A dozen men died and more than 30 other people were wounded over the Christmas holidays in Chicago, adding a grim noted to a weekend that should have celebrated peace on earth.
The city was on track to rack up 800 homicides by the end of the year.
According to the Chicago Sun Times and WBBM News, the weekend carnage surpassed the Christmas weekend in 2015, when 30 people were shot, including six who were killed.
Ironically, the Sun Times also reported that arrests are down for the year. The newspaper said arrests are on pace to hit 50,000 when there were more than 69,000 last year.
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson was quoted by the newspaper noting that nearly 3,900 “illegal” firearms have so far been seized this year. The story did not say whether people from whom those guns were seized had Firearm Owner Identification cards, or had concealed carry permits.
Adding to the irony was a story that appeared in the Seattle Times just before Christmas, about how the holidays bring a spike in unintentional shootings.
Back on Jan. 2, TIME magazine was reporting about the 2015 death toll. It had crept up to 468 slayings last year, which was a 12.5 percent increase from the 416 murders in 2014. TIME quoted the Chicago Tribune, which reported that the city “had the most homicides of all U.S. cities in 2015.”
If one were to go all the way back to 1929, the year of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre launched by mobster Al Capone against rival George “Bugs” Moran, Chicago is many times more violent than in the days of prohibition, Speak Easy nightclubs and the availability of Thompson submachine guns. Nowadays, even The Untouchables might be unable to stop the slaughter.
Despite the 2010 McDonald ruling that obliterated the 30-year gun ban, Chicago still has some pretty strict gun laws. They apparently apply to everyone except the gangs and thugs shooting up the South and West sides.
Supt. Johnson has indicated a majority of the killings and shootings over the Christmas holiday weekend were gang-related.
