The rate of violence in Chicago has reached epic proportions and as August comes to a close it is clear this steamy hot month will rank as the city’s most violent in at least two decades.
After another violent weekend where 57 were wounded and 10 killed, Monday brought yet another homicide, bringing the number of dead to 78 for the month of August. And there are still two more days to go before the month comes to a merciful end.
The number of those killed is only a fraction of those wounded, though, with more than 400 people shot during the month of August alone.
The stats for August look poised to beat out the previous record holder of October of 1979 when 79 citizens were shot and killed in the Windy City, the Chicago Tribune reports.
As the Tribune notes, “Chicago has recorded 487 homicides and more than 2,800 people shot so far this year, compared to 491 homicides and 2,988 people shot all of last year.”
While the worst case scenario as far as mounting murder rates are concerned, Chicago is far from the only big U.S. city seeing a hike in violent crime. Cities like Washington D.C., Milwaukee, Boston, Baltimore. and New York have also experienced higher crime statistics for 2016 over that of last year.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.