A young girl sweeps up
the area outside the CVS Pharmacy in Baltimore that was set on fire
during rioting on Monday, on April 28, 2015. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty
Images)
CHICAGO—Violent crimes—from homicides and rapes to
robberies—have been on the rise in many major U.S. cities, yet experts
can’t point to a single reason why and the jump isn’t enough to suggest
there’s a trend.
Still, it is stumping law enforcement officials, who are seeking a way to combat the problem.
“It’s being reported on at local levels, but in my view, it’s not
getting the attention at the national level it deserves,” FBI Director
James Comey said recently. “I don’t know what the answer is, but holy
cow, do we have a problem.”
Americans have grown accustomed to low crime rates since a peak in
the 1990s. But law enforcement started seeing a spike last year that has
continued unabated. What’s unusual, however, is that it’s not happening
everywhere. Chicago and Los Angeles are seeing homicides on the rise,
but other places like Miami and Oakland are not.
FBI
Director James Comey speaks on cybersecurity at Georgetown University
in Washington, D.C., on April 26, 2016. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Chicago, a city long associated with violent crime that plagues its
poorer neighborhoods, saw six people fatally shot over the Memorial Day
weekend and 56 wounded, ending a bloody month in a bloody year. May’s 66
homicides—19 more than May 2015 and 25 more than May 2014—raised the
total number for the year past the 240 mark. That’s more than 50 percent
higher than last year, and puts city on a pace to easily surpass the
500 homicides it saw in 2012.
Perhaps more significant is the number of people who are being shot;
well over 1,200 as of Tuesday, which far surpasses the 800 by this time
last year.
All of it has left the city on edge.
“Our kids are afraid to go out of the house,” said the Rev. Michael
Pfleger, a Catholic priest and activist on the city’s South Side. “You
have children asking teachers to pray for them before they go home.”
Some say the splintering of gangs have created deadly rivalries,
others say the disbanding of specialized police units has helped
embolden gangs. Guns are pouring into the city—with police saying
they’ve seized more guns this year(3,500) than any city police
department in the United States—but courts also have overturned or
gutted the city’s once-tough gun laws.
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