Traumatizing robberies and violent crime continue to go up in Chicago this year, hitting a six-year high compared to the same time last year. It’s crime in neighborhoods perceived as safe, sometimes taking place in broad daylight, that’s driving the increased fear among Chicagoans and suburbanites.
Chicago ranked last at 22%, far lower than the national average of 62%. Austin topped the list at 110%.
We reported recently how Chicago’s metro area lost population again for the third year in a row. Those same U.S. Census estimates show that population losses across the state remain widespread: 93 of Illinois’ 102 counties have experienced population loss since 2020.
The latest 2023 Census population estimates show migration and population changes have largely returned to their pre-pandemic patterns across the country. Metro Chicago’s loss of 16,600 people is the 3rd-highest decline among the nation’s metropolitan areas. Only the Los Angeles area (down 71,000) and the New York City area (down 65,000) lost more people than Chicagoland.
Count on hearing repeatedly this year from Chicago’s leadership that it successfully brought down the city’s murder total by 13% in 2023. Chicago finished the year with 617 homicides, down from 709 in 2022. What you’re unlikely to hear are five additional facts that would temper any optimism gained from that first fact.
Where Chicago crime heads next year is still tough to guess. Has Chicago’s “crime wave” hit a peak and begun to flatten or trend down, as murders appear to be doing? Or will Chicago’s decarcerationist trend – supported by the end of cash bail and Mayor Johnson’s soft-on-crime policies – embolden criminals to do more?
It would be naïve to think that a progressive Chicago mayor could actually reduce the city’s crime numbers during his first 100 days in office. Unfortunately, Johnson has refused to even try. Crime numbers show a total of 204 murders in his first 100 days – far more than the mayor’s two immediate predecessors.
Chicago’s crime wave is still on the move nearly two-thirds of the way through 2023. The number of total major crimes committed in the city through July is 34 percent higher than the same period in 2022, which in turn was 33 percent higher than in 2021, according to the city’s crime data portal.
If you’re looking for some good news about Chicago crime, here’s some. Murders this year through June 25 are down 7 percent compared to the same period in 2022. Chicago Police Compstat has reported 287 murders so far this year, while the comparable number last year was 310.
Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson’s primary focus on crime is on “root causes,” with little-to-no emphasis on containing today’s out-of-control violence. It’s a strategy doomed to failure. Tackling root causes is important, but they take a long time to address. What Chicago requires immediately is deterrence.
After the disastrous one-term tenure of outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago has landed hard at an urgent turning point. The city is wracked by disarray and dysfunction of epic scope. It’s moral decay that’s driving corrosive crime and failing schools – from which black and brown Chicagoans suffer worst. If Chicago can’t muster the courage to torpedo its underlying moral decay, the city’s troubling predicament will worsen even further.
A recent analysis by WBEZ’s Alden Loury published in the Sun-Times argues that Chicago mayoral finalist Paul Vallas’ first-place primary finish was powered by white precincts scared of minorities, using exaggerated crime concerns as a proxy for racial prejudice. Here’s why that’s a ridiculous insinuation.
Brandon Johnson has taken a different tack than Vallas with a focus on social programs fueled by higher taxes to get at the “root causes” of crime. But Johnson in recent years has gone further, expressing support for the “Defund the Police” movement and sympathy for looters in Chicago.
Chicago: it’s time to get back to basics. Against the city’s Wild West backdrop, there is no substitute for effective law enforcement, and no substitute for real criminal justice. Violence prevention programs are increasingly fashionable. But they aren’t proving out.
Wirepoints’ research on Chicago’s ongoing crime wave was cited by Ben Shapiro as one of the reasons why Lori Lightfoot lost her job as Chicago’s mayor last night. “She happened to do nothing about the massive crime problems inside the city. In fact, according to Wirepoints.org, Chicago’s homicide rate is about 5 times higher than that of New York City and 2.5 times higher than Los
Chicago was the nation’s extreme outlier for homicides in 2022, with 697 deaths. What’s worse, Chicago has out-paced the entire nation in murders for 11 years in a row. That’s not surprising given the failed policies of recent years, The pursuit of “social justice” instead of actual justice has only increased the protection of criminals, crushed police morale and increased the violence inflicted on ordinary Chicagoans.
Chicago and New Orleans were the nation’s murder capitals in 2022. They’re just two of the local governments in America’s homicide hot-spots that continue to falter in their role as protectors of public safety more than two years removed from George Floyd’s murder and the covid pandemic. Chicago led the nation in total homicides with 697. New Orleans led the nation with a homicide rate of 74.3
It’s back. Namely, that specious argument that Chicago’s 695 murders in 2022 are nothing much to worry about because there’ve been other years when the total was considerably higher. The “So what? It used to be worse” argument is utter nonsense and callous, dehumanizing, and dangerous.
Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans is the key architect of the county’s infamous “bail reform.” On Tuesday, Cook County voter retained him by a 70% to 30% vote.
Neither Pritzker or Lightfoot can escape the reality that they’ve lost control over the city’s crime. One statistic that particularly captures their failure is Chicago’s homicide rate compared to that in big-city peers New York and Los Angeles.
“In thinking about the challenges and complications of this extraordinary year, a year in which we have been confronted with crisis after crisis, at times seemingly without end, I have been looking back on the history of our beloved City to glean insights on any other comparable time. In the historical record, I have searched for comparisons and solutions. The 1880s through the early 1890s marked a period in our history that has shades of our current experience. This is right after the great Chicago fire. A time in which there was great unrest. The modern labor movement took root
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