Guns And Murder Numbers

If ever there was proof of the difference between a gun culture and its murder numbers, and a non gun culture its in these figures.

Despite The Skyline -
Chicago Is A City With Problems.

In Chicago, a city of nearly three million people, there were more than 1,600 sexual assaults, nearly 3,000 shootings and 649 murders in 2021.

According to an Illinois citizens website, in 2022 there were 725 homicides in the city, which was 217 more than before the pandemic in 2019 (508). That was 43% more in 2022 compared to 2019, but less than the 810 in 2021 and 796 in 2020.

However according to the Illinois site, in 2022 there were 217 murders more than before the pandemic in 2019 (508). That was a 43% rise in 2022, compared to 2019, but less than the 810 in 2021, and 796 in 2020. Gang violence was the most common motive identified in Chicago homicides during the past four years, but in 32% of cases (880 deaths), the police were unable to identify a motive ... but black on black gang, or Latino gang violence has been identified as the causes of 943 Chicago homicides since 2019.

According to the figures on the Illinois website:

• 2022 Black Chicagoans were 77% of the homicide victims, but are only 29% of the city’s population.
• White Hispanics were 17% of victims and represented just over 14% of Chicagoans.
• Less than 4% of victims (and presumably of the perpetrators) were white, and make up 57% of the cities population.
  

Chicago's Mayors - A Record Of Decline

Figures that tell you all you need to know about which communities are living in a lawful manner. It was further reported that arrests were made in only 57% of the murders (the arrest rate had been 72% in 2019 .... they also have Kim Foxx as the DA) .... De-fund the police really worked then ....  so now there are 1,700 fewer officers than before Lori Lightfoot became the mayor, while under Mayor Brandon Johnson there were over 1,000 police vacancies and no strategy for filling them in 2022 and even 3 years later, there are 1,662 fewer officers than in 2018, a decline of nearly 13 percent. 

Both these mayors described themselves as 'progressive' .... a term that often means regressive for the well being of their constituents ... Mr Johnson for example has reneged on a campaign promise and is proposing the scrapping the cities selective school system, and returning to the neighbourhood school system that failed everyone (especially bright black kids, who instead got drawn in to the gang culture in schools 'in the hood'). This move will only accelerate the loss of the middle-classes and tax payers that the city so desperately needs, but now is losing (like a lot of Democrat controlled cities in the US). 

However the official police figures are somewhat at variance with the websites unofficial report ....

Chicago Police Dept Historical Crime Report

However, despite its somewhat lowering of the murder numbers (possibly revised upwards later), its no great read. According to this Police report .... the following was the true picture in Chicago with a massive leap in total crimes as the police cuts have impacted across all crime areas:

CRIME TYPE	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
MURDER	695	804	776	500	579
CRIM SEXUAL ASSLT	2,033	2,067	1,627	2,074	2,114
ROBBERY	8,996	7,911	7,860	7,991	9,681
AGG BATTERY	5,890	6,434	6,561	6,248	6,626
BURGLARY	7,622	6,668	8,755	9,652	11,784
THEFT	20,194	12,978	10,693	14,708	15,274
MTR VEHICLE THEFT	21,425	10,590	9,911	8,962	10,004
TOTAL CRIMES (Last 5 Yrs)	66,855	47,452	46,183	50,135	56,062

While London's 2021 population is now estimated at 9,648,000 (more than 3 times Chicago's), but there were just 126 homicides recorded by the police in London for the year 2022, compared with 119 in the previous year. 

The victims and perpetrators of homicides in London are normally not officially divulged (for reasons I can't possibly speculate on), but a Freedom of Information act request gave the London figures for 2021, In London in 2021, there were 131 homicides (whole year rather than the part 2020/21 figures normally given). 

• 101 of these victims were male (77%).
  
• 30 were female (23%).

The ethnic appearance of the victims was as follows:

• White 56 (43%)
• Black 55 (42%) - despite being only 13.5% of London's population.
  
• Asian 17 (13%)
• Other 3 (2%)

With regards to the people proceeded (the suspected murderers) against for the offence of homicide during 2021, the following figures apply:

• Male 222 (96%)
• Female 10 (4%)

• White 67 (29%) - (Whites make up 53% of Londoners)
  
• Black 134 (58%) - (Blacks make up 13.5% of Londoners).
  
• Asian 25 (11%) - (South Asian make up 20.7%  of Londoners).
  
• Other 2 (1%)
• Unknown 4 (2%)

While in 2019/20 there were approximately *7,890 rape offences recorded by the London Metropolitan Police, rising to 9,264 in 2022. Similarly there were just over 1,950 Gun Crime offences recorded in London 2019/20.  *Rape is vastly under-reported in both the US and UK, as women have no confidence in justice (although DNA testing has helped - but still doesn't help prove rape when the victim knows the attacker e.g ex-partner - and 1 in 2 women raped are attacked by a partner or ex-partner).

Its important to note that the UK doesn't compile or list crimes the same ways as in the US - We are not as straight forward, so no Met Police tables like Chicago's with 5 year comparisons (mores the pity) - it took me a long time to find a report just for 2021/2022 for most London crimes ~ annual Homicide figures for London were easy to find. 

Rape figures are shamefully often buried under the 25,232 recorded sexual offences in London (which includes very many less violent offences such as indecent exposure etc .... an indication that rape is poorly investigated, and even more poorly prosecuted in the UK). However they were listed separately in the 2021/2022 summary.

CRIME TYPE	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
MURDER	126	119	144	121	159
RAPE	9,264
ROBBERY	24,392
VIOLENCE W INJURY	76,199
BURGLARY	54,292
THEFT	205,539
MTR VEHICLE THEFT	25,568
TOTAL CRIMES (2022)	834,394

Obviously some of the differences the figures, are a result of different the laws used to define particular crimes, and the methods of reporting them, as well as some things being illegal in the UK but not in the US and vice versa e.g. Marijuana is totally illegal in the UK, as opposed to the US where personal or medical use is allowed in various states .... but murder is murder in both countries, and so the contrasts are most striking.