Homicide Rate Increases In Chicago, Drops In New York
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A recent study of the homicide rate in Chicago compared to that of New York City's showed that the rate has steadily increased in The Windy City, while it has plummeted in The Big Apple. According to police, Chicago recorded its 499th murder of the year this past Thursday while it's been 414 for NY since Friday. The statistics are surprising considering New York has more than three times the population.
Chicago has been riddled by gang violence for numerous years, and it's this violence that's been blamed for the increase in the murder rate. The city is in route to top the highest numbers of homicide since 2008 when it recorded a staggering 512 murders. City officials have become extremely frustrated as Chicago Police Commissioner Garry McCarthy has been searching for ways to prevent crimes from occurring.
Perhaps Chicago officials can implement the same type of action taken by New York law enforcement. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly cites the increase of stop-and-frisks as a major deterrent to crime in NYC.
"We're preventing crimes before someone is killed and before someone else has to go to prison for murder or other serious crimes," Kelly said in a statement.
Even more staggering numbers come in the form of the percentage of victims, which is highly one-sided. In Chicago, 80 percent of the crimes committed were gang-related; 80 percent of the victims were African Americans, according to Garry McCarthy. The majority of gang violence occurs in the city's South and West sides, areas of the city that are predominantly black.
Chicago Police Commissioner Garry McCarthy cites a much worse firearms issue in his city than that of New York and Los Angeles, the nation's two largest cities.
"In the first six months of the year, we seized three guns for every gun seized in Los Angeles and nine guns for every gun confiscated by the New York Police Department," he said. "When people ask me, 'What's different about Chicago?' that's one of the things I tell them. We have a proliferation of illegal firearms," he said.
source: huffingtonpost.com
