How would you deal with violent crime in Chicago?

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Irwin

Irwin

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Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
If you were mayor, without getting political, what would you do to address the violent crime problem in Chicago?
 

Personally, I'd put a Planned Parenthood clinic on every corner. Part of the problem is that too many poor women are having children they're not able to raise in a non-stressful environment. Stress during childhood creates all sorts of problems such as learning disabilities and mental illness. Add to that, in bad neighborhoods, studying and education in general are looked down upon and violence is respected. A lot of these kids don't have a chance.

Second, eliminate rewards for having more children such as increased welfare payments for each child. Having children is not a legitimate way to earn a living. Instead, provide poor people with a decent place to live and food and clothing, but not in the form of welfare. I'm for communes to help the poor. Everybody gets the basic necessities, but they also have to work. Disincentivise having children that can't be adequately provided for.

Third, build police stations right in the heart of the worst neighborhoods and have police presence everywhere like they do in Israel. Let criminals know that they're not going to get away with anything. And when they do get locked up, put them in solitary confinement, but with computers and books, so there's nothing else to do but learn. They can socialize online with other inmates, but they can't join prison gangs.

Thoughts?
 
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Thoughts? I just don’t know.

Kids shouldn’t be having kids. For some, theoretically, it’s so they’ll have someone to love and who loves them. Then they realize it’s not easy. Of course the man/boy is having sex with them because he loves them. 🙄
 

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If I were the existing Mayor of Chitown I would immediately fire the Superintendent then resign my post and vigorously suggest to the new Mayor and Superintendent to reorganize CPD to have more two man foot patrols equally patrolling all the wards. No more solo cars, two officers in every cruiser and 1/4 of the shifts will be dedicated to foot patrol. Dashcams and bodycams on at all times. A vigorous Juvenile Diversion Unit. A proactive Community Service Unit and a 24 hour Citizens Outreach Unit. Activate a PAL, DARE and COP Unit. Citizens Academy and a Ride Along Program. 24 Hour CPD Substations in high crime areas. Work with the communities in setting up Neighborhood Watch Programs. Institute an Auxiliary Police Patrol Unit in commercial areas. Work with the City, County and State homeless, drug awareness and mental health agencies to vigorously institute 24 hour outreach programs for at risk citizens. I absolutely abhor affirmative action programs I don't care who feels they are appropriate to benefit one particular race, sexual orientation or whatever is deemed politically correct on any given day of the week but instill a fair and equitable equal opportunity program that follows the US Board of Labor national standard. No phony make work programs but institute neighborhood clean up programs like the highway cleanup programs. Well that's all for now because it is now 3:18AM. TTFN.
 
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I believe "the problem" is an extension or result of drugs, gangs, poverty, lack of hope and absence of family now thriving in not only major cities but in smaller cities as well. In many societies there is an incurable gap between between the poor and the not poor. I just saw a news piece this week where nine young people robbed a Neiman Marcus store walking out the front door one after the other with arms full of expensive goods. This is the norm. Why the apparent increase of disregard or human life we see today I'm sure is being argued in every social studies classes everywhere. How do you punish a young person that believes in nothing except violence?
 
You might want to look to history to see how problems like these occurred and were dealt with, both with and without success. One place to start might be with The History Of Street Gangs In U.S. Among the many interesting points made in this paper was the following:

A common denominator fueling gang growth in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles is the policy of concentrating poverty in the high-rise public housing units. But this urban planning blunder victimized black immigrants far more than Latinos in Chicago and New York City—suggesting an important point—each city’s gang dynamics differ in some respects; sweeping generalizations are ill-advised.​
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One sure way to exacerbate the crime problem in any city is to allow it to happen by not vigorously prosecuting those who commit crimes.
 
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There are "zones" in most major cities where the bulk of the crime and murders take place. No amount of policing is going to have a major effect in those areas Until the people who live there change their ways and attitudes. So long as they allow the drug gangs to "rule", and they continue to "procreate" without accepting responsibility for raising children properly, nothing the rest of society does is going to be of much real help.
 
A simple concept... more effort.

I'd information gather on all police forces in the city, and one by one I would fire and hire as I seen fit. Combine that with harsher sentences, foot patrols everywhere, more cameras everywhere, and if need be, I'd build a special penitentiary as a model to show off how career criminals live, and I'd fill it, and in turn I'd broadcast loud and clear where crime fighting was going as a way of extending my integrity towards public trust and safety.

Manhunts and round-up days would be common place, as would lethal force, and front page headlines in the papers would read, another gang syndicate brought to their knees. I would monitor and expect to see the city morgues piling up with gang members by the dozens, and I would sign a bill to apply a curfew on the entire city. Any residence or gathering place where it was found that gang activity was present would be burned to the ground.

My ways and means (initially) would be viewed as being oppressive, even dictator-like, but Chicago would no longer be recognized as the 5 star accommodation hub for criminals as it is.
 
I don't know. We could institute a police state, but some already say in certain areas there is one. I don't think there is one super simple solution. It's a complicated complex problem, with many vastly different causes. We're dealing with people, and they are not the most cooperative bunch. Hell, we could get everybody to wear a frikken mask during a pandemic. We also know that whatever is tried, it will be expensive.-really expensive. But throwing money at a problem doesn't work either, if you don't have an effective plan-and we don't. Like I said, I don't know.
 
Chicago's uber strict gun control laws aren't working because ...wait for it.... criminals don't too much care what laws say. I'd start with very steep bail for crimes in which a gun was even threatened. If found guilty of a crime involving a gun, then tough, consistent minimum sentencing. Threaten with a gun while committing a crime, five years minimum. Shoot and non-fatally injure someone with a gun while committing a crime: 10 years minimum. Shoot and kill someone while committing a crime: life with the possibility of parole after 20 years served.
 
if my husband were still alive, he would say, "Send them back for recycling!" and that would include those in power making decisions.

It's ignorance in action., starting with the demonizing and defunding of police. The populous receives the leadership they deserve.
 
AnnieA said:
Chicago's uber strict gun control laws aren't working because ...wait for it.... criminals don't too much care what laws say. I'd start with very steep bail for crimes in which a gun was even threatened. If found guilty of a crime involving a gun, then tough, consistent minimum sentencing. Threaten with a gun while committing a crime, five years minimum. Shoot and non-fatally injure someone with a gun while committing a crime: 10 years minimum. Shoot and kill someone while committing a crime: life with the possibility of parole after 20 years served.
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Great, but it will never happen because the whole idea today is cost cutting. That means early release & parole to reduce costs of inmate upkeep which increases as inmates age. That's why OJ Simpson was released after serving 8 years of his 33 year sentence for kidnapping & armed robbery. And that's why Bill Cosby was released after 2 years. And the Manson girls were approved for parole several times - until the Governor stepped in. They're all older inmates & their medical costs are higher.
Of course we're not told that; we're given the same BS lines - "They're rehabilitated, they're no longer a danger to society, they're remorseful, they've paid their debt, they've become good citizens, they're unlikely to re-offend."
 
I'd set 500 Old Mother Rileys armed with frying pans onto the gangsters, they'd get the place sorted. :)
 
It is a shame that Chicago is in the state it's in. I used to love visiting friends there. But, I guess this can be said for almost all of our major cities today. Sadly, it is beginning to spill over into some suburban areas as well. I lived in New York City for many years and it was safe almost everywhere at the time. Not now. No quick fix, but if mayors and their families were personally attacked, there'd be changes. Pronto.
 
Lewkat said:
It is a shame that Chicago is in the state it's in. I used to love visiting friends there. But, I guess this can be said for almost all of our major cities today. Sadly, it is beginning to spill over into some suburban areas as well. I lived in New York City for many years and it was safe almost everywhere at the time. Not now. No quick fix, but if mayors and their families were personally attacked, there'd be changes. Pronto.
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As a kid, I used to spend weeks in the summer with my cousin in south Chicago (an area that is now truly meaner than a junkyard dog). He and I would take the suburban electric , "L" and shanks mares to go to all kinds of interesting places (e.g., Shedd Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, Navy Pier, Museum of Science and Industry, Field Museum, Meigs Field, Comisky Park, etc.). We did this as grade school kids with never a problem. Doing this today would get you dead.,
 
It's probably beyond fixing in the traditional manner as with policing. Traditional policing is just reactional policing after the fact. It will take a military style invasion but the civil rights people would be on it in a second.
 
AnnieA said:
Chicago's uber strict gun control laws aren't working because ...wait for it.... criminals don't too much care what laws say. I'd start with very steep bail for crimes in which a gun was even threatened. If found guilty of a crime involving a gun, then tough, consistent minimum sentencing. Threaten with a gun while committing a crime, five years minimum. Shoot and non-fatally injure someone with a gun while committing a crime: 10 years minimum. Shoot and kill someone while committing a crime: life with the possibility of parole after 20 years served.
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Gun laws enacted by cities may not prevent crimes, but they provide cities with additional mechanisms to prosecute criminals who use guns. For example, if somebody brings a an AR15 into a city that has banned them, they don't have to use those guns to be prosecuted since they're breaking laws simply by having them.

But as far as more jail time, that's not a deterrent when going to prison means not having to worry about where your next meal is coming from and you can still belong to a gang in prison. Kids need a way out of poverty that doesn't involve crime and drugs. Of course, the same thing could be said for Mexico, and all the countries in Central and South America. Drugs are the problem. Perhaps legalization of drugs is the solution.
 
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I watched this problem discussed the other day applied to New York. The overall conclusion was the city's political bodies have ridiculed the police force to the point of mass resignations and rock bottom moral in the police force. I think this latest wave of "defund the police" mentality has backfired nationwide and this "backfire" could result in a new and very ugly system of law and order.
 
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