This is Chicago, Kiddies...

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Indiana Joe said:
I lived only a block from Lincoln Park by Belmont Harbor. Us kids lived in that park. I cannot imagine growing up in the part of the city in which you did. But that was in the mid '40s.
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I lived in Berwyn and went to high school in Cicero. Berwyn was a community of mostly Czech immigrants. There was a Czech newspaper, and my friends went to Bohemian school on Saturdays. Apparently there was a small community of Swedes there at one time, and that's how my family ended up there. Bohemian or not, I would describe the overall community as "tight knit." Berwyn seems to be mostly Hispanic now. My sister likes it. She married a guy from Spain, and she speaks Spanish quite well.
 

JustDave said:
I lived in Berwyn and went to high school in Cicero. Berwyn was a community of mostly Czech immigrants. There was a Czech newspaper, and my friends went to Bohemian school on Saturdays. Apparently there was a small community of Swedes there at one time, and that's how my family ended up there. Bohemian or not, I would describe the overall community as "tight knit." Berwyn seems to be mostly Hispanic now. My sister likes it. She married a guy from Spain, and she speaks Spanish quite well.
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We got the heck outta the entire Chicago area 23 years ago in our sixties. We first tried a move to one of the far southern suburbs but the drugs, crime and killings followed us. We got out and ended up in Indiana. So glad we did it that early.
 

C50, just to clarify that was not directed at all towards the LE community.

That was intended towards the people who get themselves elected to office by telling citizens what they want to hear & then not keeping promises once they get the job. These officials are usually the same ones who disrespect the men & women in uniform. Some elected officials have their own security detail provided at tax payers expense in these cities & do not worry about John Q who lives there.

I come from an LE family, former & present. I was an LE civilian for 30 years & my husband was sworn for 30. I have no illusions as to the evil that walks among us every day. No folks, that is not paranoia, it is first-hand experience.
 
Lilac said:
C50, just to clarify that was not directed at all towards the LE community.

That was intended towards the people who get themselves elected to office by telling citizens what they want to hear & then not keeping promises once they get the job. These officials are usually the same ones who disrespect the men & women in uniform. Some elected officials have their own security detail provided at tax payers expense in these cities & do not worry about John Q who lives there.

I come from an LE family, former & present. I was an LE civilian for 30 years & my husband was sworn for 30. I have no illusions as to the evil that walks among us every day. No folks, that is not paranoia, it is first-hand experience.
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I didn't think for one second your post was disparaging law enforcement. I simply used your comment as a way to emphasize the point that laws or police can only do so much toward protecting us.
 
These stats would generate horror in a smaller town and would be all over the news. 5 - 10 killed every weekend. But I noted hardly a mention in the regional news when we were down visiting in the suburbs. The only murder reported was that of an unfortunate tourist in the wrong place at the wrong time. Quite sad.
 
A few years ago on a visit to Chicago, we were driving home on one of the corridors out of the city, when we noticed every intersection was patrolled by cops. Several squad cars at each intersection and lots of cops. We didn't see them stop anyone, but something was up. It turned out someone had just killed a cop in that area. They caught the guy as I remember. It was eerie seeing all that power out in full force. I was amazed, but my sister and her husband who live there didn't seem to think it was that unusual.
 
Michael Z said:
These stats would generate horror in a smaller town and would be all over the news. 5 - 10 killed every weekend. But I noted hardly a mention in the regional news when we were down visiting in the suburbs. The only murder reported was that of an unfortunate tourist in the wrong place at the wrong time. Quite sad.
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An old friend from Chicago way back in grade school was sending me what he called the weekend report every Tuesday. How many were killed over the week end. I think it was like some weekly spot on the local news that he got it from. It was like getting the weeks stock market report.
 
I don't want to hijack the thread, and I agree that Chicago is one of our nation's crime capitols, but it is also a large and vibrant cultural center. OK, I've never been to New York City, so I can't compare it with something much bigger, but Chicago does impress me. One time my sister and her husband took me to downtown Chicago without telling me where we were going. It turned out to be the opera, which they knew was not something I was fond of. OK so I'd rather watch the Chicago Cubs place baseball, but I was impressed by the talent at the opera, although it was not a talent that draws me to it. I would prefer a circus, but they don't have those anymore. But now at a party, I feel like I can line drop that I have attended the opera, not that many would be impressed. But one of my favorite haunts is the Art Institute, probably not comparable to the NYC Metropolitan, but it beat anything I saw in LA in that category, where I did visit the Getty, although LA is about entirely different things.
 
Michael Z said:
These stats would generate horror in a smaller town and would be all over the news. 5 - 10 killed every weekend.
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But if you apply the murder rate to a smaller town it would be like one person killed every eight years or something like that wouldn't it? Chicago is huge, I'm not sure but I think 10 million people in the metro area. Also, there are a number of cities that have higher murder rates, why does everyone always just focus on Chicago? I was there for a month last summer and it was a very nice place.
 
HoneyNut said:
But if you apply the murder rate to a smaller town it would be like one person killed every eight years or something like that wouldn't it? Chicago is huge, I'm not sure but I think 10 million people in the metro area. Also, there are a number of cities that have higher murder rates, why does everyone always just focus on Chicago? I was there for a month last summer and it was a very nice place.
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No, that's not the way it works. The murder rate is expressed in homicides per 100,000 people, or per 1,000 people. So the rates can be compared even if the population sizes are different. Some places have high homicide rates, and some don't.

Chicago isn't at the very top -- that's reserved for places like East St. Louis and Detroit.

My city, Richmond VA, has a very high homicide rate. There isn't a lot of uproar about it because the crime is all downtown, and it's almost all black on black crime.
 

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