By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
In the span of just two days in early August, a crew of armed robbers hit Chicago’s Logan Square 19 separate times. That crew helped spike robberies 49% in Chicago last month compared to the same period a year ago. In the South Loop, hundreds of youth mobbed, looted and trashed a 7-Eleven, resulting in 40 arrests, all part of an increase in Chicago “teen takeovers.” And car thefts, after jumping dramatically in 2022, are up yet again this year by more than 100 percent.
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.
2023’s crimes are following the same path as in years past, but at a much higher level than before. Each month, about 1,600 more major crimes – including homicides, criminal sexual assaults, robberies, burglaries, major thefts, aggravated batteries and motor vehicle thefts – are committed in Chicago compared to 2022.
Media might celebrate the fact that murders are down slightly this year, but the news isn’t as good as it sounds. Murders are dropping much faster in the nation’s biggest cities. And even then, every one of the other six major crimes are up (burglaries, barely). Robberies are up 18%, Aggravated Batteries are up 9% and Theft Over $500 is up 10% – not to mention the 113% increase in car thefts.
A few months ago, Wirepoints warned that “deterrence” policies were needed immediately to bring crime down. Unfortunately, deterrence hasn’t happened. If anything, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s rhetoric has likely contributed to Chicago’s ongoing criminal activity. His “kids being silly” defense back in April and July’s “not baby Al Capones,” push back, coupled with his longer history of other criminal justice comments, are the opposite of the attitude Chicago needs.
Here are the latest facts about Chicago crime:
Robberies and motor vehicle thefts are large drivers of Chicago’s crime surge. The latest CPD Compstat data YTD through August 13 shows robberies are running 20 percent higher compared to last year and car-thefts are up by nearly 110 percent.
Robberies blew up in July and August due to a spree of activity by Chicago’s criminals, many of which made the news:
- A criminal group committed 62 armed robberies across the city in early July. “The armed robberies have happened downtown, and on the North, Northwest and West sides. In each incident, police said the suspects got out of a car with guns and robbed their victims, sometimes stealing their cars and attacking them.”
- Another group used a stolen car to commit a string of 8 robberies all on Aug. 13th. “In each incident, three to six men wearing dark colored clothing and black ski masks jumped out of a stolen car, displayed multiple firearms at victims, including rifles, stole their property and fled, according to Chicago police.”
- The above-mentioned crimes in Logan Square, which was hit with 19 robberies in just two days. “In all of the robberies, two people in stolen Kias and Hyundais got out of their car armed with handguns and demanded the victims’ belongings. Victims were injured in more than one incident, police said.”
The city is suffering from an average of about 2,500 car thefts a month, far higher than during the same period last year. As mentioned above, it’s one of the major reasons for Chicago’s surge. However, the increase over 2022 is unlikely to last – at least on a monthly basis. The city’s jump in motor thefts began in July of last year, maxing out at nearly 3,200 thefts in October.
That’s likely cold comfort to the city’s victims, as car thefts in 2023 will still more than likely end up far higher than their 2022 total.
The decline in carjackings is not as positive as it seems. You’ll hear from plenty in the media that carjackings in Chicago are down. While that’s true, what the stories don’t mention is that the increase in motor vehicle theft has more than supplanted the drop in carjackings. Criminals began resorting less to carjackings in mid-2002 when they figured out it was infinitely easier to steal cars, in particular Kias and Hyundais. Those thefts have more than made up for the decline in carjackings, multiple times over.
Chicagoans this year have experienced 257 fewer carjackings compared to Jan.-Jul. of 2022, but car thefts in that same period are up by nearly 9,100. A total of 17,000 cars have already been stolen in Chicago so far this year, compared to 21,000 for all of last year.
Homicides are down, but other big cities are doing far better. The one major crime item to show a drop in Chicago is homicides, down 6 percent compared to last year, according to the CPD’s August 13 (Week 33) CompStat numbers. Chicago has suffered 389 murders vs. 416 during the same period in 2022.
Unfortunately, even that decline is tempered by the fact that the nation’s other major cities have seen their own murders drop much more than that. Los Angeles homicides are down 25% this year. Philadelphia’s are down 23%. Houston by 22%. And New York is down 12%.
Chicago’s murders – the actual number – still dwarf those of the other big cities. Unless Philly suffers from a massive increase in bloodshed, Chicago is guaranteed to lead the nation in the total number of homicides for the 12th year in a row.
For a full report of homicides by the nation’s largest 75 cities, see Chicago, New Orleans were the nation’s murder capitals in 2022 – A Wirepoints survey of America’s 75 largest cities
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Chicago’s new Police Chief Larry Snelling is inheriting a city wracked by crime. We hope he’ll be able to implement at least some of the changes needed to make Chicago policing more effective. Unfortunately, his efforts will mean little as long as Chicago has prosecutors that won’t prosecute, judges who won’t sentence and a mayor more interested in “root causes” than immediately tamping down on crime.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Red states, blue cities: Who’s to blame for America’s homicide crisis
- What Chicago requires immediately is deterrence. Stop the bleed. Fast.
- Chicago, New Orleans were the nation’s murder capitals in 2022 – A Wirepoints survey of America’s 75 largest cities
- Not ‘mob action…they are not baby Al Capones’ says Chicago Mayor Johnson about latest youth violence
- Chicago murders: Good news, bad news
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.
https://www.weforum.org/organizations/c40-cities-climate-leadership-group
See c40 from wef webpage. Chicago is trying to ban cars by 2030.
And the problem is white supremacists or kids just funnin’ I’m still trying to decide.
The System is designed to create more crime.
No education, no jobs, and no law enforcement.
The highest cost of government and the lowest services.
You haven’t seen anything yet, just wait and see what is coming next.
CPD cannot do their job anymore, thanks to lib Chicago lib government and cameras, extreme scrutiny and personal liability, majority of CPD want to help people and help their community.
They wont stop. WEFaffiliated leaders dont want cars, hence promote theft. Johnson isnt inept he is doing what WEF wants him to do
The people committing these crimes are just having fun. There is nothing to do in their neighborhoods so they go out and create fun. Brandon Johnson forgives them because they know not what they do.
They just funnin. The mayor needs to take off his alien mask and tell everyone he is from another planet. A planet where there is no rules or accountability, do as much funnin as you want player hater! What a joke with clowns as city leaders. Making Bozo and Cooky look like physicists.
Based upon the election I surmise that this is what the Chicago blacks must want.
Guv Pigchop hates Illinois and doesn’t care about crime in Chicago. He wears a man girdle to keep his massive gut under control!
Would that be like a corset from the Victorian era? It will be hard to light his gas chandelier and his gas sconces in the Gold Coast with that tight of a dress on. Maybe he uses MK as a footstool to reach those 12 foot ceilings. Definitely concerned, maybe time for the governors mansion to hire a lamplighter? It’s tough for us peasants to live to serve our king.
Crime is down. Inflation is transitory. There is no border crisis. Everything’s fine. Don’t demonize.
See, the trick is to steal from people without them realizing it. I’m an expert at that.
Guv Pigchop hates Illinois and loves that you steal. He wears a man girdle to keep his massive gut under control!
Equity – the suckage is everywhere now. It’s what the voters of Chicago wanted. What a shame.
Guv Pigchop is loved by the voters and doesn’t care what jack thinks. He wears a man girdle to keep his massive gut under control!
BLM BJ doesn’t care about the crime. The criminals are his primary constituents, so he can’t get reelected if he puts them in jail. The only answer is to move out and depopulate Chiraq until all that is left are the BLM BJ voters.
Mag Mile: Manslaughter Jun 29 afternoon in front of Cartier, cops let attacker go, though victim was badly injured and died later in hospital. MAC and MGM robbed in last week, mid-afternoon. Hookers and drug-use in broad daylight at St Clair between Ohio/Ontario, at Inn of Chicago “recently arrived migrants” hotel. 7-11 at Ontario/McClurg regularly flash-looted, without owner even bothering CPD. Mag Mile retail association will double its spending on street security”, from $.7 million to $1.5 million, with nary a peep regarding absence of CPD arrests of either violent offenders or organized shoplift gangs. Also, CWB web-site notes if… Read more »
Lori was the gift that keeps on giving…
2024 Democrat Convention will be a showcase of how soft on crime Democrat policy has turned cities into unflushed crime toilets
Yep, I think that too.
One can only hope that HR Mary Johnson’s best and brightest bring their sparks of divinity to the convention and show the Dems what they have wrought. Would love for Skunkweed Harris, Golden Corral regular Abrams and all the other fellow travelers to get an eyeful of the Windy Chitty.
Guv Pigchop hates Illinois and doesn’t’ care what some dumb hoosier thinks. He wears a man girdle to keep his massive gut under control!
Indeed. I hope that the criminals put on a show that the Dems never forget. Empty the jails and let ‘em party the entire time the Dems are in town. And let the entire nation see on television the state the Democratic Party has gotten us into.