Public Radio in Chicago Notices Crime and (the lack of) Punishment

This article slipped into one of my news searches. There is one thing that is amazing about it. More on that later. Slim odds of arrest in Chicago when someone's shot, wounded, Sun-Times finds - WBEZ Chicago

More than 19,000 people were wounded in shootings in Chicago since 2018. The Chicago Police Department has made arrests in 1,200 of those cases.

Just over 6%, but math is hard, especially if you're a journalist. The numbers are slightly better if you only look at 2024, but it is still just over 6%.

But this is the part that jumped out at me.

Experts say the chronic lack of arrests is a big part of the reason for as many shootings as there are in many Chicago neighborhoods plagued by gunfire.

Those who did the shootings remain on the street, free to hurt more people. Seeing no arrest, victims’ friends in some cases try to take justice into their own hands and retaliate. Witnesses who already might be in fear but also don’t think arrests are likely might be less willing to cooperate with detectives — part of a widespread “no-snitch code” — making it harder to make arrests.

Did the NPR affiliate in Chicago just admit that without consequences for crime, crime will continue to get worse? They are going to lose their Progressive Loony cards over that. Next they will be saying that because shoplifting is not prosecuted, shoplifting has become a major problem, or that people should be held accountable for their actions. What is this world coming to?

They go on to detail the number of police, detectives, and how that compares to other major cities.

Department records show that 80% or more of nonfatal shooting investigations are “suspended” each year, meaning officers assigned to those cases no longer are actively investigating them. Slightly fewer than half of all cases are suspended within 30 days, according to police department figures.

They do include a statement from a shooting victim whose case was never solved, but the statistics tell the real story. There is very little Justice to be had in Chicago.

There is no mention of the Defund the Police campaign, the added burden of reporting requirements being piled on cops, the rules that make it all but impossible for Chicago Police to chase suspects either in a car or on foot, or the soft-on-crime policies of Kim Foxx, the previous Illinois State's Attorney for Cook County, who did not seek reelection in 2024.

Anyway... Do I think this means that the Left is waking up to the disastrous effects of the Soft-on-Crime, don't put the bad guys in jail policies that have taken hold in a lot of Blue Cities? No. They will continue to march in lockstep, because to do otherwise would mean admitting that they were wrong about a lot of things.