Police focus on seizing guns to combat Chicago gang murders

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US | Thu Sep 10, 2015 7:51pm EDT

Police focus on seizing guns to combat Chicago gang murders

HICAGO | BY FIONA ORTIZ

Two Cook County Sheriff's officers reached under trash bins in an alley just before midnight in Chicago's crime-heavy Austin neighborhood, looking for a hidden gun.

"I think I've got it. Yup. Loaded. Make sure to take the bullet out of the chamber," said Officer Steve Bialczak, as he unwrapped a black plastic bag containing a handgun that had been stashed between a stack of boxes and the garbage cans.

Moments earlier on Wednesday, the two officers had stopped a suspected drug dealer at a gas station about three blocks from the alley. In the man's car they found $1,500 cash, half a dozen cellphones and a small amount of marijuana. They confiscated the drugs and let him go after he told them where to find the gun.

The focus on rounding up illegal guns, rather than low-level drug offenders, is an increasing priority for law enforcement in Chicago as murders - almost all of them with firearms and mostly related to gangs - have risen to 304 so far this year, compared with 258 in the same period last year.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/10/us-usa-crime-chicago-guns-idUSKCN0RA2NM20150910

[TeddyR]

1. So

The murders are "mostly related to gangs"? I'm shocked that law-abiding gun owners aren't to blame, along with their guns, since everyone knows "gunz" are the cause of murders.

[Eleanors38]

5. Why, I'm in a gang. We occasionally meet in a Texas dove field...

This year we stink.

[beevul]

2. Whats being done about those misusing guns?

Whats being done about the firearms misusers who are the ones committing murder?

"...and insufficiently tough sentences for illegal gun possession..."

I'm not sure that qualifies.

Wheres MDA on that?

Wheres brady on that?

Wheres Bloomberg on that?

Wheres the VPC on that?

Wheres the CSGV on that?



Where are our local strict gun control proponents on that?

[ileus]

3. Removing only the bullet from the chamber???

What about the rest of the round?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. Harmless, without the bullet.

Flash and smoke.

[Eleanors38]

4. So, the cops got a gun, and this guy's back in circulation.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. "this guy's back in circulation."

Yes, but the morally important thing is that innocent people be disarmed should he enter their lives.

Or so we have been told on numerous occasions.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. But the cops got his marijuana and his $1500

or, they found a different amount of money, let the guy go, and everyone's happy.

[DonP]

9. Yeah, that's been working really well here for the last 5 years.

Every 6 months or so, McCarthy and/or Rahm has a "Look at all the Guns we took off the street" presser.

Last time, somebody from the media actually checked the intake tags on the guns and found out a bunch of them were confiscated over two years ago and being re-cycled for the press events.

In the meantime violent crime is up over last year and the year before.

Here’s how the just first 15 days of September in Chicago played out:

29 homicides (+26% YoY) YoY=Year over Year
144 shot and wounded (+102% YoY)
26 males, 3 females killed
Teenagers: 6 killed & 39 wounded
A homicide every 12 1/2 hours
Someone shot & wounded every 2 1/2 hours
6 ongoing death investigations
5 #ShotInTheAss

Still better than the 4th of July blood bath.

About 3% of these criminals are actually prosecuted for gun charges if arrested. The gun charges are plead out by the DA's team to speed things up in court.

None of them have valid FOID cards or obviously Concealed Carry permits.

[Straw Man]

10. The fact that he knew where the gun was ...

... means that he was a potential or actual user of that gun. He belongs in jail.

"There are no bad people; only bad guns."