Chicago on pace for fewest murders since 1965 (Naperville, Elgin: 2013, crime rate)

[Lookout Kid]

I know that this statistic will not come as a surprise to many of the informed posters on this forum, but crime is way way down this year. And the national media is starting to take notice:

Chicago on pace for fewest murders since 1965 - U.S. News

[NARFALICIOUS]

December 29th, 2013: Associated Press: Chicago, IL. Amid the national heat wave, Chicago is hit with 90 degree weather this week and 300 people have been murdered on Chicago's South and West sides in the last 3 days...

[SouthsideTillIDie]

Good news, but we all know that these kids out here cant shoot which affects the number. They are "leg shooters" as we say, but people are still eating bullets left and right and shooting each other all over the place. The only difference between now and when I was young, was that I remember growing up in the 90's there were more "head shooters", gangs specifically had assassins and sent people out on kill missions they knew could handle themselves, and when it was war and the thugs came to shoot they were aiming for kill shots which is why as a kid I remember it being absolutely normal to hear about 2 or 3 people being killed overnight in Chicago which is how we were doing 700-900 murders a year easily. Nowadays, you hear about maybe 1 person being killed overnight but 8-10 shot because they cannot shoot. The kids are just wild and unorganized.

[marothisu]

According to another article, shootings are down by a lot too.

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by marothisu

According to another article, shootings are down by a lot too.

From the article lookoutkid posted:

By midnight on Nov. 30, Chicago had seen a total of 1,712 shootings (a drop from 2,291 in 2012).

[edsg25]

so sorry to hear this. what will this do to all those chicagophobes out there who love to dwell on the city's murder rate and would like to convince you that its gang warfare everywhere, including up and down the magnificent mile. what are these poor folks going to complain about next? how our deep dish pizza doesn't measure up to NY's thin? or do they stick to the safe stuff: The Cubs 100 year plus stretch without a world championship.

I for one would deeply miss the ever present "How can you live in a blood drenched hell hole that Chicago is????" threads that pop up here with regularity.

[chet everett]

the FBI bases homicide rates off of metropolitan areas. That means the Chicago area isn’t just the 2,708,382 living in the city, but the 9,511,421 living in and around Chicago. The FBI’s statistics actually include Chicago; Naperville; Arlington Heights; Elgin; Gary, Indiana; Lake County; and Kenosha County, Wisconsin.

Maybe the thugs in Kenosha , Kildeer or Mokena aren't doing the fair share of capping rivals...

[Vlajos]

Last year was an odd blip in a long pattern of decline in homicides in Chicago. The blip actually occured in a lot of cities across the country. I moved back to Chicago in 1995 when there were 900 homicides/year, I don't think it was ever talked about. Last year, it was all over the news when there were 500 homicides.

Obviously the decline is welcome news, more and quicker decline would be awesome of course!

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I moved back to Chicago in 1995 when there were 900 homicides/year, I don't think it was ever talked about. Last year, it was all over the news when there were 500 homicides.

Throughout the 90's homicide rates were considerably higher than today, yet people were ecstatic that crime was finally on the way down after decades of increases. News coverage was beaming with positive stories about the city "coming back" and talking about the new gentrification phenomenon. So it was totally ridiculous to see the panic that ensued in the media after Chicago went back over 500 homicides for a one year period, even though this rate is still historically low. And now that this uptick is isolated to one year, it seems even more ridiculous.

Chicago clearly still has some serious problems, but it's not really that different from any other American city in that respect. It's just the fact that New York and Los Angeles have improved so greatly that makes Chicago look a bit rough by comparison, but we don't have a crime rate that much worse than most large cities with large belts of poverty.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

It's just the fact that New York and Los Angeles have improved so greatly that makes Chicago look a bit rough by comparison, but we don't have a crime rate that much worse than most large cities with large belts of poverty.

This (and Obama's Chicago connection) is the key. Back in the 90s both NYC and LA had just as awful per capita homicide rates as Chicago. Of the "Big 3", Chicago has clearly fallen behind, not just in homicide rates, but in several other categories as well. At least we still have Philadelphia though.