Chicago’s murder numbers have hit that magic 500. Baltimore’s murder toll has passed 200. In Philly, it’s up to 324, the highest since 2007. In Detroit, it’s approaching 400, another record. In New Orleans, it’s almost at 200. New York City is down to 414 from 508. In Los Angeles, it’s over 500. In St. Louis it’s 113 and 130 in Oakland. It’s 121 in Memphis and 76 in Birmingham.
Washington, D.C., home of the boys and girls who can solve it all, is nearing its own big 100.
Those 12 cities alone account for nearly 3,200 dead and nearly a quarter of all murders in the United States. And we haven’t even visited sunny Atlanta or chilly Cleveland.
These cities are the heartland of America’s real gun culture. It isn’t the bitter gun-and-bible clingers in McCain and Romney territory who are racking up a more horrifying annual kill rate than Al Qaeda; it’s Obama’s own voting base.
Chicago, where Obama delivered his victory speech, has homicide numbers that match all of Japan and are higher than Spain, Poland and pre-war Syria. If Chicago gets any worse, it will find itself passing the number of murders for the entire country of Canada.
Chicago’s murder rate of 15.65 per 100,000 people looks nothing like the American 4.2 rate, the Midwestern 4.5 or the Illinois’ 5.6 rates, but it does look like the murder rates in failed countries like Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. To achieve Chicago’s murder rate, African countries usually have to experience a bloody genocidal civil war or decades of tyranny.
But Chicago isn’t even all that unique. Or the worst case scenario. That would be New Orleans which at an incredible 72.8 murder rate is ten times higher than the national average. If New Orleans were a country, it would have the 2nd highest murder rate in the world, beating out El Salvador.
Louisiana went red for Romney 58 to 40, but Orleans Parish went blue for Obama 80 to 17.
St. Louis has a murder rate just a little lower than Belize. Baltimore has a worse murder rate than South Africa and Detroit has a worse murder rate than Colombia. Obama won both St. Louis and Baltimore by comfortable margins. He won Detroit’s Wayne County 73 to 26.
Homicide rates like these show that something is broken, but it isn’t broken among the Romney voters rushing to stock up on assault rifles every time Obama begins threatening their right to buy them; it’s broken among Obama’s base.
Any serious conversation about gun violence and gun culture has to begin at home; in Chicago, in Baltimore, in New York City, in Los Angeles and in Washington, D.C.
Voting for Obama does not make people innately homicidal. Just look at Seattle which is agonizing over its 26 murders. That’s about the same number of murders as East St. Louis which has only 27,000 people to Seattle’s 620,000.
So what is happening in Chicago to drive it to the gates of hell ahead of Zimbabwe and Rwanda?
A breakdown of the Chicago killing fields shows that 83% of those murdered in Chicago last year had criminal records. In Philly, it’s 75%. In Milwaukee it’s 77% percent. In New Orleans, it’s 64%. In Baltimore, it’s 91%. Many were felons who had served time. And as many as 80% of the homicides were gang related.
Chicago’s problem isn’t guns; it’s gangs. Gun control efforts in Chicago or any other major city are doomed because gangs represent organized crime networks which stretch down to Mexico, and trying to cut off their gun supply will be as effective as trying to cut off their drug supply.
America’s murder rate isn’t the work of the suburban and rural homeowners who shop for guns at sporting goods stores and at gun shows, and whom news shows profile after every shooting, but by the gangs embedded in the urban areas controlled by the Democratic machine. The gangs who drive up America’s murder rate look nothing like the occasional mentally ill suburban white kid who goes off his medication and decides to shoot up a school. Lanza, like most serial killers, is a media aberration, not the norm.
National murder statistics show that blacks are far more likely to be killers than whites and they are also far more likely to be killed. The single largest cause of homicides is the argument. 4th on the list is juvenile gang activity with 676 murders, which combined with various flavors of gangland killings takes us nearly to the 1,000 mark. America has more gangland murders than Sierra Leone, Eritrea and Puerto Rico have murders.
Our national murder rate is not some incomprehensible mystery that can only be attributed to the inanimate tools, the steel, brass and wood that do the work. It is largely the work of adult males from age 18 to 39 with criminal records killing other males of that same age and criminal past.
If this were going on in Rwanda, El Salvador or Sierra Leone, we would have no trouble knowing what to make of it, and silly pearl-clutching nonsense about gun control would never even come up. But this is Chicago, it’s Baltimore, it’s Philly and NOLA; and so we refuse to see that our major cities are in the same boat as some of the worst trouble spots in the world.
Lanza and Newtown are comforting aberrations. They allow us to take refuge in the fantasy that homicides in America are the work of the occasional serial killer practicing his dark art in one of those perfect small towns that always show up in murder mysteries or Stephen King novels. They fool us into thinking that there is something American about our murder rate that can be traced to hunting season, patriotism and bad mothers.
But go to Chicago or Baltimore. Go where the killings really happen and the illusion comes apart.
There is a war going on in America between gangs of young men who bear an uncanny resemblance to their counterparts in Sierra Leone or El Salvador. They live like them, they fight for control of the streets like them and they kill like them.
America’s horrific murder rate is a result of the transformation of major American cities into Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and El Salvador. Our murder rate now largely consists of criminals killing criminals.
As David Kennedy, the head of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control, put it, “The majority of homicide victims have extensive criminal histories. This is simply the way that the world of criminal homicide works. It’s a fact.”
America is, on a county by county basis, not a violent country, just as it, on a county by county basis, did not vote for Obama. It is being dragged down by broken cities full of broken families whose mayors would like to trash the Bill of Rights for the entire country in the vain hope that national gun control will save their cities, even though gun control is likely to be as much help to Chicago or New Orleans as the War on Drugs.
Obama’s pretense that there needs to be a national conversation about rural American gun owners is a dishonest and cynical ploy that distracts attention from the real problem that he and politicians like him have sat on for generations.
We do not need to have a conversation about the NRA. We need to have a conversation about Chicago.
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This article doesn't deal with secular trends that account for some of the changes in murder rates. America's murder rate peaked over a decade-and-a-half ago, with about 23,000-25,000 dying annually. The reason for this was simple, a crack epidemic, and a culture of permissiveness that treated felony convictions as a revolving door where the criminal was in and out of prison, and criminals manipulated the system with plea bargains. The high rates of murder started to decline when a number of states instituted minimum sentencing, three strikes and you are out, and when forensics improved so that previously unsolvable crimes could be investigated using DNA evidence.
There was also a cultural change… if murder and other crime rates had stayed at the levels that they were in the early 1960's, then perhaps 400,000 or more lives would have been saved. Think about it this way, more Americans have been murdered in the last 53 years (without referring to govt stats I'm guessing over 700,000) than were died in two world wars, Korea and Vietnam.
One aspect that the media do not want to address, is that the high murder rate is concentrated in a criminal subculture of the Black community. While most Black Americans are law abiding, there is a criminal subset of that community which up until fairly recently accounted for perhaps 40-60% of all murders in America. Interesting also, is the media's failure to address that while most crime is intra-racial, most of the interracial crime and interracial murders between the black and the white communities is black on white crime, and not white on black crime.
Of course there are other factors, but that will have to wait for another time.
Saying that the majority of homicides in this demographic are facilitated by a criminal subset I believe, while tempting, is a ultimately fallacy and unintentionally weakens your argument. You are implying that the murder rate in that population is due to a premeditated choice to join the criminal class. While sometimes true, I don’t believe that that is the case for a large number of homicides in this demographic (half or more). I would wager that half or more of these homicides are impulsive, with no prior premeditation or very little of it. This alternative model could be loosely verified by cross referencing the number of prior convictions of convicted first-time killers, if any, to see if any were from premeditated violence or impulsive behavior. Prior crimes of impulse/anger or no prior record for convicted first-time murderers could likely be loosley correlated with no significant homicidal premeditation or, alternately, homicide for emotional reasons rather than for criminal gain or for reasons of inter-criminal competition. If true, think about what that important change in nuance means.
You used the phrase ‘I would wager’ and ‘I don’t believe’ to go up against the FACTS of the argument withing the article. Facts are such a pest to those who deny the truth.
dont bring Opinions to a Factual argument! especially when they (don’t) fly . just admit you don’t want to accept the facts . as is said everyone can have his own opinions, but not his iwn facts.
Outstanding, well articulated, bravo sir. I have been screaming this for years, thank you for putting it all together.
To reinforce your point, the second largest Illinois city, Aurora, had 0 murders for the first time in decades due to an effective anti-gang campaign.
Strange that this article mentioned drugs in passing but not as the basis of the gangs' activity and raison d'être (stranger still in an article about Chicago, home of Al Capone, considering that the US murder rate fell by 50% the year Prohibition was repealed), and it failed to mention environmental lead at all: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/le…
Ignoring such causes just gives ammunition to the gun-grabbers. If conservatives were even semi-competent they could easily seize the moral high ground here.
I lived in London for many years and returned a few years ago for a short visit to see my brother. It resembled some African slum as the open borders assisted by the left had allowed people in who had no notion of ever integrating, would always be a burden to the taxpayer and had brought their own form of cultural baggage with them. This baggage includes guns, knives, drugs and gangs, subjugation of women via Sharia Law and living off the sweat of those who work for a living. With the left wingers and human rights lovies forever baying for more and more acceptance of what these people represent, it didn't take a genius to figure out why the UK ended up as a depositary for those from the third world, nor why we in the West are expect to toe the line on their rights lest we be referred to as racists. Frankly, I don't care anymore as I cannot accept that we are meant to capitulate to throwbacks from a world that has done precious little to enhance mankind through the centuries other than the endless killings, mayhem and begging bowl we are meant to fill each and every time they see fit not to work for their crust. Banning guns in the UK has not stopped these people from bending the law to get them. Meanwhile, and under no circumstances are the hunters and farmers who are law abiding citizens allowed to possess such dangerous weapons, only criminals have that privilege. Enough.
except for MS13 our major gangs are homegrown and consist of native americans. Black Gangster Deciples is going on over 60 years. Same for Deacons. And tho MS13 is mostly Central Americans, it started in California among prisoners. it is the exception. to that degree.
The main problem is this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/opinion/how-ban…
This is why the drug culture and the illegal guns and gang violence/murder that accompany it will never leave this country. The corporate elite, the gov't and the alphabet agencies all benefit from it.
Banning drugs has never defeated drug use. In fact, it has spawned a plethora of drug Cartels that now rival governments. Killing is rampant.
The way to fight the drug war is to legalize and decriminalize all drugs. Emasculate the Cartels and take away the main reason Gangs exist today. The subject is the same as it was for alcohol which was banned and caused pandemonium.
Banning guns would only spawn more criminal gangs. Besides it would be a violation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution! Killings would increase as experience and history tells us.
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Government "Bans and Regulations" are not about Correction. Thy are about Power and Control. They are instituted in the interests of people but rather for their own sense of power over people. They fear a righteous uprising against them by an oppressed public.
The Politicians and the wealthy have guards with guns to immediately protect them.
What will good people without guns have to immediately protect themselves from bad people?
What America needs is a moral direction. We have turned from our traditional values to the freely good philosophy of the secularists. There is no longer a right or wrong, no one is responsible for their actions, everything is someone else's fault. I'm poor because of him. I'm bad because my mommy was mean to me. He a guu boy, he not in da gang. And on and on. We need moral leadership not some pandering liar that has only one ability…to pit one group against another….. This Administration has done nothing but Balkanize this country and create a nation of self centered gimme gimme whiney self loving drains on society. Divide and conquer….the communist manifesto.
Another isue that should be adressed with inner city murder rates is the astonishing number of repeat offender. There felons who haved been jailed two to three times for murder and yet they are still out prison to commit more crimes. Some thing is wrong with this picture. Most civilized parts of th country you go to prison once for murder and thats it you dont get back out.
Liquidate the gangs. Summary Death Penalty for any violent crime involving gang activity, or proven gang affiliation. If the gang rules are “blood in, blood out”, then society must provide the blood out. Start with the prisons, all gang offenders go up against the wall. Next, move into the streets. The lawless element destroying our communities and draining our wealth must be eliminated. You either kill the cancer or the cancer kills you.
Delete comments that state the truth. I won't read this trash here anymore. Limit free speech, f u
Read this, and you'll realize the problem in Chicago!!! Written exactly one year ago… and nothing done. http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Januar…
then look at Aurora, IL, 2nd largest city in Illinois, who had zero murders this year. Why? Because they got the FBI, and other agencies involved and got rid of the gangs! Most of these gangbangers are in jail serving life sentences. But will Chicago follow suit? Probably not…
"[America] on a county by county basis, did not vote for Obama."
A majority of the voters voted for him, which is more than W managed despite starting a war to help his chances.
Urban gang members are making a livable wage selling drugs and occasionally guns. It will be counterproductive if their source of income were curbed by narcotic squads; they would then turn to home invasion and mugging in order to survive. Narcotic cops should shift their attention to busting unaffiliated drug addicts who are on public assistance; their slovenly appearance makes them easy to spot.
Compromise:
Since most civillian gun violence and murders are committed by Obama supporters then maybe if we just keep guns out of their hands and everyone would be happy. We could look at the voting map and determine which districts are predominantly for Obama and ban guns from there. As they support Obama, they would be happy with his decision and we would see the murder rate drop. On the flip side, Conservative gun owners that don’t murder so much would get to keep their guns and continue to use them responsibly. The End.
Britain has a population of 50 million approx. They had approx 60 homicides by gun last year. We have a population of approx 300 million We had approx 12,000 homicides last year. They have drug problems and poor ethnic groups. We have to ask ourselves why there is such a huge difference in the amount of
killing. Do they have the same violent television programing? Do their children play video games where they get points for killing people? I dont think gun control will make any difference because no matter what laws had been in effect they would not have prevented Sandy Hook. We need to find answers.
Wonderful facts and figures. I will use these facts to drive Progs/Libs nuts.
So is the NRA proposing armed guards in schools in all those safe counties http://www.criminaljusticeschoolsreview.com
If drugs were legal then the gangs would mostly fall apart and not be making their money Just think if it was legal crime rates would go down a ton because its really all about making money for the gangs and they make this money mostly by drug dealing
Work in Newark, NJ on EMS, 95% of gun deaths are gang related.
It's benn coming for a while…….we got liberal, we dummmed down our schools so all could pass, we bowed down to cultures that always promote violence, and we have been told that it is us that made them that way/////As a native American I see it not by color….but by fact…..Blacks and Hispanic culture needs to look in the mirror and get their act together before America as we know it disaapears…..During the great depression we had starving skinny people and less crime……Now we have Fat, Lazy, violent people, that must have plenty of money for food, ciggaretts , booze, and drugs…….There is no real truth being said….
DEMOCRATS GO TO HELL
Gangsters killing gangsters? Not really caring, sorry. I grew up in a gang heavy area and I could see the acceptance waiting for me if I would join up with my "homies". My mother and father raised me right and I didn't buy into that lifestyle. One thing you know going in, you are likely to get shot at some point. I took a beating now and then, but I would not play into that gang stuff.
We get a lot of boohoo over things like poverty, poor education, etc, but so many haven risen above it and took their own life into their hands. A gangster is not tough, they took the easy way out. The person who fights there way out of that life is the tough one.
I really want to like this article but it has a major glaring problem.
You go on forever about the issue. You break out details and statistics (some of which aren't really comparable, since many of those countries you compared us too have in fact banned guns entirely).
And how do you end it? Not with identifying a solution. Or recommending a change of pace. Or recommending what we should be doing instead. But just with calling Obama evil and then saying "We need to talk about this!" You just did. For a full article. This is the issue – every time we have a conversation about a complex issue, it's never really a conversation. It's just like what you did – "This is a problem! Yep, it sure is a problem all right!" and absolutely no spoken solutions. Maybe THAT is why the media is so obsessed with occasional school shootings. Or maybe that's why politicians do something about it. Because they feel like they can because the conversations actually GO SOMEWHERE.
I wonder if during storage in an anal crack, would it change the flavor or the taste of
the crack. The state stated that the distinction is justified because crack is more addictive than powder cocaine,
crack users display more violence than users of powder cocaine, and there is more street-level dealing of
crack than powder cocaine. Hathaway and an unknown witness spoke to Pasco County investigators about the ordeal.
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