01-26-2017, 10:24 PM
Quote:They should welcome a wide-open review of the entire problem, because I doubt it has a simple cause. Yes, the gangs ... I know that. But they also have incredibly easy access to guns, because Illinois is really gun friendly. Then again, the place has lost a lot of good jobs for the blue collar class, and those jobs are gone for good.
In any case, it would be the kind of sociological study that might open eyes.
It's definitely multicausal, but lots of other places are suffering from deindustrialization, have ready access to guns, have the same drug laws, and yet don't have anywhere near the level of violence. Chicago isn't the only place dealing with this, but we should try and avoid pat answers and just-so stories all the same.
Stories like this one.
Quote:The deaths are mostly gang violence, where do you think the gangs make their money from? IIRC a year ago there was a crackdown on gang leaders in Chicago which disrupted the balance of power among the gangs there and that is why the violence spiked.
Really, Odin? Their murder rate in 2015 was already ridiculously high, and much of it has to do high school kids getting in arguments on Facebook over shoes and mean comments. You could just as easily point to school and housing project closings, and many of the people from there moved outside the city (as far as Davenport, IA) are bringing the crime with them to their new homes.
Chicago, Baltimore, Ferguson... these places don't have unique drug laws vis New York, or LA, or Boston, or Dubuque. Stop handwaving away things you don't like just because your mind mentally tags issues and positions as "red" or "blue" and files them away accordingly.