Chicago’s Felons with Guns Go Free

Do you know where Chicago ranks in terms of enforcement of the federal gun laws? Out of 90 jurisdictions in the country, they ranked 90th. Why doesn’t NBC News start with, “Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago’s dead last on enforcement of the federal gun laws?” Why doesn’t the national press corps, when they’re sitting down there with Jay Carney and the president and the vice president, why don’t they say, “Why is Chicago dead last in enforcement of the gun laws against gangs with guns, felons with guns, drug dealers with guns?

via NewsBusters.

I’ve been saying this for over a year now.  Exactly!!

Why is it that Anita Alvarez does not refer felon with gun cases to the federal government?  Why?

Why is it that CPD Superintendent Garry McCarthy does not make news by telling people that Anita Alvarez is not referring felon with gun cases to the federal government?  Why?

Why is it that Mayor Rahm does not come out and make news by telling people that Anita Alvarez is not referring felon with gun cases to the federal government?  Why?

Because the WANT the gun crime on the streets because it creates the perception that there is a NEED for MORE gun laws.

It’s all a charade.

 

Modern Policing Model: The LAPD?

Sheriff’s deputies caught one of the Bloods before he could vanish into the maze of two-story apartment blocks that make up Imperial Courts. Another suspect got away. Deputies spotted the third ducking into one of the apartment buildings. They were preparing to go in when Phil Tingirides, the Los Angeles Police Department captain responsible for Southeast Division, arrived on the scene. Tingirides didn’t like what he saw. Entering seemed an unwise tactic; in fact, LAPD guidelines called for the use of a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. Tingirides was also disturbed by the atmosphere developing among the assembled group of roughly 15 spectators, including the suspect’s mother, sisters, and brothers. Almost as soon as she had arrived, upset and worried, the mother had gotten into it with one of the deputies, who began upbraiding her for raising a gangbanger. Meanwhile, Tingirides noticed, one of the brothers had started an argument with a group of PJs nearby.

Any cop who’d worked the public-housing developments of Watts during the 1980s and 1990s had seen it happen: the gang skirmish that escalates to a shooting; the crowd that turns on the cops. But not this time. Tingirides interrupted the deputy’s harangue, saying, “Hey, I got this.” Then he introduced himself to the mother and the sisters as a cop and a parent. “Your priority needs to be getting your son out of here safe,” he said. He explained what had happened. This was news to the mother, who had simply gotten a call from her son saying that the cops were chasing him for no reason. These things can happen, Tingirides said. Disgusted at the way Tingirides was talking about a hard-core gangbanger, the deputy left. Tingirides and the mother then went over to the brother, who was still arguing with the PJs. Mom and the highway patrol pulled him aside. “Once she understood what had happened and had someone talking to her as a person and a fellow parent, it totally changed her demeanor and dynamic,” says Tingirides.

The crowd was losing interest. So were the deputies. Tingirides told them that LAPD guidelines prohibited an attempt to make an entry. Fine, they said; in that case, we’re handing this off to you. The deputies pulled back. And then the suspect emerged. His brother had called him on his cell phone and explained the situation. South Gate police took him into custody. The crowd dispersed. “There was never any element of hostility toward our department at all,” Tingirides says.

For more than half a century, many African-American Angelenos and more than a few Latinos considered the LAPD an oppressor—“an occupation force,” in the words of former Urban League president John Mack. That is no longer the case. Over the past decade, the department has transformed itself radically, along with its relations with local minorities. Nor has the police department become popular by sacrificing public safety: violent crime in Los Angeles has been falling for years. How the LAPD’s reconciliation with L.A.’s minorities came about may be the most important untold story in the world of policing. What makes the reconciliation even more remarkable is that its architect was the same man who had already transformed the New York City Police Department: William Bratton.

via City Journal.

A lengthy and excellent piece about how Bill Bratton transformed the LAPD from a jack-booted thug operating under a federal consent decree to a modern crime fighting force that understands the needs of minorities.

Too bad that Gerry McCarthy’s ego is too big for him to do anything but continue to blame other people for his lack of leadership at CPD.

Most Shooters In Chicago Never Face Charges

Last year, gunmen who shot and wounded someone got away without criminal charges 94 percent of the time, according to a DNAinfo.com Chicago analysis of police data.

That’s even worse than 2011, when 91.5 percent of shooters escaped charges, according to the data.

Chicago’s top cop said the “no-snitch” code of silence on the street is the biggest contributor in his department’s struggle to charge shooters.

via DNAinfo.com Chicago.

This is incredible!!

Garry McCarthy — Chicago’s “Top Cop” — wants to blame the people who live in constant fear in gang controlled neighborhoods for not coming forward and turning-in, and testifying against the gang members that run the place.  Asshat!!

Then you get our worthless State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez who won’t even speak for herself and instead walks out the “Chief of Staff” who says ‘It’s not our fault either.’

We have over 400 dead (mostly black) school children every year in this town and our leaders are playing pass-the-buck.  It’s embarrassing but these clowns are too dumb to even realize they should be ashamed of themselves.

Milwaukee Sheriff’s Says Arm Yourself

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. set off alarm bells Friday with a radio spot some view as a call for citizens to arm themselves.

In the radio ad, Clarke tells residents personal safety isn’t a spectator sport anymore, and that “I need you in the game.”

“With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option,” Clarke intones.

“You could beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back.”

Clarke urges listeners to take a firearm safety course and handle a firearm “so you can defend yourself until we get there.”

“You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. We’re partners now. Can I count on you?”

via Milwaukee Journal Online.

Sound advice from a serious man.

Why is it in Chicago all we hear from McCarty and Rahm is that you cannot protect yourself?

When seconds count the police are just minutes away.

 

Shot vs. Shot & Killed – The Miracle of Modern Medicine

This post was originally drafted in April.  Bare with me… very current story cited below.

I’ve mentioned before that the shooting to death ratio appears very low to me. Crime stats over at Crime in Chicago suggest that in 2011 2,217 were shot, with 441 dead – 19.9% (ratio of 5:1.)  So far in 2012 we have 2,670+ shot, 532 dead – 19.9% (ratio of 5:1.)  What I have been looking for, and cannot could not find, is what these numbers were in 1975, 1985, and 1995.

In the book Can Gun Control Work, James Jacobs writes in a footnote on pg 8 that, “Nonfatal gun injuries are complicated to compute.  Gary Kleck reasonably estimates the ratio of nonfatal gun wounds to gun fatalities at 3:1 during the 1990’s.”  Jacobs suggest we see Point Blank by Gary Kleck.  A search of Point Blank on Google Scholar does not yield that ratio.

In 1991 Chicago has 927 homicides.  If the 3:1 ratio Kleck cites is accurate that means around 2,781 people were shot in Chicago in 1991.  That’s damn near the exact number we had last year!!

Neat speculation but nothing scientific.

Enter today’s WSJ:

The number of U.S. homicides has been falling for two decades, but America has become no less violent.

Crime experts who attribute the drop in killings to better policing or an aging population fail to square the image of a more tranquil nation with this statistic: The reported number of people treated for gunshot attacks from 2001 to 2011 has grown by nearly half.  …

In other words, more people in the U.S. are getting shot, but doctors have gotten better at patching them up. Improved medical care doesn’t account for the entire decline in homicides but experts say it is a major factor.  …

“Our experience is we are saving many more people we didn’t save even 10 years ago,” said C. William Schwab, director of the Firearm and Injury Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the professor of surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  …

At the same time [that homicide deaths are declining], medical data and other surveys in the U.S. show a rising number of serious injuries from assaults with guns and knives. The estimated number of people wounded seriously enough by gunshots to require a hospital stay, rather than treatment and release, rose 47% to 30,759 in 2011 from 20,844 in 2001, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program. The CDC estimates showed the number of people injured in serious stabbings rose to 23,550 from 22,047 over the same period.Mortality rates of gunshot victims, meanwhile, have fallen, according to research performed for The Wall Street Journal by the Howard-Hopkins Surgical Outcomes Research Center, a joint venture between Howard University and Johns Hopkins University. In 2010, 13.96% of U.S. shooting victims died, almost two percentage points lower than in 2007. (Earlier data used different standards, making comparisons useless.)

GunsShotDeaths_WSJ

So there!!  I knew I was on to something.

So the next time Rahm and McCarthy are out running their gums about how “safe” everything is and that “crime is down, crime is down!” Now you know that maybe some crime is down… but the odds of getting shot in this town are just about the same as they were in 1991. … Which is not very good at all.

CPD Brass Wasting Money Trying to Track Gunshots

The Police Department began using gunshot detection technology early last month in two 1.5-square-mile areas to try to better pinpoint the location of gunshots, Superintendent Garry McCarthy disclosed Thursday. The sensors sometimes give officers information before 911 calls are made, he said.

In the past decade, the city twice installed the devices but ultimately removed them because of their high price tags and ineffectiveness. Since then the technology has improved “dramatically,” McCarthy said.

“What we can do with this is overwhelming right now,” McCarthy said at a news conference. “It’s gotten a lot better, and obviously as it’s out there longer, it’s a lot cheaper also.”

The one-year contract for the ShotSpotter system costs about $200,000 — money that will come from drug forfeitures and other property seized by police, authorities said.

via Chicago Tribune.

So it didn’t work before and was too expensive.  Boy, that’s not what we were told last time.

Given the success of the pilot program, in September 2003, Mayor Daley announced that a new phase of PODs would be deployed throughout the City. Subsequently, the number of PODs increased from 30 to 80 by December 2003. Some of the new second generation PODs were also equipped with technology to detect gunfire. Using wireless technology, these units transmitted gunshot alerts, as well as the usual video images, directly to the City’s Emergency Management and Communications Center, thereby providing crucial intelligence on criminal incidents involving guns. Several of the 30 existing PODs were also upgraded with the same technology during that time period.
CPD Website, dated June 15, 2003

and

Chicago police plan to add 50 new remote-controlled cameras in city … The new cameras will be equipped with gunshot detectors….
Herald & Review, dated April 7, 2004

and

Chicago police have installed 30 surveillance units in high-crime locales. The system uses four microphones to zero in on firearm discharges.
USA Today, dated June 6, 2005

The USA Today article ends with:

Adding SENTRI to an existing surveillance camera is not cheap, however. The system costs between $4,000 and $10,000 per unit. In Chicago, money forfeited by criminals is used to pay for both it and the accompanying cameras.

As a result, Police Superintendent Phil Cline told a recent U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, “the drug dealers are actually paying to surveil themselves.”

I guess everything old is new again.

 

CPD Brass Wants Tighter Gun Tracking

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said today that he would like to see gun owners in Illinois have to report when their weapons are stolen, lost or sold – steps he said would lower the number of firearms in the hands of criminals.  …

“We keep trying to pass comprehensive gun legislation,” he added. “And my recommendation is to really start small. The fact is that if there was a requirement to report the loss, transfer or theft of a firearm in the state of Illinois, that would significantly limit the number of firearms in the city of Chicago.”

via Chicago Tribune.

Media simply reports what the man says as gospel and doesn’t ask any questions.

Please tell us Mr. McCarthy how part one, a “requirement to report the loss, transfer or theft of a firearm” leads to part two, and “significantly limit the number of firearms in the city of Chicago?”

Person A has a gun.  Person A goes on vacation and while gone Gang-Banger B breaks into Person A’s house and steals Person A’s gun.  Person A reports to the police that the gun has been stolen.

First, Person A is going to file a report b/c guns are expensive and he or she is going to want to make the insurance claim that the gun was stolen.

Second, Person A is going to file a report b/c they don’t want the police knocking at their door when the gun is used in a crime.

But just in case that’s not enough…  let’s just say we do create a new law to force Person A to notify the police that the gun was stolen.  Now just exactly what is the police going to do with that information to keep the stolen firearm out of the city of Chicago?

I would really like to know.  Where is the nexus between knowledge of a stolen gun and action that keeps that gun out of the city?

Can someone please explain?

Mayor Booker Gives Rahm & McCarthy an Idea

This will be “policy” in Chicago within the next 12 months.

Controversial Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker wants to make an offer to local drug dealers that they can’t refuse.

Cory Booker and former New York Gov. David Paterson spoke Tuesday morning about recidivism and racism at a panel hosted by Stroock law firm.

One of Booker’s most shocking policies is dubbed a “call in,” something he borrowed from High Point, N.C. During a call in, police and other government officials meet with known drug dealers and try to convince them to choose another path.

“What we’ve decided to do in Newark is bring them all in and sit down with them and not have a ‘you’re going to get arrested’ conversation but ‘hey, this is the pros and cons,'” Booker said.

When the suspects come to the meeting, law enforcement has already collected evidence against them, including pictures of them dealing drugs.

“And we basically said to them, ‘you can work with us, we have people here with housing, jobs, everything possible,” Booker said. “Or you can go out and continue doing [crimes], but if there’s one shooting in this area again […] we will come in and find every reason that’s legally allowable to arrest everybody you know.'”

via Business Insider.

Now mind you, I’m not saying that it’s going to be a miserable failure… I’m just saying that Rahm and McCarthy are going to bring this forward as a new and creative idea all their own after the current policy is a demonstrated failure.

Less Cops = Less (Reported) Crime

In the city’s most violent districts, police officers say, they may be assigned half a dozen jobs or more—covering everything from traffic accidents to assaults—at the start of a shift. Their watches are spent racing from call to call, while anything that requires investigation stacks up. Officers describe having to weigh whether to make an arrest. The process “downs” their car, taking it off patrol for a few hours or so, which leaves their beat uncovered and puts more pressure on their fellow officers.

Sometimes, they say, when it comes to minor offenses, they just look the other way.

via Chicago magazine – August 2012.

This is from a fairly long piece about Garry McCarthy but it’s this paragraph that struck me.

In Chicago No Report = No Crime.  You have beat cops who are overworked / overloaded they and cannot focus on the little things.  So what happens?  They let some of the little things go because they have more important — higher priority — calls already waiting for them.  When this happens the little things don’t get reported.  It’s like the crimes never even happened.

Of course Compstat is at the center of this.  It gives the Mayor and McCarthy the plausible ability to say things like, “Well overall crime is down.”