Sorry, no easy answers for Chicago homicides
"So what's that got to do with this year?"
First, it tells you that we've dealt with crime waves before. One reason murders look so high is because violent crime overall, including murder, has dropped since the 1990s. Second, everybody talks about how Chicago homicides this year outnumber those in New York and Los Angeles combined. But a number of smaller cities like Milwaukee and Houston have had big increases this year, too. So far, it's not a national trend, but it's not a uniquely Chicago problem either. There is no single, one-stop, one-size-fits-all diagnosis or prescription.
"Yeah, but you're not talking about Black Lives Matter and kids with cellphone cameras waging war on the police. The cops are afraid to get out of their patrol cars for fear of winding up on YouTube."
Frankly, some of them should fear winding up on YouTube, considering what we've seen on YouTube already.
But I notice you're not talking about how New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio pulled back on the city's aggressive stop-and-frisk profiling policy on the streets last year. Conservatives howled, but so far homicides have continued to decline.
"So you want to coddle the criminals and wage war on police?"
No, quite the opposite. I want to see more cops on the street, working in cooperation with local residents and community leaders. Community policing works, if you do it right.
Unfortunately, Chicago police are undermanned and pulling lots of overtime. The city and state are deep in debt, and, as much as Mayor Rahm Emanuel talks about hiring more cops, nobody knows where he's going to get the money except from taxpayers who are feeling pretty tapped out already.
Ah, so, once again Democrats are screwing up our cities.
I know you'd like to make this a partisan issue, but it's not that simple either.
"Hey, Donald Trump recently said Chicago police could solve the city's crime problem 'in a week.' "
Oh, yeah? How? Is he going to give gangbangers scholarships to Trump University?
"No," he says the police only have to be "very much tougher" than they are now.
Oh, gimme a break. This is a guy who claims he knows "more about ISIS than the generals." Now he thinks he knows more than Chicago's police?
"He says one of Chicago's 'very top police' told him and Trump says he believed the guy '100 percent.' "
Right. That would make Trump as gullible as he hopes the voters will be in November.
(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
