B*****t
发帖数: 820 | 1 As Chicago residents face a murder rate that, thus far this year, is worse
than U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Chicago Police Department has assigned
at least 100 officers to secure the wedding of White House advisor Valerie
Jarrett's daughter.
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia
and Sasha arrived in Chicago Friday evening ahead of the Saturday wedding of
Laura Jarrett, which will be held in a backyard in the city's Kenwood
neighborhood. And that wedding is, expectedly, set to be a high-security
affair.
The Chicago Sun-Times' Michael Sneed reports that between 100 and 200
Chicago police officers will be on site to help "secure the perimeter" of
the wedding.
Sneed further reports that the city will not be reimbursed for the police
security by the federal government.
The directive for police to cover the Jarrett wedding arrives at a time
where Chicago is facing a surge in its homicide rate. The Daily pointed out
in a Friday column that more Chicago residents -- 228 -- have been killed so
far this year in the city than the number of U.S. troops killed in
Afghanistan - 144 -- over the same period.
The war zone-like statistics are not new. As WBEZ reports, while some 2,000
U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, more than 5,000
people have been killed by gun fire in Chicago during that time, based on
Department of Defense and FBI data.
Chicago's murder rate is also currently quadruple that of New York and
double Los Angeles' rate. Gun violence Friday evening into Saturday took the
lives of at least one person -- Antonio Buck, of the 5400 block of South
Aberdeen -- and wounded at least seven others, including a 16-year-old boy
shot in the lower back around 11 p.m. Friday.
This weekend, with the combination of balmy weather and a number of crowd-
drawing outdoor events including the Puerto Rican Festival in Humboldt Park,
another surge of violence is feared.
Heading into the weekend, many Chicago police prepared to take part in a new
initiative allowing them to receive overtime pay for working on their days
off. A "high deployment" of officers will also be assigned to the city's
downtown area to curb additional "mob-style" attacks.
The previous weekend, at least eight were killed, including a 16-year-old
boy, and 46 wounded by gun violence in Chicago. Monday evening into Tuesday,
seven more people were shot, two of them fatally. The city's homicide rate
is up more than 50 percent over last year.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy commented at a Tuesday event
that the city was dealing with a "perception problem" when it comes to its
homicide and shooting rates, noting that statistics in those two areas have
actually improved in recent weeks, the Chicago Tribune reports.
"I don't know how to overcome it, except to keep communicating the facts,"
McCarthy said. "And that's what we're going to continue to do."
The city has repeatedly said "fracturing" street gangs are responsible for
the bulk of the recent gun violence. The city has deployed specialized
undercover officers to units on the city's West and South Sides, as well as
saturating area neighborhoods with uniformed cops.
Tio Hardiman, Illinois director of anti-violence group CeaseFire, wrote in a
HuffPost blog that although much of the gun violence is simply labeled as "
gang-related" in media accounts, "once you take a closer look, you will find
out that the majority of conflicts stem from interpersonal conflict that
escalate into a gang conflict." |
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