Chicago: A Tale of Two Cities

Image Source: Newsweek.

Today on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, Zakaria interviewed Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago and Obama's former White House Chief of Staff. After they criticized Trump for five minutes, Zakaria borrowed Donald Trump's electoral phrase to describe Emanuel's promise to 'make Chicago's infrastructure great again.' Emanuel described a 4-year infrastructure plan to expand runways and trains at O'Hare Airport; mass transit with 4G on it; and modernize schools. The plan would bring 50,000+ additional new construction jobs to the city.

If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

Of course, the segregation, chaos, and violence in the city are extremely politicized. The Obamas have roots in Chicago, and they are planning a presidential library and museum there. In January 2017, Trump made headlines by promising to send in the feds if Emanuel could not get the city in hand.

Emanuel: Chicago adding cops to stem violence (28 May 2017). Video Source: CNN via Youtube.

The Racist History Of Chicago's Housing Policies (25 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Why Chicago's Public Schools Are Broken (26 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Chicago's South Side Isn't Waiting To Be Saved (27 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

What People Get Wrong About Chicago (28 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Newsweek reported that 2016 was Chicago's bloodiest year in decades. On 20 June 2017, ABC7 reported: "Someone is shot in Chicago, on average, every two and a half hours." A list of murder victims is here. A city of 2.72 million people now has 100,000 gang members. Parts of Chicago are overrun by drug-trade-fueled gang violence, mainly in the south and west sides, with some further north. The problems extend into the affluent suburbs. In 2012, WBEZ provided a map of gang-dominated areas, overlapped with locations of schools and murders: at that time, the city had at least 59 gangs with 625 factions. Google provides an updated Chicago gang map here.

Chicago Homicide 79th & Clyde (14 February 2015). Video Source: Youtube.

Chicago Police release dash-cam video (14 October 2016). Video Source: Youtube.

CHICAGO SOUTH SIDE / 69TH ST & ML KING / O BLOCK HOOD (7 January 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Chicago shooting Guy Dies Shooting caught on cam 1/14/17 (18 January 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

CHICAGO'S WORST HOODS AT NIGHT (27 February 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

To all POLICE. Don't speak to me (4 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

POLICE harassment (29 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Startling discovery in Chicago Black violence on buses out of control (31 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Chicago’s Struggle With Gun Violence (4 June 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Drug addicts swarm crack house that 'reopened' in Chicago (22 June 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Due to long racial tensions, the police and whites in the city are accused (often correctly) of open or covert racism. There are counter-accusations of black victimization and anti-white racism. For their part, the police protest that they are under-equipped and overwhelmed in their struggle against violence and drugs: cocaine, opioids like fentanyl, carfentanil, heroin, crystal meth. There is a charity site, Get Behind the Vest, to raise USD $4 million to replace outworn and damaged bullet-proof vests. Members of the police department are issued one bullet-proof vest, but are individually obliged to replace the USD $500 vests at personal cost. Considering members of the police department get shot at all the time, no doubt it must get expensive.

Image Source: Blue Lives Matter.

The Internet exacerbates violence, as gangs trade insults on social media, and crimes, like a recent gang rape, are broadcast on Facebook for people to watch. ABC7:

"'A lot of the shootings and homicides are social media-driven, over some kind of altercation. Somebody said something about somebody else. Much like the violence and the shootings, the drug game-everything changes, it evolves, moves and adapts,' said Dennis Wichern, DEA Chicago Special Agent in Charge."

“If they cut off all the social media sites, I ain’t gonna lie, it’ll stop some killing" https://t.co/XERF1YmbqQ pic.twitter.com/VXgGreX1Hf

— Christopher Mims (@mims) December 17, 2016

Image Source: 4chan/pol.

On 10 June 2017, 4chan/pol ran a thread, CHICAGO POLICE SCANNER THREAD - AK47s ON A FULL MOON EDITION, in which the forum listened to the Chicago Police Department scanner and made racist, political comments as the crimes unfolded. You can listen to Chicago's live police and fire scanner here. There is another version of the scanner here, with a background of electronic music here. This is a new kind of chilling Internet entertainment, an eerie carnage ambient, to which trolls listen while they work.

Ambient Chicago Police Dispatch Sampler: Chicago Police Dispatch (12 May 2017). Video Source: Youtube.