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I also say bingo. It's politics, and Chicago is the largest city for the conservative media to pick on. Unfortunate, but true.
However, like most stereotypes, it is just that... Not to take away from the issue of crime, but the narrative of entering Chicago at the risk of being shot is ridiculous.
Like any other city the bad areas are bad and this city does have it worse than others I think. The Mayor isn’t helping matters but when there are no consequences for her and the criminals it won’t change. Remember no guns are allowed!
It’s not that difficult. Chicago leads the nation in murders, and not by a small margin. So when 100 people are shot and 20 die over a weekend, it gets news coverage. It’s a visceral story that is easy to comprehend in stark numbers. And when over a year later the FBI reports that Chicago was really only the 7th worst city for murders once we adjust for population, well a) it still is really bad and b) stories about math in regards to numbers from a year ago are kind of dull. Particularly if next to an article about Chicago topping 500 murders this year halfway through August.
Though seriously, it’s not like the per capita murder capitals (Detroit, St Louis, New Orleans) are hiding under the radar. They get their fair share of national crime handwringing stories as well.
Mayors also can change and most money is on a Latino Mayor likely in the future or even next election.
I don't think the city has the worst looking ghettos either. They still get street-sweeper cleanings that help for sure and alleys in back to trash vs fronts. For some reason front green-space is taken care of also thru the city hoods (a hood = high-crime/gangs). Helps for especially areas of bungalow housing. These homes held up well vs flatter-roof styles. It's the high for crime stats to call it a hood and gangs.
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Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag
How long has this been the case? Chicago being pointed at for being violent has been a thing since atleast 2015 or so
Irony is Anderson Cooper did espose's then for CNN while the city was setting records in tourism year after year and even the mayor then said how unhappy about the negative coverage. Then it got totally political and reversed which side kept it coming.
Still we have Chicago and others with a legacy of gangs be it early White ethnic gangs and Irish and Italian mafia and Al Capone still known by every generation. Just now it is more glorified for the Capone era the roaring 20s and Chicago still boomed that decade and built its bungalow-belt mostly one decade. To nearly 1/3 the city.
'Chicago' the movie was a worldwide success including on the stage. Chiraq the movie a satire/musical was a flop on the other hand. Rap might have still glorified it for a while.
The OMG marches in DC of the 60s and riots from LA to Chicago to DC with neighborhood blocks burned was NATIONAL NEWS and in the world. Imminently after Martin Luther King was shot 3000 National guard called to Chicago and then the 68' Dem convention after that to endure the downtown riot police riot. Two months later Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Bam bam bam King/Kennedy/Dem Convention in 1968.
After the assassination of MLK, 2 miles on Madison St burned Western Ave to Pulaski Ave. Watts in LA burned. Riots even years before then also. Go back far enough for Union and Race riots.Topped off with the 68' Dem convention and what got labeled a Police riot in downtown Chi in and by Grant Park at the Mayor's order. Mostly White anti-Vietnam protesters forcefully removed by police from Grant Park. Neo-Nazi gatherings in the 70's. The OMG housing projects a failure thru them eras.
We can compare things to even last year and see a bit of history repeating. Just still nothing as even 68' alone.
Some forget the legacy of NYC in the 70s' at bankruptcy and all city services slashed and Times Square a XXX red zone. Its gangs and city labels as dying and lost.
Time will tell. Politically, we are in or entering our riskiest era of hate and Nation at highest risk of literal division. We still had a National Pride more in the past to pull us thru and survived for a repeat that is even at higher risk.
Lots of history to learn from and though other cities. Chicago got front stage though virtually every era. I was young to remember the 60s. Not in Chi then also.
You can view videos of riots we still have on YouTube and news specials on hoods, poverty, crime to riots also.
Fox News' crusade against gun control has led to the constant portrayal of Chicago as the most dangerous city in the country. Even before Obama it was used as the right wing's example of gun laws not working. The reporting was similar to the following, "Here is the city with the most strict gun laws in the nation yet it has the most gun crimes." Obama being president and placing many Chicago figures in powerful positions was what ratcheted it up to what it has become today.
It’s not that difficult. Chicago leads the nation in murders, and not by a small margin. So when 100 people are shot and 20 die over a weekend, it gets news coverage. It’s a visceral story that is easy to comprehend in stark numbers. And when over a year later the FBI reports that Chicago was really only the 7th worst city for murders once we adjust for population, well a) it still is really bad and b) stories about math in regards to numbers from a year ago are kind of dull. Particularly if next to an article about Chicago topping 500 murders this year halfway through August.
I would also point out Chicago is a huge portion of our metro area. About 30%. Typically cities are about half that. Maybe a bit less. As a result Chicago has a ton of very bad neighborhoods that are diluted to a much larger degree on citywide statistics.
It’s absolutly not some media driven narrative.
If you look at the census, Chicago’s population grew mildly but it was really stark between neighborhoods. Englewood, a very dangerous neighborhood lost 20% of its population. The Loop was the fastest growing Downtown in the county. More broadly the North Side grew by 3% while the Worse neighborhoods shrank. So it’s a very real experience. Bridgeport a safe neighborhood in the South Side grew almost by 6%.
People are not generally demonizing Chicago. But recognizing a real serious issue in a major American city. It’s not paranoid suburbanites, they’re moving to the North Loop, it’s people who live in these neighborhoods who hate living in Chicago
There is some politics involved, but it's not so simple. The only place I've ever been mugged at gunpoint was Chicago. It does have a much higher violent crime rate than NYC.
The OP went to University of Chicago campus. Beautiful campus and Hyde Park is nice too. But just in past year, two University of Chicago students were shot and killed minding their own business. This is an elite university with its own private police force in Hyde Park.
Chicago being pointed at for being violent has been a thing since atleast 2015 or so
The current politicized and racialized perception builds upon a long history of national true-crime fascinations set in Chicago: Al Capone, H.H. Holmes, Gacy, Leopold & Loeb, "the six merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail"*, etc.
* TIL that "Chicago" is Broadway's longest-running American musical
Most American cities with a bad crime reputation are exaggerated to some extent. I've been to the most dangerous cities on any list and rarely feel unsafe any time I go. That goes for cities like St. Louis , New Orleans, Oakland. Chicago is no different in a way. Still let's not pretend that it doesn't have a crime issue. It definitely has a major one that some of it's peers don't have.
I honestly agree with y'all. But also blatantly disagree with y'all, as well. The homicide rate is unacceptable, it's not just that it became unacceptable since Democratic leadership and Obama in 2008. It's been unacceptable since the cities rates started being recorded in 1960.
Yes, it's lower than the 1990s, yes in most crime categories besides homicides, we are seeing rates of crime that have never been recorded at a lower rate. But that has more to do with demographics than a tangible cultural change away from normalizing anti-social behavior.
The issue, is people don't demand more and we literally have drug dealers who everyone in a school knows but somehow the cops can't figure it out. Not saying drug usage should be criminalized, but the culture is rotten to the point were criminal behavior/law breaking is accepted unless it's someone shooting. I've said it before, but it's one of my biggest arguments with those on my side of the isle, that crime isn't even taken seriously by one side. While the other side uses it to dog-whistle to racism/racists.
Even London or Toronto which has a fairly similar culture to America, because folks demand more, theirs's CCTV. Theirs's still crime but they never settle for It's only 5 shootings in my neighborhood this year, their criminal laws, especially in the U.K are extremely strict compared to here, but the policing strategy largely works. London doesn't have murderers roaming the streets because of lack of consequences etc.
Not to mention the bail system, in many American cities is broken, and is literally as a Fox news guy would probably put it a "revolving door".
Last edited by NigerianNightmare; 11-01-2021 at 04:18 PM..
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Mayors also can change and most money is on a Latino Mayor likely in the future or even next election.
