Chicago, Illinois endured a spike in gun violence and murders in 2020, with the worst impact on blacks, new statistics from the Chicago Police Department and Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office show.
Final crime numbers for 2020 released by the Chicago Police Department last week showed shootings and murders in 2020 increased by more than 50 percent over the previous year’s total: 769 murders in 2020, after 495 in 2019. The number of shooting victims was 2,598 in 2019 and 4,033 in 2020.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, of the 875 people killed by gun violence last year, 78 percent of the victims were black, ABC 7 reports.
The statistics reflect a year of violence in which many innocent children became victims and even police became targets, ABC 7 reports.
Chicago Police Chief Superintendent David Brown said police have faced considerable challenges as COVID-19 and civil unrest hit major U.S. cities, the Chicago Sun Times reports.
In addition to dealing with the civil unrest and violent riots and looting, Chicago police have been victims of a threefold increase in shootings directed at officers.
“Chicago police officers have been shot at 71 times this year, and 10 officers have been struck by bullets,” the Sun Times reports. “In the same period of 2019, officers were shot at 18 times, with three officers struck by gunfire. In July, three police officers were shot when a prisoner opened fire at a police station on the Northwest Side.”
With the COVID-19 lockdowns reversing and rioting decreasing, violent shootings and murder have yet to decrease in Chicago. Columnist Katie Pavlich says local prosecutors’ soft-on-crime attitude remains a problem.
“The crime spike can be attributed to a number of things, but the lack of prosecution from the office of Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx is a major contributing factor,” writes Pavlich at Town Hall.
Since taking office, Foxx has increased the number of cases where charges were dropped. In her first three years her office dropped all charges against 29.9 percent of felony defendants, the Chicago Tribune reports.
When Foxx ran for office in 2016, she promised to reduce the jail population and reform the criminal justice system. Foxx claims she is dropping charges on low-level crimes to allow her office to focus on more serious and violent crimes.
“I will say that this administration has been clear that our focus would be on violent crime and making sure that our resources and attention would go to addressing violent crime,” Foxx told the Chicago Tribune.
Despite her claims to the contrary, Foxx has dropped cases of violence and murder, the Chicago Tribune reports. Foxx dropped cases in which people were accused of murder, gun violence, sex crimes, attacks on police officers, and drug offenses. When compared to previous D.A. Anita Alvarez (an unapologetic progressive who benefited from huge campaign donations by the multibillionaire financier and Marxist political backer George Soros), Foxx is dropping charges at a much higher rate.
“For the three-year period analyzed, Foxx’s office dropped 8.1% of homicide cases, compared with 5.3% under Alvarez,” the Tribune reports. “Under Foxx, the office dropped 9.5 percent of felony sex crime cases; the rate was 6.5 percent for Alvarez. Foxx’s office also increased the rate of dropped cases for aggravated battery and for aggravated battery with a firearm. And under Foxx, the percentage of cases dropped for defendants accused of aggravated battery of a police officer more than doubled, from 3.9 percent to 8.1 percent.”
Foxx told the Tribune she was reform-minded when entering office. She says she has selected cases that had the strongest position and the highest possible likelihood of conviction, but Alvarez’s record shows a higher conviction rate than Foxx has achieved.
Alvarez’s office won convictions in 75 percent of felony cases prosecuted, whereas Foxx won 66 percent in her first three years in office.
Foxx was reelected in 2020 with support from a political action committee, Illinois Justice & Public Safety PAC, funded by Soros, Breitbart reports. With this financial backing, she was able to run a six-figure advertising campaign.
Foxx is just one of several Soros-backed district attorneys across the United States who are making dramatic changes to the nation’s criminal justice system.
“The result of this grand plan is more dangerous communities and more violent criminals on the streets,” writes Dale Wilcox for Breitbart.
