Reports out of Chicago read as if there was a war zone on the South Side of the city this past weekend. There were at least 46 people shot from Friday to Sunday, with 33 reported on Saturday alone, including a 16-year-old who tried to get away from his shooter on a bicycle only to be shot just a few blocks away from his home.
A Chicago police spokesperson said the department's crime-fighting strategies are working, noting the city's "low" homicide totals so far in 2013. So this is what gets people worked up about "stats geeks."
Last year, 53 people were shot and nine killed in a weekend. This past weekend's numbers are technically 46 and seven. Is that really better?
This is as much about saving the criminals as it is about fighting crime, though. The 16-year-old kid was almost out of the violent Hermosa neighborhood after being involved in gang conflicts and going through the juvenile criminal justice system. He's dead at 16.
Chicago police also shot a 15-year-old who they say pointed a gun at them during a chase.
No strategy is "working" right now. The police have a tough job to do, but that city needs more than crime-fighting.
From the Chicago Tribune:
At least 13 people were shot on the city's South and West sides late Sunday and early this morning, including a 71-year-old man shot by a BB gun, authorities said.
Among them was a 15-year-old boy fatally shot by a police officer during a foot chase in the Englewood neighborhood.
By midnight, the violence had brought the number of people shot over the weekend to at least 47. The number of weekend shooting incidents was eight fewer than the number of incidents during the same weekend last year, Chicago police spokesman Adam Collins wrote in an overnight email.
