Photo credit: Brad Boniwel

By Mike Keleher

Well the good news to be touted by the city will of course be “Shootings down in 2019!”…yes indeed. They are down a whopping 7% since 2018…whee, that must be quite a source of solace for the paltry 2754 people who were shot in Chicago this year.

I am loath to do high school level math and figure out 7%, but looks like 192 fewer people were shot this year. I am sure the city will claim victory, but on the spectator side of things it is just as likely heavy rains kept some potential targets indoors on Saturday nights this year!

Is it just me, or does 2754 seem like a rather inordinate amount of humans shot in one year in one city? It will hit the newspapers for a day and then that story will be gone…again.

Oh, and homicides this year? 513 murdered. That is quite a lot of murders, but what makes that number even worse is well documented by www.heyjackass.com when it shows the police/prosecution clearance rate for those murders stands at only 12.2% this year.

So if you killed someone in Chicago, especially in the high crime neighborhoods during 2019 you have an 87.8% chance of getting away with it? That is outrageous, no matter how you slice it. Where is the incentive to not kill people? There can’t be any fear of apprehension or prosecution in those numbers.  The violent criminals are going to continue to do what ever the hell they want to do, despite increased police efforts, new mayors,  or even the presence of some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation.  They just don’t care and have little reason to fear apprehension. They continue to run amuck year after year.

By the way, www.statista.com reports the nationwide murder clearance rate in the U.S. in 2018 (the latest collected data) is 62.3%.

How in the world do numbers like this become so commonplace? There is a giant media and city combined comment of “Meh.”

According to www.heyjackass.com, of the 513 murders in the city, no charges were filed in 439 of those cases. Suspects were charged in 61 of those crimes, 6 were ruled self defense, police were involved with 6 and a single murder/suicide noted.

One would think with so many murders to practice on year after year, the CPD would be really good at solving them by now!

The inherent problem with Chicago violent crime as most of us suspect, is most of the shooters and most of the “shootees” all have prior gun crime convictions, and  no one in that circle or even the general population is willing to cooperate with police investigations. over gang and drug crime even when so many innocent bystanders are killed by accident. Marksmanship remains a low/no skill with Windy City gunmen.

Looks like New York City finished this year with about 300 murders within their 8.6 million residents.  LA City has 4 million people. I could not find any fresh stats for just LA city, but there were a whopping 511 homicides in LA County this year. 511! Why that is tied with Chicago city homicides! OMG! How is this possible? Well when you tie in all the communities in LA county there are 10 million people living there compared to Chicago’s 2.7 million.

Even though Chicago economies and sports teams continue to take a beating, and the population continues to decline, it manages to hold on to the #1 spot for big city violent crime and homicides again this year!

7 thoughts on “Buh-bye 2019. Only 2754 humans shot in Chicago this year!”
  1. I think we need more restrictive gun laws! That will solve the problem!! Or maybe we should try something else… Like solving crimes and putting people in prison!!

    1. I personally think we should try something else like restore the checks and balances between the good guys and the bad guys. (To heck with all of these laws)

      The Founding fathers believed in a Checks and Balances system, not frivolous laws that only hinder people with “NO” desire to commit crimes

      How about constitutional carry Nation wide.

      How about repealing the 1968 Gun Control Act and the FOID card and allowing people to defend themselves.

      We have never needed all of these stupid prohibitions. The only people that don’t need guns are those in prison and those in a mental hospital or under mental health treatment. But even mental health should not allow the government to steal your private property.

      Illinois law and National laws need to change.

      If you look at the homicide rates for Chicago from 1900 -today; Chicago had fewer homicides when we could buy guns through the mail without “ALL” of these stupid “UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAWS” like FOID cards.

      In fact if you look at the Homicide rate in Chicago before the passage of the FOID card you will notice the homicide rate was lower by almost half or more, compared to what it is today.

      (These numbers come from the Encyclopedia of Chicago history and the Chicago Police Department)

  2. Apparently, Militia’s are being formed all across the country. The claims of a coming Civil war keep growing.

    I have also heard that people are stockpiling FOOD, MEDICAL SUPPLIES, AMMUNITION and BUILDING 5-10 PROGRAMS.

    I don’t know what will happen but preparing doesn’t sound out of line when you consider the lunatics in the Democrat Party.

  3. And as you note, the 12.2% clearance rate is just clearing the case, i.e. “we know that guy did it”. That includes justified shootings, accidents and police shootings where we know who did the shooting, but for which no one is charged. It also does not mean “convicted”. The Kim Foxx led Cook County State’s Attorney Office may not succeed in convicting all the people charged.

  4. Would like to see your take on the attempted confiscation/registration going on in Virginia. Thanks.

    1. ob:,
      #They are not confiscating the firearms YET, the idiot governor is wanting to push gun control laws so drastic he is preparing budgets to try to enforce unconstitutional laws. I hope and pray they fail because it will lead to CW2, no doubt.

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