On radio this morning, Pat and Stu talked about the ever-raging gun violence in Chicago - despite the fact the city employs some of the strictest gun control laws in America. Last night, 13 people, including a 3-year-old boy, were shot during a late-night attack in a southwest Chicago park.
“They have the strictest gun laws in the country and the steward ship of the President's former chief of staff and have hit new highs and now lead the United States of America in total murders,” Stu said of Chicago.
A 3-year-old boy who was among 13 people wounded in a late-night attack on a southwest Chicago park was alert when he arrived at the hospital and was apparently doing well, his family and friends said early Friday.
The attack late Thursday in the city’s Back of the Yard neighborhood left three victims, including the boy, in critical condition. The others were reportedly in serious or fair condition.
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The shooting comes nearly three weeks after Chicago saw an outburst of violence over the Labor Day weekend that ended with eight dead and 20 others injured.
Following a surge in homicides and shootings last year, the police department stepped up its crime-fighting efforts by, among other things, paying overtime to add patrols to some neighborhoods, including the Back of the Yards.
Chicago now leads the U.S. in total murders. New York City is three times the size of Chicago, and yet Chicago has 500 murders compared to 419 in NYC.
“So not per capita but in actual number,” Pat said. “It's 500 for Chicago, 419 last year for New York City, which is staggering. But I got to thinking, those numbers are way below the numbers that we used to hear. I remember hearing in the late 80s, early 90s statistics of outrageous numbers of murders in New York City and Chicago and Los Angeles and all over the country.”
“In New York it seems to me it was, like, 2,600 and we looked it up and sure enough, I think they're peak was 2,605 murders in 1990 or 1991,” he continued. “So New York City has reduced their murder rate from 2,600 a year to 419 last year. That is a stunning development, I think… And it's not just murder, by the way. It's crime across the board has actually gone down.”
While there are disagreements over has caused crime rates to drop so significantly. Pat offered one highly probable theory.
“Is the prevalent theory that we're just nicer now,” he asked. “We're just nicer people. We're just good to one another and we understand that hurting someone else, hurting another human being is frankly wrong and impolite and we've become such a polite society, we don't take things that don't belong to us and we don't hurt people for no reason or any reason.”
“Doesn't seem to be,” Stu concluded. “I don't think so.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP
