Heather MacDonald in City Journal: Will the anti-cop Left please figure out what it wants? For more than a decade, activists have demanded the end of proactive policing, claiming that it was racist. … Equally vilified was Broken Windows policing, which responds to low-level offenses such as graffiti, disorderly conduct, and turnstile jumping. Black Lives…
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It’s kind of hilarious that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to present his cover-up-and-dictate style of management as concern for police misconduct. But leaving that aside, a task-force he appointed has released its report. Some of what it says needs to be said: “From 2011-2015, 40% of complaints filed were not investigated by IPRA.”…
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Murders are usually thought of in the abstract. People “get killed.” Homicides “rates” go up or down. But to each killing, there’s a person who kills and a person killed. This isn’t really understood by those who don’t live or work in high crime areas. (Yes, while murder can happen anywhere… no, murder actually doesn’t…
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Police-involved shootings in Chicago are way down. From heyjackass.com This is great news for advocates of police reform. Chicago in 2016 will probably see police shoot just 15 or so people (based quite sketchily on January through March figures). This compares to 45 people shot in 2014. The decrease is without doubt due in part…
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Maybe killers don’t dress with such flair in Chicago as they do in Detroit. But what Chicago murders lack in quality, they make up for in quantity. Some experts prefer to put their head in the sand and hope it all goes away: “Trying to read too much into this is a grave mistake,” said…
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In some ways this is just another shooting in the hood. But I post it because, well, look at her Jessie getup! Also, she packs her gun in her panties. And there’s high quality video. Does there have to be more? I wanna be a cowboy… and she can my cowgirl. This is the violence…
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Denying the Ferguson Effect and any link between policing and crime has become almost a cottage industry in some circles. It’s sort of the liberal equivalent of conservatives denying climate change and, er, on the small chance it is changing, any link between global warming and human activity. Sure, the world may be warmer. But…
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To paraphrase Tip O’Neill, “All policing is local.” But that doesn’t mean that something in one town can’t have an effect on policing nationwide. And a trend can be large and worrisome — and national — without being universal. That’s why they call it a trend. I don’t know what’s going on everywhere (or even…
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Usually I focus on the Eastern District, because that is where I policed. But I was looking at stats for the Western District, where Freddie Gray died. Homicides in the Western went from a long-time record low (but still shamefully high) 21 in 2014 to a record high 66 in 2015. Holy mackerel, that’s a…
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I’m not for “three strikes and you’re out.” I am, however, supportive of 32 strikes and you’re out (I’d even go down to 20). Kari Bazemore, who has a history of random violence, slashed a woman walking down 23rd St at 6AM. There’s something particularly chilling about the pointless randomness of it. No argument. No…
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