Why Does the Media Have an Obsession with Chicago Violence? (Washington: homes, law)

[CCrest182]

Originally Posted by baileyvpotter

Found this link and report about crime rates by Daniel K Hertz from 1990-2011. Reason for the link:
since people are comparing crime from the 90's to now....some information & maps as well.

We’ve Talked About Homicide In Chicago At Least One Million Times But I Don’t Think This Has Come Up | City Notes

Well this article isn't proving anything, because again, all it talks about is homicide rate going down, which of course it is, as it has in basically every major U.S. city. My point was that SHOOTINGS are not going down. I was just explaining to maro a major factor in why homicide is down, and that is because the advancement in ways the victims are treated at the hospital or on sight. It's a good thing homicides are down, but that's nothing to celebrate, because there's still at least 400 a year, and among those there are, so far this year, 1,100 non fatal shooting victims who range from seriously wounded, to stably wounded, with still the hottest month of August to come. So I wouldn't count my chickens before they are hatched.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by CCrest182

If you're a tourist, and all you are going to is downtown, of course you won't see anything. The only things that suck about downtown is the traffic,

You don't need a car to get downtown nor do you need one to get around either. There's always ways around it, even if you're coming from the suburbs with a car.

But yes. The bad stuff is all far on the south and west sides, which hardly anybody visiting Chicago as a tourist will see. The downtown is beautiful, can't argue with that. But the issues are still there. Just not in sight.

It's not just tourists that don't see it - hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago have never stepped foot in any of these bad areas. Outside of Englewood, there's areas of town that people couldn't even pinpoint on a map. They aren't one bit important to them. Ask a random person to generally show where Chatham is on a map. I guarantee you more than 50% couldn't do it. There are probably almost as many people who have never even actually driven through them (interstate doesn't count).

There are two Chicagos, and it's completely true that if you don't want to see first hand the violent side of the city you could avoid it fairly easily. Not saying that's what you should do, but this notion that tourists are the only people who don't see this stuff first hand is pretty false. Most residents of the city have never stepped foot in Englewood or 'hoods like that, nor will they probably ever get even close to it. Spend a lot of time in areas like Lakeview, Lincoln Park, etc - there's loads of people who literally never go outside of Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Lincoln Square/Ravenswood, River North, Gold Coast, West Loop, South Loop, Streeterville, and the Loop (and increasingly Wicker Park now).

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by CCrest182

Well this article isn't proving anything, because again, all it talks about is homicide rate going down, which of course it is, as it has in basically every major U.S. city. My point was that SHOOTINGS are not going down. I was just explaining to maro a major factor in why homicide is down, and that is because the advancement in ways the victims are treated at the hospital or on sight. It's a good thing homicides are down, but that's nothing to celebrate, because there's still at least 400 a year, and among those there are, so far this year, 1,100 non fatal shooting victims who range from seriously wounded, to stably wounded, with still the hottest month of August to come. So I wouldn't count my chickens before they are hatched.

I'm pretty certain I've seen statistics that show that shootings have gone down as well over the past 25 years. I'll try to find a link to back that up.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by CCrest182

Well this article isn't proving anything, because again, all it talks about is homicide rate going down, which of course it is, as it has in basically every major U.S. city. My point was that SHOOTINGS are not going down. I was just explaining to maro a major factor in why homicide is down, and that is because the advancement in ways the victims are treated at the hospital or on sight. It's a good thing homicides are down, but that's nothing to celebrate, because there's still at least 400 a year, and among those there are, so far this year, 1,100 non fatal shooting victims who range from seriously wounded, to stably wounded, with still the hottest month of August to come. So I wouldn't count my chickens before they are hatched.

So because every major city saw progress, that means it somehow invalidates Chicago's progress too? That's just ridiculous. Progress is progress.

I guarantee you that shootings are down since the 80s and 90s, and again - not all shootings leave the victim in a life threatening situation where new life saving technology is administered.

[marothisu]

Here's a link showing how much shootings are also down from then. This is from 1992 from the Chicago Tribune

City Shooting Casualties Soaring - Chicago Tribune

Citywide, during the first six months of 1992, the 7,285 shootings was an increase of 8 percent over last year.

Ridiculous - yes it's definitely down. 7285 and that number would be 6745 for 1991 for the first 6 months of the year. I mean hell, on average in two months back then there were more shootings than the entire year nowadays in the city. That's 10,000-15,000 shootings per year most likely. It would actually appear that given this data, a higher percentage of victims actually die nowadays versus back then.

Now here's the daunting part. 7285 shootings over the first 6 months in 1992 - that's 181 days, meaning that on average in 1992 in that time period, the city had 40 shootings per day. So that 84 hour thing we just had with 82 shootings would have actually been better than average back in the day on any given 3.5 day ordeal. 3.5 days on average back then would have yielded 140 shootings. Not just around July 4 -- anytime on average in the city. That's kind of insane.

Here's some more messed up gun stats. In 1992, there were 14,644 aggravated assaults committed with a gun. In 2010, there were 14,448 total aggravated assaults. There were less total aggravated assaults in 2010 than there were aggravated assaults just using a gun from 1992. There were actually more aggravated assaults that year than total violent crimes in 2010 by about 8000.

[CCrest182]

Originally Posted by marothisu

You don't need a car to get downtown nor do you need one to get around either. There's always ways around it, even if you're coming from the suburbs with a car.

It's not just tourists that don't see it - hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago have never stepped foot in any of these bad areas. Outside of Englewood, there's areas of town that people couldn't even pinpoint on a map. They aren't one bit important to them. Ask a random person to generally show where Chatham is on a map. I guarantee you more than 50% couldn't do it. There are probably almost as many people who have never even actually driven through them (interstate doesn't count).

There are two Chicagos, and it's completely true that if you don't want to see first hand the violent side of the city you could avoid it fairly easily. Not saying that's what you should do, but this notion that tourists are the only people who don't see this stuff first hand is pretty false. Most residents of the city have never stepped foot in Englewood or 'hoods like that, nor will they probably ever get even close to it. Spend a lot of time in areas like Lakeview, Lincoln Park, etc - there's loads of people who literally never go outside of Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Lincoln Square/Ravenswood, River North, Gold Coast, West Loop, South Loop, Streeterville, and the Loop (and increasingly Wicker Park now).

True, but even finding parking downtown is a *****. Yeah, you're spot on, but as a general rule I'd advise people to avoid the west and south sides. Most people living in and visiting Chicago aren't going to go there.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by CCrest182

True, but even finding parking downtown is a *****. Yeah, you're spot on, but as a general rule I'd advise people to avoid the west and south sides. Most people living in and visiting Chicago aren't going to go there.

There are totally normal areas of the south and west sides. Telling people which ones to not avoid requires actual knowledge of the city. I'd never tell anybody to avoid going to Hyde Park for a museum or Wicker Park, for example.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by CCrest182

True, but even finding parking downtown is a *****. Yeah, you're spot on, but as a general rule I'd advise people to avoid the west and south sides. Most people living in and visiting Chicago aren't going to go there.

Bull! I'm from Beverly on the far southwest side and it's one of more safer neighborhoods in the city. Stop with that all-of-the-south-side-is-dangerous nonsense.

With all of those shootings that Chicago had over the 4th of July weekend, guess how many Beverly had:

Beverly -- Crime in Chicagoland -- chicagotribune.com

And Beverly neighbors some of the more dangerous areas--Washington Heights and Auburn-Gresham to be specific. My family still lives there. The neighborhood is pristine and it's so quiet you can almost hear a pin drop outside.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

Bull! I'm from Beverly on the far southwest side and it's one of more safer neighborhoods in the city. Stop with that all-of-the-south-side-is-dangerous nonsense.

With all of those shootings that Chicago had over the 4th of July weekend, guess how many Beverly had:

Beverly -- Crime in Chicagoland -- chicagotribune.com

And Beverly neighbors some of the more dangerous areas--Washington Heights and Auburn-Gresham to be specific. My family still lives there. The neighborhood is pristine and it's so quiet you can almost hear a pin drop outside.

Yeah, the "all of the south and west sides are dangerous" is misleading. On the south side, areas like Armour Square (Chinatown), Bridgeport, Beverly, Archer Heights, Clearing, West Lawn, Hegewisch, Garfield Ridge, Mount Greenwood, Kenwood, McKinley Park, Pullman, East Side, West Elsdon - not bad. Areas of Bronzeville are fine too IMO. On the west and northwest side you have areas like Montclare, Dunning, most of West Town (i.e. Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village), Logan Square, Avondale, etc. and there could be more if you aren't a completely idiot when you go to various places.

[crowbird213]

Politics. It's sad because downtown Chicago is one of the most safe and clean centers in the country.