The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Chicago lowered its body count in 2018, but the city still managed to record more homicides than Los Angeles and New York combined.
The revelation came as Chicago police made the first arrest of the new year for a “gun related crime” only two minutes after midnight. Predictably, the guy they arrested had prior convictions and he was described as an “armed habitual criminal.”
At least the suspect, Darrell Rashawn Rhyme, 23, was not the first casualty of 2019. He reportedly fled from a traffic stop and was later sacked while carrying a handgun that turned out to have been stolen.
According to the Los Angeles Times story, Chicago racked up 561 homicides last year, but that may not be an accurate count. An online publication, Keloland, said Chicago police reported the 561 slayings between Jan. 1 and Dec. 18. As of mid-December, the article noted, Los Angeles had logged 243 slayings and New York had reported 278 murders for the year.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Whatever the final number, it will be below the 660 slain in 2017 and the 770 killed in 2016.
Keloland said police credit the decline in homicides to the addition of 1,000 new officers the Chicago force, along with technological advances.
The Times story recalled that President Donald Trump had warned Chicago to clean up its problem or he would send in federal officers. That brought reaction from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, reportedly accusing the president of “oversimplifying the problem and potential solutions,” the story noted.
But Second Amendment activists could say the same about officials who reactively push more gun control measures that only seem to affect honest citizens.
Meanwhile, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee appears to be ready to run…for president. According to The Atlantic, the two-term Democrat governor and former congressman will be running on a climate change platform of sorts, but it’s likely guns will be a major campaign issue as well. However, Inslee hasn’t officially declared, so that makes any reports a bit awkward, something on the order of Samuel Clemens’ famous report from Europe that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated.
Inslee has been making certain noises about a possible presidential run, and this story suggests that he’s getting closer.
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