Jordan Candler -
In Chicago, 2016 began and ended on a bloody note. And 2017 is picking up right where 2016 left off. We warned in February that the largely “gun free” Windy City’s number of homicides was rising at an alarming, perhaps historic, rate. And while (thankfully) no records ended up being broken, the cumulative number of murders for 2016 was bad enough and definitely far worse than recent years. Officially, 762 lives were needlessly lost on the streets of Chicago last year. This represents “the most in two decades in the city and more than New York and Los Angeles combined,” CBS News reports (New York and LA registered 628 homicides). Moreover, “The increase in homicides compared to 2015, when 485 were reported, is the largest spike in 60 years.”
And it only took a few hours for 2017 to ring in additional homicides. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, “An argument between two men at an Uptown bar in the early hours of Jan. 1 ended with the two shooting at one another, leaving both dead. Their deaths ushered in the new year, marking the first and second homicides of 2017 and keeping up 2016’s soaring pace of violence.” As a side note, Chicago is not alone when it comes to worsening crime. Just before Christmas, The Wall Street Journal issued a report documenting a similar trend all over the nation: “Sixteen of the 20 largest police departments reported a year-over-year rise in homicides as of mid-December. … Nationally, the murder rate rose in 2015 for the first time in nearly a decade, though it remains well below where it stood during the 1990s.”
That last part is somewhat comforting. But what isn’t reassuring is the current trend and the risk our leftist politicians take in bringing us perilously closer to a dark age through fomenting racial grievances on urban poverty plantations and waging a war on cops, all while continuing to disarm law-abiding citizens. Barack Obama will be in his hometown of Chicago Jan. 10 to present his farewell address. His speech will surely be replete with self-praise and adoration for the so-called progress his administration has made. It would be more appropriate if he offered a eulogy for the thousands who have been slain under leftist policies.
H/T: Patriot Post
I feel a sorry for Bruce Rauner. I watched the Bill O’Reilly Program last night and the topic of Chicago being the nation’s murder capital (again) came up in his program. I can understand Rahm Emanuel (and the former Mayor Richard Daley) being held responsible by O’Reilly for the unrestrained carnage taking place in Chicago but O’Reilly also painted Bruce Rauner with the same wide brush as also being responsible. Maybe assign 10% blame to Rauner and 90% to Rahm Emanuel and I would be more inclined to go along with O’Reilly’s assignment of guilt. Better yet, I would assign 5% to Rauner. 15% to Obama (for closing his eyes to the carnage), and 80% guilt to Mayor Rahm and the two Richard Daleys for allowing the gang proliferation to grow so out-of-control over the years. They might as well have a gang leader run for Mayor of Chicago because that is where the control and power actually is. A sad state of affairs when the Grim Reaper is the official logo of the City of Chicago. And totally amazing that the people in Chicago still vote solid Democrat. Instead of sending out Christmas cards, the people living in Chicago stock up on and send out Sympathy cards. Rahm and the Chicago aldermen should be “tarred & feathered” by their constituents.
Blame Mike Madigan… It’s part of his Kingdom…
I also saw O’Reilly blast Bruce Rauner and I thoroughly agree with him.
Rauner has control of the Illinois National Guard and he could move them into Chicago to protect the citizens as GOP Gov. Richard Ogilvie did during the 60s riots.
Now, due to Rauner’s incompetence – what likely is going to happen is that President Trump will federalize the IL National Guard – put them under US military command – and restore order to Chicago.
This will make Rauner and his pal Rahm look like impotent fools – which they are.
Don’t you understand? Billionaire RINO Bruce Rauner is NEVER to blame for ANYTHING. Everything is ALWAYS someone else’s fault. And he’s just deposited $50 million of his own money in his re-election fund to destroy anybody who says otherwise…
Maybe Bruce Rauner can take his good buddy Rahm Emanuel on yet another of their shared $100,000-a-bottle wine-club country vacations, and ask him “Hey, Rahm, What’s Goin’ On With All This Here Killin’..?”
The Governor administers the state. The mayor administers a state (Chicago) WITHIN a state.
Chicago’s representatives in Springfield draft and pass laws that specifically exempt their city from statutes applicable to all other regions of Illinois.
At the center of all this is Mike Madigan, who rules the House and, through it, rules ALL of Illinois.