Chicago: 126 Shootings in 2 Weeks

The New Observer
January 17, 2016

The 70 percent nonwhite city of Chicago has had 126 shootings, which have resulted in at least 21 deaths, in the first week of 2016—exclusively the result of black and Latin American crime and gang warfare.

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According to a tally of Chicago shooting victims maintained by the Chicago Tribune newspaper, from January 1 to January 15, 2016, there have been 126 “shooting victims” in the city.

The number of victims is nearly as much as for the entire month of January 2015, when there were just over 135 shooting victims.

One of the more recent shootings was at a party only four blocks from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi released a statement blaming most of the violence on “chronic gang conflicts.”

“Every year Chicago Police recover more illegal guns than officers in any other city, and as more and more illegal guns continue to find their way into our neighborhoods it is clear we need stronger state and federal gun laws,” Guglielmi said in the statement.

“So far this year, the majority of the gun violence we’ve seen are a result of chronic gang conflicts driven in part by social media commentary and petty disputes among rival factions.”

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A 2012 audit of street gangs concluded that at least 59 distinct gangs with 625 separate factions are at work on all sides of the city. As many as 70,000 to 100,000 people are members of these gangs.

“Most of our violence is gang related; much of it is narcotics gang related,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said at the time the audit was ordered. “They argue over turf and get into violent disputes with each other, and that’s how people get hurt.”

Four of the five largest gangs are comprised primarily of black members with roots dating back to the 1950s and 60s. The Latin Kings — with roots in Chicago dating back to the 1940s — are estimated to be the fourth-largest gang in Chicago. They are believed to be the largest Hispanic street gang in the United States. Gangs with Hispanic members are very prevalent in satellite cities such as Elgin and Aurora, however.

*Earlier, US Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump promised that if he was elected, he would “deport” all the Latin American gangs back to Central and South America.

Speaking on a Mobile, Alabama, talk show, he said, “A lot of the gangs that you see — it doesn’t hopefully pertain to you guys so much — but when you look at Baltimore, when you look at Chicago and Ferguson and a lot of areas, you know a lot of these gang members are illegal immigrants. They’re going to be gone. We are going to get them out so fast, out of this country so fast.”