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I want to thank everyone who replied. I enjoyed reading the replies that helped me understand the mindset of people living in Chicago.
One poster had mentioned bring in National Guard. I think that sounds like a great idea, but I don't live there. How would you all feel having a military presence? Assuming you're a law abiding citizen, would it make you feel safer?
I also agree with another post stating that police aren't doing as many stops because all it takes is one slip of their hand to turn a traffic stop into "white officer shoots unarmed black teen" story seen around the world in 15 minutes.
Not turning this into a political post, but what about Bernie's plan of recruiting and incorporating officers to patrol neighborhoods that actually grew up in those neighborhoods? Personally, I think that sounds like the most sane solution. Also removing marijuana from the Class I list would help. If you can't get a job because of your drug conviction, you would have no choice but to try to supplement your minimum wage with illicit profits.
I'd enjoy hearing from people on the other side of the law. I can understand why you wouldn't want to post on a public forum. But if you are, or know someone who is living "that life" have them contact me anonymously at crimestats408@gmail.com .
I sincerely love Chicago, I hope with this thread I can crawl inside your brains and poke around. This information won't go anywhere else. I am not a police officer or any other kind of govt official.
One poster had mentioned bring in National Guard. I think that sounds like a great idea, but I don't live there. How would you all feel having a military presence? Assuming you're a law abiding citizen, would it make you feel safer?
Armed military patrolling the streets? Hardly. That would feel like an occupation.
Even with Chicago's absurdly high murder rate this year so far, the city is not on track to beat its historical highs in the 90s, nor will it be the most dangerous city, per capita, in the United States this year.
Call it occupation or call it liberation for innocent people stuck in these neighborhoods, perpetually fearful, and essentially held hostage to gang violence and collateral damage. A lot of them are elderly, stubborn, or financially unable to escape these awful areas, stuck in gang territories, stuck with criminal neighbors (if not family members), living in massively disinvested blocks, some of which look like war zones.
Factor in police response time being abysmal, and we need an armed response. A presence of authority against this bull**** anarchy. Tanks, drones, checkpoints, armored and utility vehicles, trained and deputized civilians, and so on.
I have been asking people on social media, "Why is Chicago so Violent"? No one really has any answers.
Now, I realize, not living in Chicago, I have a skewed view of this great city. The info I get is from mainstream media, and we know how they loooove to report bad news.
So here's what I want your take on.
*Did it happen gradually?
*Does it affect your daily routine or your quality of life?
*What are officials doing about this?
*Is it just South Side, or is the greater Chicago area affected?
*What are you doing to keep you and your family safe?
*What are/can you do to bring about change and take back your city?
Thanks everyone. I really am fascinated by this. Every big city has crime and it goes in waves, but the recent plague of homicides in Chicago seems to just hit me hard. I've visited Chicago several times and I thought it was beautiful, great food, pretty clean for a city that size. I loved it there.
Chicago is an interesting phenomenon. I moved here from the east coast a few years ago, and I have honestly felt safer in Chicago than in any other major city I've lived in. I live on the North side and usually hangout either on the Northside or Downtown. I don't doubt that there are some really bad neighborhoods in the city and I hear about the crime on the news all the time. However, I have never experienced any crime and have never felt unsafe. Despite all the crime reported in Chicago, I've felt safer in Chicago than I have in any other big city I've lived in.
I'd enjoy hearing from people on the other side of the law. I can understand why you wouldn't want to post on a public forum. But if you are, or know someone who is living "that life" have them contact me anonymously at crimestats408@gmail.com .
I sincerely love Chicago, I hope with this thread I can crawl inside your brains and poke around. This information won't go anywhere else. I am not a police officer or any other kind of govt official.
Lol. This sounds like some SWPL wet dream fantasy after you just watched a 10 hour marathon of MTV's "True Life".
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBideon
Call it occupation or call it liberation for innocent people stuck in these neighborhoods, perpetually fearful, and essentially held hostage to gang violence and collateral damage. A lot of them are elderly, stubborn, or financially unable to escape these awful areas, stuck in gang territories, stuck with criminal neighbors (if not family members), living in massively disinvested blocks, some of which look like war zones.
Factor in police response time being abysmal, and we need an armed response. A presence of authority against this bull**** anarchy. Tanks, drones, checkpoints, armored and utility vehicles, trained and deputized civilians, and so on.
Surely you jest? The second this would happen you'd have Jesse and ol' Al up in arms, marchin', chantin' and screamin' RACISM at the top of their lungs.
Mo' money and better education are scapegoats for the real problem. The black community has an out-of-wedlock birthrate approaching 75%, a stat which has increased enormously for them over the past 40-50 years, and many of the fathers have absolutely no connection to their offspring. The problem is that the vast majority of the community either doesn't care or thinks this is normal, and social progressives are more than happy to placate this idea and come up with other excuses. Every economic, social and demographic study has shown that without two parents in the household children have substantially higher rates of crime, poverty, drug use, aggression, learning issues, etc. Until this changes nothing else matters IMO.
And yes, divorce and out-of-wedlock births has increased for every race in the US over the past 40-50 years, but if you look at UMC+ peoples (i.e. people who end up doing well in life), heavily populated by whites and asians, their rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock birth are way way way lower than the general population. That's a little secret that society doesn't talk about much.
Not turning this into a political post, but what about Bernie's plan of recruiting and incorporating officers to patrol neighborhoods that actually grew up in those neighborhoods? Personally, I think that sounds like the most sane solution.
IN THEORY that sounds like a good plan, in practice I think that would make little to no difference or even make things worse. There's already a number of videos on the internet that show how black people treat black police officers by calling them Uncle Toms, traitors to their race, asking them why they're doing the white man's work etc. The only good thing about putting more black officers in black neighborhoods is that if there is a shooting or death of a black person at the hands of a black cop, we won't have to deal with accusations of racism.
And really all this talk about making police forces and the justice system more diverse is mostly a smokescreen to try and justify and excuse bad black behavior and why they're constantly so violent and criminal. I don't know about you, but I rarely if ever hear asians or most any non-blacks complain about not having a diverse enough police force that represents them. I mean I'm sure they wouldn't mind having more people that come from the same background as them to be policing and interacting with them because it makes communication easier etc., but I've never heard them DEMAND that there be more Chinese cops or Korean cops etc the way many blacks want more black officers to be on the force.
But really what does it matter what color the cops are when many, MANY blacks don't seem to like to obey authority figures and the law anyways? You could make the entire police force black and I seriously doubt that would cause much of a drop in crime and murder simply because blacks will continue to do what they've been doing all along regardless of who's policing them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by personone
Chicago is an interesting phenomenon. I moved here from the east coast a few years ago, and I have honestly felt safer in Chicago than in any other major city I've lived in. I live on the North side and usually hangout either on the Northside or Downtown. I don't doubt that there are some really bad neighborhoods in the city and I hear about the crime on the news all the time. However, I have never experienced any crime and have never felt unsafe. Despite all the crime reported in Chicago, I've felt safer in Chicago than I have in any other big city I've lived in.
I don't know what cities you've lived in previously, but if you think Chicago is 'pretty safe' then where you use to live must've been serious crapholes. As an American living in Toronto where including suburbs there's some 5.5+ million people here and yet we STILL average about 60 murders a year and we would be hard pressed to break even 30 murders a year if it wasn't for all the black on black violence here, I couldn't even begin to imagine living in a city that averages 400-500 murders a year and call that 'safe' or even 'pretty safe'.
I know people say most of that happens in certain bad areas of Chicago and the rest of the city is pretty good, but it just seems wrong to say a city is 'pretty safe' when significant portions of that city is offlimits to most people because its too dangerous to visit and travel through.
But really what does it matter what color the cops are when many, MANY blacks don't seem to like to obey authority figures and the law anyways? You could make the entire police force black and I seriously doubt that would cause much of a drop in crime and murder simply because blacks will continue to do what they've been doing all along regardless of who's policing them.
Shhhhhhhhh, you're not supposed to let this secret out, just ask Baltimore. It's a city with a black mayor, a mostly black city council, a black DA, and a majority black police force, but the "RACIST!!" narrative still reigns supreme.
You have to keep in mind that millions of people live and work in the City of Chicago everyday and are untouched by crime. The downtown area and near north Mag Miles are thriving hubs of activity and people come and go and do their business and activities without incident. Still, there are issues and really bad issues in the surrounding neighborhoods that are crime ridden. Fortunately, for most people, there is no reason to go to or through these areas. So what you read about in the news media is slanted and doesn't really reflect the total picture.
I don't know what cities you've lived in previously, but if you think Chicago is 'pretty safe' then where you use to live must've been serious crapholes. As an American living in Toronto where including suburbs there's some 5.5+ million people here and yet we STILL average about 60 murders a year and we would be hard pressed to break even 30 murders a year if it wasn't for all the black on black violence here, I couldn't even begin to imagine living in a city that averages 400-500 murders a year and call that 'safe' or even 'pretty safe'.
I know people say most of that happens in certain bad areas of Chicago and the rest of the city is pretty good, but it just seems wrong to say a city is 'pretty safe' when significant portions of that city is offlimits to most people because its too dangerous to visit and travel through.
He said that HE feels pretty safe living in Chicago where he lives on the north side and hangs out there and downtown for the most part. That compared to where HE lived before.
From that statement I would agree.
Chicago is wildly different depending on where you are in the city. I've lived here for 15 years now on the north and northwest sides and am downtown almost every day. That swath is larger than the city of San Francisco and is generally extremely safe. I certainly haven't been the victim of a crime in my 15 years here or really know anyone who has except maybe a car break-in.
It's a city of extremes. You have a million people living in one of those most violent areas of the country, and you have a million people living in areas that are very safe.
Looking at the stats from last year, you have 1,345,000 people living in neighborhoods that have a murder rate of 2.60/100,000 - or less than half the national average. So half of Chicago lives in places with murder rates on not too different than Canada or Europe.
That said you can look at neighborhoods with another 856,000 people in Chicago that see a murder rate of 40.55/100,000.
You can be right when you say you live in Chicago and feel extremely safe, and you can be right when you say you live in Chicago and it's a violent hell hole.
22% of people in Chicago live in areas that see 65% of the murders.
57% of people in Chicago live in areas that see 11% of the murders.
Pinpointing it to its worst - a full 25% of murders happen in areas with a scant 6% of the population.
I think people don't understand that level of extremes. They just say "how can you live in Chicago when all the crime?" and then think people are being ignorant or defensive when most respond "it's not that bad".
I want to thank everyone who replied. I enjoyed reading the replies that helped me understand the mindset of people living in Chicago. One poster had mentioned bring in National Guard. I think that sounds like a great idea, but I don't live there. How would you all feel having a military presence? Assuming you're a law abiding citizen, would it make you feel safer?
Most people who are on this post and live in Chicago probably have nothing to do with most of those violent areas and don't deal with much crime in their personal lives.
The issue is that the military wouldn't be wasted patrolling 70% of the city because there's no rational reason.
What you would have is the military patrolling those worst community areas with over half of the violent crime and only 16% of the population. Those areas also happen to be the heart of the hard-hit black community on the south and west sides.
They're relatively small areas with just a fraction of the population but see more than half the crime. I don't think you would get a good response from those communities when the other 84% of the city just writes them off more than they already have and sit there and watch them with their military occupation. You would be have mass protests and outrage that you're targeting the black community with the military. Regardless of the fact that's where most of the crime is, you still have a majority law-abiding population among those 430,000 people. I mean even in those horrible areas only 0.05% of the people are getting murdered.
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