So much for Chicago transit’s ‘anti-crime’ initiatives. 2022’s violent crime exceeded 2019, despite 46% plunge in riders – Wirepoints

By: Matt Rosenberg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) anti-crime initiative in February 2020 after a series of disturbing violent crimes on the city’s transit system. But the initiative has failed. Full-year 2022 CTA data shows a 15 percent increase in violent crime versus 2020, even though ridership in 2022 was only half what it was before the pandemic.

It’s always Groundhog Day when officialdom addresses CTA crime. Lightfoot’s anti-crime plan has been followed by the unveiling of several more such blueprints and a City Council show trial of the CTA’s chief. Again, all failures.

Violent crimes in 2022 on Chicago public transit – namely murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault – were up 3 percent compared to 2019 and 14 percent versus 2021. 

There were nine murders reported on the CTA last year versus four the year prior, and two in 2019. 

Versus 2019, criminal sexual assaults on the CTA grew 187 percent last year, almost tripling to 23 from 8. Aggravated battery was 26 percent greater. 

As for overall reported crimes on the CTA, they were down 42% vs. 2019, but that drop was less than the 46% drop in ridership (see Appendix). That’s to be expected: with fewer potential victims, there will be fewer crimes. Violent crimes on the CTA should also be fewer but they’re not because Chicago has become a sanctuary city for predators. CTA crime concerns peaked again last summer as passengers used guns and knives for self-defense.

Crime a central issue in mayoral election

Crime has become by far the central issue in the Chicago mayoral contest and voter sentiment on crime will shape the results of Tuesday’s mayoral primary. Eight challengers and Lightfoot are vying for the top two slots in the April 4 final run-off election. 

In a recent issue survey, nearly two-thirds of Chicago respondents said they feel “not safe” or “not too safe” on the city’s streets because of crime. Crime was far away the issue most likely to influence their decision in this year’s mayoral votes, respondents also said.

There are reasons for that. Citywide, reported major crimes were up 41 percent from 2021 last year and 33 percent compared to 2019. Against 2019, murder rose 39 percent, shooting incidents 32 percent and robberies 13 percent. It’s continuing, too. Major crimes in 2023 are up 52 percent versus 2022, Chicago Police reported Monday.

The sense of urgency around crime has doubtless been amplified by city management failures which have made the Chicago’s crime problem more persistent and glaring.

Almost half of the Chicago Police Department’s 11,700 sworn officers aren’t assigned to district-level patrol beats. There are almost 20 percent fewer patrol officers citywide versus 2019, when Lightfoot took office. 

Responses to high-priority 911 calls have faltered badly and repeatedly. Because some crime victims choose not to wait for stretched-thin police unable to respond in a timely manner to 911 calls, these crimes go unreported. 

And arrest rates in 2022 for major crimes were a stunningly low 5 percent. 

Chicago’s transit system: a movable crime scene

Meanwhile, against this backdrop of entrenched disorder, crime on the CTA continues to make headlines almost daily.

  • A four-time felon on the CTA Green Line train during rush hour held a robbery victim at gunpoint and stole his phone, credit card, conceal carry license, and keys. A gunfight with multiple rounds fired ensued between the alleged robber and his victim on the train and platform at the Cicero Ave. Blue Line stop.
  • A restaurant prep cook with six prior felony convictions including two for unlawful use of a firearm was charged again with that offense after he boarded a CTA bus on West Chicago Ave carrying a long rifle. Police said he was also carrying a loaded high-capacity ammunition magazine.
  • At the Monroe Red Line platform in December a group of as many as 20 offenders joined in a brutal beating of a passenger on the platform. The victim was beaten, kicked, stomped on the head, and hit in the face with a bottle. Three of the roughly 20 perpetrators were later taken into police custody.
  • On the Blue Line this month after an argument on the train, one man shot another as they exited at the Illinois Medical Center station. The victim was hospitalized in good condition. Another argument on the Red Line – also this month – led to gunfire and a train stoppage at Garfield Boulevard. No one was injured. A man was stabbed on the Blue Line in February. 
  • 16 days after getting probation for a first-time gun offense, a man was charged with robbing a CTA station attendant of her purse and laptop at the Argyle station on the Red Line. 
  • An eight-time felon with two convictions for attacks on CTA passengers was charged again in January after Washington Blue Line station video showed him coming up behind a 64-year-old passenger waiting for a train and punching her in the face. She was a CTA worker. 
  • A man in a minor accident with a CTA bus pointed a gun at the driver when she got out to take pictures and was later apprehended.

Many of the victims were CTA employees. Is it any wonder that the CTA says it’s 700 to 900 operators short of what’s needed to run its buses and trains.

Is anyone in charge here?

Add it all up and the question seems to be: who’s running Chicago? But it’s more like, is anyone running Chicago? The apparent answer: the criminals are.

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Tubal-Cain
1 year ago

Gov Hochul’s prohibition against concealed carry in “sensitive places” has been declared unconstitutional by a NY federal court. It is only matter of time before CTA riders will be able to legally destroy the thugs. We should be grateful for the efforts of young mechanical engineers
who have developed the 3D printed guns for the public!

Dave Fellows
1 year ago

In your few examples, many have multiple felony priors. The second felony arrest, give them life, no parole. If they didn’t learn their lesson the first time, oh well.
Not enough prisons you say? Fence off the Badlands, turn it into a penal colony.

SadStateofAffairs
1 year ago

CTA is led by an industry transit veteran and lawyer with Harold and Obama connections in Dorval Carter who is surrounded by inept and incompetent leadership which leads the rank and file. While not everyone shows poor leadership skills, many at the top lead by fear, discrimination, intimidation and are believers in a 100% woke agenda that drive daily decisions in employee training and corporate culture. Their boneheaded decisions have cost the agency so much of its experienced leadership bench, that similar to CPD, many CTA professionals who were smart, highly technical, and outstanding in their jobs have been terminated,… Read more »

debtsor
1 year ago

South Africa tried this with its electric grid. They had a policy to hire based on skin color and political beliefs and not competence. Several years later, the grid has collapsed, because there is no one competent left to maintain or repair the grid, and there are rolling power outages. And when power outages occur, the masses sweep in and loot the grid itself, stealing copper cables and selling it for pennies on the dollar. here’s a recent thread from Twitter from a guy in SOuth Africa tweeting about these things. It ain’t pretty.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1629707620792582146.html

SadStateofAffairs
1 year ago
Reply to  debtsor

Definitely a look into the crystal ball when one group who disenfranchised another and now a reversal of sorts with more discrimination against the so called “oppressor”. Last time I checked the oppressor and fragile colonial wrote the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, sad they want to flush it down the toilet. Not a place for a civilized society but a complete and total breakdown of government and eventually all law and order is what we are seeing. Protestors, community organizers, militants, and activists, have never been really good at running a society daily to supply all that it needs… Read more »

debtsor
1 year ago

It’s only a matter of time before safety at the CTA collapses, with major accidents, maintenance failures, injuries, delays and cancellation of services. It’s coming, it’s only a matter of time, and it may in fact already be happening, but is covered up. I’m not spewing hyperbole or fear either. This is what happened in communist russia too when the competent people were fired or killed. There was no one competent left to run or design or maintain the train lines and rail accidents began to pile up. What did the commies do after a decade of horrible rail disasters… Read more »

Dan
1 year ago

It just shows people will find another travel option when danger is so prevalent.

Marie
1 year ago

You can’t fix transit system crime or any other crime in Chicago as long as the inmates continue to run the asylum. Even a new mayor won’t do it. Pritzker won’t allow it…he’s running for President in a BLUE State so he has a “BLUE” agenda. As for a new mayor…I’m sure we remember all of the “right” things Eric Adams said and then what an awful politician he is now that he’s been elected. I’m afraid the same thing will happen in Chicago.

debtsor
1 year ago

It’s only a matter of time before the Guardian Angels return….

ProzacPlease
1 year ago
Reply to  debtsor

They want to march around screaming “No Justice, No Peace”? Time for law enforcement and law-abiding citizens to spike that ball right back at them. The justice system needs to come down hard on repeat offenders. Show them that a civilized society does not allow criminals to run free to prey on its citizens. No Justice, No Peace for the criminals.

debtsor
1 year ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

A majority of voters in Cook County, do not want the system to come down hard on repeat offenders. This seems crazy, of course, to a normal person, because most societies on earth, going back to at least the Code of Hammurabi, have punished offenders severely, harshly and quickly. But voters in Cook County, with their poor educations, know better than every other civilization in history, and believe that progressive policies – even if it leads to higher crime – is better for society.

Last edited 1 year ago by debtsor
debtsor
1 year ago
Reply to  debtsor

MOVED TO ABOVE

Last edited 1 year ago by debtsor
ProzacPlease
1 year ago
Reply to  debtsor

Low-education voters may want it, but the blame is squarely on the progressives who are offering it to them and cheerleading for it. No sane society bows to this kind of pathology, no matter who wants it.

This is why our founding fathers tried so hard to check the power of a majority mob.

Last edited 1 year ago by ProzacPlease
The Paraclete
1 year ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

Build more jails, keep them full. When you no longer have space for new inmates, build more jails.

Hale L DeMar
1 year ago

Canine Units on these Train Platforms would have a very positive affect. And there are plenty of Chicago Police who would enjoy that particular duty. And the upside, no paid vacation days, no retirement benefits, no health care costs and for about $2 per day to feed these Canine partners. Moreover, nothing strikes more fear into a perpetrator more so than 90 pound German Shepherd, wearing a muzzle ! Watch public transportation crime come to a very abrupt end.

Riverbender
1 year ago

Obviously the cure can be found in another article I read here today…buy protection. How utterly simple. Its just another pay to play game and wont involve any additional taxes. Simply cough up a few bucks and buy some safety and think of the civic service you will be providing giving an out of work thug a job as a guard. I wonder why Daley never thought of it?

Poor Taxpayer
1 year ago

Criminals are scared to ride on public transportation.

Marie
1 year ago
Reply to  Poor Taxpayer

Of course, -1 doesn’t use public transportation, he just steals a car.

Poor Taxpayer
1 year ago

It is getting so only criminals ride the public transportation. The system is now good for creating jobs and benefits and overly generous pensions. This is a cash cow for government lackies.

Aaron
1 year ago

The only crime Lori cares about is being white patriotic American in Chicago.

Willowglen
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron

NY is suffering the same problem. With a different governance structure than Illinois, Hochul is enacting a payroll tax to raise revenue for the system, which faces a huge cliff when pandemic money expires in 2025. Suburban Democrats in NY describe the legislation as an “extinction level” event for them. Gives one an idea of how Brandon Johnson’s soak the suburbs revenue plans will be received – although absent governance changes – they will likely never get off the ground. Also Hochul is enacting rules that require 800k in new housing units, with each town having a quota. Failure to… Read more »

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