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Chicago: Murder rate sparks political spats

Governor complains crime at 'epidemic proportions'

By Andrea Billups (Contact) | Friday, July 25, 2008

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It's been one long, bloody year for the Windy City.

Murders are up 13 percent. During the past school year, 29 Chicago-area youths were killed by gunfire. On one April weekend, 40 people were shot. Over the July Fourth weekend, nine people were gunned down - with three more killed this past weekend.

The press is dubbing Chicago "Beirut by the Lake."

The inner-city crime wave has sparked political spats. Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich told fellow Democrat Mayor Richard M. Daley he might send in National Guard helicopters and the Illinois State Police as an elite tactical team to help Chicago cops. Some observers consider the offer an embarrassment to the mayor and his new police superintendent as well as a political power move, arriving just as the city enjoys a singular honor. Chicago is among the finalists to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

"It's fair to say that violent crime in Chicago is out of control," Mr. Blagojevich said recently. "In certain communities in the city of Chicago, it is reaching epidemic proportions."

John M. Hagedorn, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said some of the killings were over drugs, others involved gang activity with victims in the crossfire. There also are turf battles. Minority communities now seek to replace old neighborhoods, lost to urban renewal.

"There is still a lot of movement of people. The black community is very unsettled," said Mr. Hagedorn, the author of "A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture."

"Schools are closing and kids are being shipped to different schools, so you have that kind of instability that goes along with the historic treatment of the black community as something to be pushed around into one place and treated as a second-class citizens."

Mr. Hagedorn thinks police are not blameless in fueling local outrage. He calls the governor's offer to send extra law enforcement a political ploy, rather than a serious solution.

"There has been a large string of shootings by police - at one point, seven over the course of 10 days. It´s really added to the hostility and alienation of the community," he said. "One of the factors that fuels violence is hostility. The nihilism is there for a reason.