The FBI has released its CRIME in the United States 2012 report, featuring the official crime stats nationwide for 2012. Chicago led the nation with 500 murders, 81 more than the runner up, New York City, whose population is more than three times larger than the Windy City.
Fifteen cities logged more than 100 murders in 2012, with Chicago, New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Houston leading the pack with more than 200 murders each. Flint, Michigan led the way for murders per capita with 63 murders in a town of 101,588 residents.
Chicago seems to be continuing its trend for 2013. While it’s too early to tell how the year will end up, Chicago Police report that while crime numbers overall are lower than 2012, as of September 8 there have already been 297 murders in 2013; in comparison, the NYPD has reported 228 murders for New York City so far this year. New York has also logged 1,029 shooting incidents compared to Chicago’s 1,361.
Another alarming side-by-side comparison is that, at the time of publication, Chicago’s actual homicide total was 316, while there have been 98 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan this year.
As a result, Chicago’s reputation is suffering tremendously. Earlier this year, residents from Chicago’s poorer-urban communities most plagued by the violence began to refer to the city as “Chi-raq.” The mayhem also prompted the recent release of a short short film by the same name which highlights the reality of Chicago’s dire situation and need for some kind of solution to the violence.
Crime in Chicago under Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is not only reserved for the “less fortunate” neighborhoods. Thanks to the amount of street crime on the city’s “Magnificent Mile,” the Guardian Angels “safety patrol group” dubbed the luxurious Michigan Avenue shopping district “muggers’ mile” earlier this year to raise awareness for residents in the area.
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