and crime rates are less reliable from 2021 forward. The FBI reported an even higher homicide rate of 6.9 per 100,000 in 2021, but a new reporting system meant thousands of agencies did not submit data, so unreliable estimates were widespread.
- 2019 homicide rates shown for a subgroup of cities in this report were based on homicide totals from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, police department data, or reputable media outlets. 2019 city population figures were taken from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010-2019 vintage estimates.
- City image credits:
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
WHERE are the RAW numbers, not ratios?
Hmmm….Chicago and New Orleans? What is the common denominator? Ns Lemme think on that one. I’ve never visited New Orleans; I wonder why?
Very well written article. I think Chicago actually had more homicides but happened on the interstate so they weren’t included in the total by CPD. It’s very sad and hopefully residents will stand up and put politicians in place who will do the right thing for a change.
Imagine if Chicago had New Orleans’ humidity year-round?
When is enough, enough! It is such a sad situation that can be remedied easily if they allow the police to be the police and allow equal justice under the law. We need to incarcerate to keep society on the whole safe. I will never understand the fact that a political figure or white collar criminal will do years in jail instead of making them work pro bono in their field and keeping them on house arrest. But put a gun to someone’s head, traumatizing them forever, earns you no bail!! I never feared Martha Stewart or Rod Blogojevich for… Read more »
THE DAY BEFORE THE CHICAGO MAYORAL ELECTION:
Proverbs 29. When the wicked rule, the people mourn—The righteous consider the cause of the poor—A fool speaks all that is in his mind—Where there is no vision, the people perish.
May Chicago be granted a leader with Vision tomorrow. “Amen.”
Another article right on point, unfortunately those that need to read it won’t. The fact that Kim Foxx was easily reelected, and the fact that Lori Lightfoot even has a chance at reelection, shows that the people of Cook County have given up any hope of decent candidates winning those important offices. Add in the fact that the Chicago Democratic Caucus runs Springfield, and fleeing the state is the only option left. A once proud city and state are now the examples for how not to run government.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Voting out Leadfoot, Winkle and Fox is a start.
Sadly, this killing and overall violence has become a “culturally pervasive” thing among some communities. Because the leftist politicians aren’t interested in even attempting to investigate or prosecute the people doing the killing, I’m not even sure if the death penalty would be a deterrent, at this point.
Re-institute capital punishment of recidivist offenders of Class I felonies. Just DO IT !
As a Chicago resident and retired firefighter I was pleased to see most candidates highlight crime in their campaigns. But not a single one of them had the courage to blame Cook county’s revolving door justice system due to political loyalty. And lightfoot once again blaming “gun violence”, as if the guns themselves are to blame. When retirees no longer feel safe it’s a bigger double loss for taxpayers because they take their taxpayer funded pensions with them when they leave.
We are facing an existential and civilizational crisis, the size of which simply boggles the mind. To my way of thinking, this is not simply an issue of poor leadership, rather it reflects the overall breakdown of major segments of the population. Some of the causes for this are the disintegration of the traditional mother/father/nuclear family unit, schools that indoctrinate yet don’t educate, law-enforcement that is shackled and largely unable to do its job, a judicial system which seeks to find guilt in those who are attacked by muggers, a whole class of public officials that give lip service to… Read more »
This record will be broken every year going forward. The gun fun has just started. Criminals run the streets and cops only make out reports. Most all murders go unsolved because cops do not care about crime only about getting out alive and getting a overly generous pension. They flee the Chitty to Punta Gorda, Fl ASAP when the pension money gusher goes off.
Cops can’t do their job anymore… they are getting accused of being racist if they have to arrest or detain a person of color.
Another extremely well-told tale about an issue that is so significant to Chicago—to all major American cities, really. We need to clone Matt Rosenberg, Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner. Their information is verifiable. And their collective expertise is a reminder of our city’s great reportorial lineage.
Kudos … Big time.
Excellent work! And, as stated, sadly unlikely to change while the “leaders” would rather deny the horrific situation than show courage in making these places safer.
Revolving door justice doesn’t work.
Take away public and private security details from elected officials and they may think differently about zero cash bond for violent offenders and even gun control when their personal security becomes their very own like most Americans.
Clear as day. The number of people dying in major Democrat cities is the direct results of turnstile prosecutors, lax treatment of criminals, limitations on policing (prohibiting foot and car chases). If “hate” is involved, the characterization my Lightfoot of her detractors, the hate and disdain is what these Soros funded prosecutors and Democrat Mayors, and Democrat Governors have for victims. Mostly black, mostly poor. If that isn’t racism…what is?
The scariest part is that crime is starting to occur in the nicer suburbs where people move to feel safer. Yesterday, afternoon in Libertyville, offenders in a stolen Mercedes followed a woman with two kids in her car to her home. As she brought in the older child, they stole her car with the two year old still in it. Then they deserted the car with the child left alone. Of course they got away. This seems to be on the news every night. They got away. They got away. They got away. It’s getting really old. And if mayor… Read more »
Trixie – my friend was a devoted teacher for 30 plus years in Hanover Park. There was a random shooting and murder two blocks from her former school last week. Whether rational or not, she is afraid to visit her old colleagues. At her retirement, this very intelligent teacher from U of Illinois was a mentor to teachers in the district. Losses from crime are often indirect yet still impact a community.
100% correct
Another spot on analysis. But, we’ve read the words, and shown the data many times. As bad as the so called leaders have been at their job- it’s the voters in Chicago, and all of the other cities on the list that just keep the madness going. Hard to explain the vote for disaster. We’ll see what happens in this next one, but, I’m not expecting anything different.
Five reasons, I think: (1) an uninformed, apathetic voting public which makes little to no attempt at educating themselves about the candidates and their positions; (2) relatedly, voters don’t think their vote matters because “the system is rigged;” (3) an off-cycle election (February and April??) that leads to low voter turnout; (4) wealthy people tend to vote more often than poor people, yet they far outnumber the wealthy; and (5) union and public sector employees who vote en masse to ensure the status quo. Educated, committed voters are overwhelmed by these deterrents to change.
Once again the Wirepoints crew presents us with a thorough and dispassionate factual analysis, and the reader is once again struck by the staggering failure of Chicago’s elected leaders. Priority number one of any government is to protect people. It is abundantly clear that this fundamental task is not Chicago’s first priority – it may not even be in the top ten. These sorts of challenges have been overcome in the past, as was the case in New York City under Chief Bratton. Every crime metric fell under his application of common sense and real, fact-based policing – supported and… Read more »
This is the most comprehensive article I have seen on this subject. As others have commented, the numbers tell the story. There simply is no way to sugar coat this problem. If 697 Chicagoans died from a virus, the city would be in full panic mode. And most alarmingly, the current administration refuses to acknowledge the crisis and has no plan to address it. It comes down to this old adage…”If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.” What the city leaders have done hasn’t worked. Gun control is not the answer. It’s… Read more »
Surprised, not in the least. And while the political leaders are the ones that enact the policies that create this nightmare, we must also hold voters accountable.
Always thought Birmingham was high on those lists. Hopefully things are improving here.
This is a comprehensive article about the problematic issues of large cities run by Democratic mayors and Democratic district attorneys. Their refusal to recognize and prosecute crime leads to more murders in these cities. Their ideas of no cash bail leads to more violent crime. More citizens in these Democratic controlled cities are at more risk because of lax prosecution of violent crimes and theft under $1000 on businesses. It’s no wonder why thousands of people are leaving these large Democratic cities because they can’t safely run their businesses and don’t feel safe in their own homes. This is an… Read more »
The results of the liberal backed war on cops, along with their lack of prosecution of criminals and demonizing self defense is predictable for anyone with a little common sense.
It is utterly specious whenever anyone says that the current surge in murder and mayhem is the result of “historic disinvestment”. Though I am not entirely denying the nexus between some crime and poverty, the fact is that those same communities where crime is spiraling upward in recent years have not suddenly become “disinvested.” Furthermore, at least until the start of the pandemic, the only major “disinvestment” among Chicagoans was with the largely middle-class Black residents who are fleeing for their lives. Thanks to Wirepoints for covering the elephant in the room that our two dailies are either unwilling or… Read more »
Exactly. The disinvestment happened in 1968 after rioting.
The city has been a slow decline since the Daley administration. His fiscal policies depleted the city’s finances, Rahm Immanuel was a hands off governing of the city leading to widespread corruption in all of the city’s departments. Lightfoot has no experience in governing. She has listened to too many social activists and has destroyed all agencies most notably the CPD sighting them as the main problem . Her so called reforms have not worked and and the police superitendent is nothing more than a puppet who has completely demolished specialized units that actually worked in many crimes most notably… Read more »
The data doesn’t lie. New Orleans is a fun town, but violent town. I was walking from the Marigny to the French Quarter and passed a cop at a playground. He was crying uncontrollably. A person that had been picked up and handcuffed somehow got out and shot the officer driving the squad car.
Chicago the violence all used to be in a few neighborhoods. Now it’s random and can happen anywhere. It’s why I left. It’s also why I didn’t move to NOLA.
Such a sad situation. It did not have to be this way. Progressives have ruled the city for decades with an iron hand. That is who people vote for and this is what they get. And they vote for them again. And again and again. I can only conclude they are stupid.
LOL….even the first responders want to leave and could if in the event Vallas becomes mayor and then the citizens will experience what Detroit experience when their first responders were allowed to leave the city limits. Seriously, this city has a very slim chance of turning itself around with the current leadership and possibly worse if the “new guy” comes in to tweak the ongoing soft on crime philosophy that Foxx, Dart, Pritzker and Preckwinkle have promoted. People of all colors are fleeing because they know the reckoning is coming and sooner than later. I’ve lived in Chicago all my… Read more »
Great job on the heaps of research & effort in this article! Yes, a trifecta of ignorance & ineffectiveness abounds in Chicago & since only one of the three will hopefully be addressed next week, that leaves an incredibly steep hill for the new Mayor-elect to climb. Is there enough time for Chicago to keep itself alive before removing the remaining two impediments? Are voters finally catching on or will they just vote as they have in the very recent past? I have my hopes… but I’m also not holding my breath.
Thank you, Matt, for all the hard work you have put in to give Chicagoans a kick in the proverbial arse. This may be its last chance. We can only pray.
While making a casual perusal of the list of “tops’ I can’t help but take note of the political party affiliation of the mayors of the cities with the most egregious stats. While correlation does not automatically indicate cause & effect, it is noteworthy, nonetheless! An interesting future excursion would be to the correlation between the homicides (total & per capita) and personal firearm ownership (total & per capita). While it’s been some time since I’ve seen the results of such a study, most have pointed to an inverse relationship. It would be interesting to see if that is still… Read more »
Everyone probably knows this but just in case, I checked the Mayoral political affiliation of the Top 20 cities. You probably know the answer, all but one, San Antonio listed as an Independent, is a Democrat. Draw you own conclusion.
The Red Southern States themselves have the highest murder rate in the US, both sides need to be known(The Western US is the safe sector, the North Yankees and Southern Rebels are killing fields, north and south both, Warthog42
You’re being willfully ignorant of who in the south is doing all that killing. It isn’t Trump voters.
This is so sad… when I watch the local NYC news it seems that many of the murders are random or the murderer kills the wrong person, often innocent kids. I suspect that most of the murders are drug related. Domestic violence often leads to murder. We need to find out the reasons people murder… not an easy task. Overdose deaths are not the only way that drugs kill. I remember Chicago’s Mayor Daly in the 1960’s. He wouldn’t have tolerated this.
Even after living close enough to Detroit to know better (Late 80’s), I never expected Chicago to take the #1 spot.
I’m voting for Mayor Fourfoot OUT.
Same…
As I was getting ready to comment I heard in St. Louis they are asking Kim Gardner to be relieved of her duties. We need more of this. If you can’t or won’t do your job step aside. It’s insanity for police to round up the same suspects, apprehend them and have them released a few hours later. Who can’t understand their frustration? When did criminals gain more rights than their victims? And how many revisit their victims? Lori Lightfoot has indicated if you don’t vote for me don’t vote. What? Huh? People are fed up and fighting back. Thanks… Read more »
“Chicago suffers from a trifecta of failure: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, the county’s Chief Judge Timothy Evans and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have crippled criminal justice and destroyed police morale”
Until these individuals are removed from office nothing will change.
Insanity reigns! Hard to wrap your head around it here in Chicago. Woke policies don’t work.
at the point of being repetitive, this whole issue has its roots in ONE thing. Total disarmament of the people and the end of community policing. Until one wraps their heads around that concept much of the activity/response makes almost no sense. To do things deliberately that are counterintuitive is evidence of a PLAN. Kim Foxx is the key to this understanding. Supported financially by George Soros, she is like many other DA’s that are statist stooges; they are here to pursue something called ‘restorative justice’ which sees criminals in their 20’s and 30’s as FAR more valuable to society… Read more »
Restorative justice believes that punishing mostly minority criminals has disrupted the minority communities and is one of the major causes of dysfunction in the black community. They’re not wrong. Incarcerating, or giving harsh punishments to people most certainly affects the community around them, leading to single mothers with no fathers to support their children, and parents with their children locked up, and family members that are dependent on those incarcerated harmed. That being said, restorative justice has been a complete disaster because it doesn’t stop or reduce crime. It only seems to increase crime as criminals feel emboldened to commit… Read more »
It’s a hard subject to discuss, but how about talking about race and murders? Often murders are spoken about as if they happen in a vacuum and are unexplainable. Rather, something has happened to black American youth, and it appears the precipice has been reached and left behind. Is the culture’s decline one that can be reversed and the culture saved? Are there leaders willing to be honest?
BLM? Apparently not all of them. Black on black crime doesn’t raise funds to buy high end homes for Patrisse Cullors.
There may be some, maybe… But they would then have to tolerate being labeled as racist from within their own culture. So very sad.
Really, the only choice is to move out of the City of Chicago or the State of Illinois. That’s what people are doing.
So unfortunate but that apparently is what the voters have said they want. It’ll continue to get worse with no end in sight.
Chicago is well on its way to becoming an empty shell of a city. At some point there will be no one left to save it.
Chicago has ~1/3 New York’s population, yet manages to kill nearly 60% more people than the Big Apple. Huh? Must be NYC’s stricter gun control measures, right? Or, if only Indiana were adjacent to NY state, NYC would surpass Chicago because, according to Lightfoot, Indiana’s guns are killing Chicagoans. Pathetic. Politicians keep throwing taxpayer dollars at a failing school system that yields miserable results and undereducated young adults. Except in churches, there are no efforts to encourage family responsibilities, evidenced by so many borne out of wedlock. The dependency state discourages work. God in the classroom has been replaced by… Read more »
Rought 12% of the guns confiscated in Chicago were from out of state, so its a fair point. 2nd going by raw numbers when talking about cities with very different populations is foolish and ignorant. A city with 1 million with 500 murders and a city with 100,000 and only 100 murders. Which is more dangerous? If you answered the 100k you are correct, in fact you are twice as likely to die there then in the big city despite it have 5x the number of murders. And of the locations with the highest murder and gun crime, vast majority… Read more »
The delicate truth and unfortunate reality is that murder rate has nothing to do with gun laws and everything to do with the population of black people. I’m not just making this up, FBI stats bear this out. The higher percentage of black people, the more murders. Chicago is only roughly 28 or 30% black so has a per capita murder rate lower than other US cities with higher black populations. Japan, CH and Aus. have virtually no black people, and have almost no gun crime either. I’ll leave it at that.
SWitz has 89 guns per 100 people and has a gun in every home. CH has fairly lax gun laws compared to the rest of europe.
has https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21379912
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/table-43
What I in artfully meant to say above is not that black peopel themselves are responsible for high murder but that the murder rate is the US is about black people and population density. Urban cities with many blacks have high murder rates regardless of gun laws. This applies to the US only. Countries like Switzerland and Aus have completely different gun laws, one lax and other strict but both have very low murder rates. Mexico/Brazil have strict gun laws but a very high murder rate. Rural areas in Red and Blue states with lots of blacks and whites also… Read more »
By jove I knew St Louis Attorney Kim Gardner would get St. Louis out of the #1 spot with her progressive theories on who to arrest!
Her days are numbered. Republican states are just about now, thousands of unnecessary deaths later, beginning to remove the Soros prosecutors.
The Chitty of Chicago is not safe at any speed. Honest hard-working families are fleeing to somewhere else, that being suburbs and leaving the state completely. The rush is on and cannot be stopped now. The cops allow the criminals to run the streets. The schools offer zero education so the only skills the graduates have are criminal skills. This is only going to get much worse.