Write a two pages critical analysis of the following article: Chicago’s Murder P

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Write a two pages critical analysis of the following article:

Chicago’s Murder Problem By FORD FESSENDEN and HAEYOUN PARK MAY 27, 2016 Chicago police officers at a crime scene in Greater Grand Crossing, one of the city’s most violent neighborhoods, where a 13-year-old boy was shot in both legs in April. There was a time when it looked as if Chicago would follow New York and Los Angeles into a kind of sustained peace. Then progress stalled in 2004, and the city has been through some harrowing years leading up to another alarming spike in homicides this year. Already embroiled in a crisis over race and police conduct, Chicago now faces a 62 percent increase in homicides. Through mid-May, 216 people have been killed. Shootings also are up 60 percent. So what’s going on in Chicago? It’s complicated, but a comparison with New York is a good place to start. Both cities began the 1990s with historically high homicide rates; both have diverse populations, including large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and whites, and a wide range of economic fortune as well. Chicago has about the same population as Brooklyn, but a year’s worth of homicides in the two places shows an astonishing difference in the toll. Guns Are a Key Difference People who know both cities say there are some significant differences in policing, especially around the issue of guns. The homicide rate in Chicago is just a little higher than in New York when guns aren’t involved. But when it comes to shootings, both fatal and not, Chicago stands out, suggesting a level of armed interaction that isn’t happening in New York. Chicago has a reputation for strict gun laws, and gun rights advocates often point to it as proof that gun regulation doesn’t reduce violence. But its laws aren’t what they used to be: Federal courts struck down its ban on handgun ownership in 2010, and its ban on gun sales in 2014. And a New York Times analysis showed guns were easily available from nearby jurisdictions, especially Indiana. About This Project And Chicago is more lenient about illegal handguns than New York, prescribing a one-year minimum for possession versus three and a half years in New York. An attempt to match the New York law in 2013 was rejected by the Illinois legislature out of concern for skyrocketing incarceration rates for young black men. New York also hired a lot more police officers in response to the crime of the 1990s, and, during its stop-and-frisk era of the 2000s, steeply increased gun enforcement. Recent studies, including one that looked at increased police presence in London after a terrorist attack, have suggested more police might mean less crime, said Jens Ludwig, the director of Crime Lab at the University of Chicago, which studies crime in both Chicago and New York. Chicago’s Police Department, overwhelmed, can respond only to the most serious problems, leaving citizens to feel responsible for their own security, he said. “Everyone has to establish deterrence on a retail basis,” he said. “People carry guns in public because other people are carrying guns. It’s literally an arms race, a vicious cycle. There are lots of indications that New York City, by taking guns more seriously and hiring more officers, has gotten a lot of guns off the streets, creating a virtuous cycle.” Gang Wars in Chicago Drive Much of Its Violence In Chicago, gang disputes are clearly a big part of homicides, said John Hagedorn, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who studies Chicago gangs. “But these are not the same kind of disputes as before – they’re more localized disputes.” Many of Chicago’s gangs have fractured, leading to more violence, said Arthur Lurigio, a criminology professor at Loyola University Chicago. While Latino gangs have remained more hierarchical, black gangs have splintered into small, disparate factions, whose disputes are less over territory and profits, and more over personal insults or shames, often fueled by social media, he said. “Young people are making a lot of indirect threats toward cliques and rival gangs that are being interpreted as being threatening,” said Desmond Patton, a professor at Columbia University who has studied violence on social media. “Tagging is the conversation starter that could lead to someone getting a gun.” In addition to making threats, individuals at times post their location on social media to prove to rivals that they’re tough, he said. In one well-known instance, Gakirah Barnes, a Chicago gang member who was rumored to have killed or shot up to 20 rival gang members, referenced an address she frequented on Twitter. In the tweet, provided by Dr. Patton, Ms. Barnes says “Lz,” which has multiple meanings in Chicago gang cultures, including living life, at address number 6347. Later that day, she was shot and killed near the address. Tweet from Gakirah Barnes’s account Gangs figure in many homicides in New York as well, but recent polls by The New York Times suggest that the gang problem may be worse in Chicago. Although there were differences in the way the polls were conducted, blacks and Hispanics in Chicago expressed significantly less hope than their counterparts in New York that their children would escape gang life. New York City Dr. Hagedorn also points out that though the city also has a lot of Latino gang members, Chicago’s violence is much higher among African-Americans. Three quarters of all homicide offenders and victims are black, he said. “The shootings today are more spontaneous over day-to-day humiliations of youthful African-Americans,” he said. Crime Persists in Chicago’s Most Segregated Neighborhoods Whether exacerbated by gangs or guns, though, Chicago’s killings are happening on familiar turf: Its poor, extremely segregated neighborhoods on the South and West Sides. And many say that is Chicago’s real violence issue. “Where do gangs come from? They tend to take root in the very same neighborhoods that drive these other problems,” said Robert J. Sampson, a professor at Harvard and the author of “Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect.” “You can’t divorce the gang problem from the problem of deep concentrations of poverty.” “What predicts violent crime rates is concentrated poverty and neighborhood disadvantage, and what determines concentrated poverty is high levels of black segregation combined with high levels of black poverty,” said Douglas S. Massey, a sociology professor at Princeton University. In Chicago, homicide rates correspond with segregation. While many areas have few or no killings, the South and West Sides are on par with the world’s most dangerous countries, like Brazil and Venezuela, and have been for many years. STATEN ISLAND But segregation in New York is nothing like in Chicago: The perfectly isolated neighborhood – where every man, woman and child is the same race – is rare in New York. Less than one percent of the population lives in such areas, and most of them are white. In Chicago, 12 percent of the black population is in a census block group that is 100 percent black. Racially segregated minority neighborhoods have a long history of multiple adversities, such as poverty, joblessness, environmental toxins and inadequate housing, Professor Sampson said. In these places, people tend to be more cynical about the law and distrust police, “heightening the risk that conflictual encounters will erupt in violence.” “The major underlying causes of crime are similar across cities, but the intensity of the connection between social ills and violence seems to be more persistent in Chicago,” Professor Sampson said. “You don’t get that kind of extensive social and economic segregation in many other cities.” Sources: nyc.gov; City of Chicago Data Portal; Andrew Beveridge, socialexplorer.com; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Los Angeles Police Department; Bureau of Justice Statistics; New York Times/Kaiser Family Foundation Chicago poll; NYT-Siena NY poll. Write a one page critical analysis of the preceding article.

Explanation / Answer

What is happening in Chicago? Chicago had been considered one of the good city with peace and it was considered to be like New York or Los Angeles. However A 13 year old boy was shot on his both the legs and even apart from this incidents there had been many other incidents as well which can be seen like Chicag’s peace is slowly deteriorating and downfall has started. There have been too many incidents reported and 62% of the crime is increased in Chicago which involves killing people, shooting has raised up to 60% and the progress of Chicago has stopped in 2004.

There has been a saying that it is always good to compare between New York and Chicago because both the cities are highly involved in crime. Violence is quite common in both the cities. Since demography of both the cities match and even the crime rate. The more critical thing here is there had been a lot violence reported and the people are using guns just like anything else and shooting the public. It also states that Chicago has strict laws against guns still the crime rates they could not stop. Another issue was also that guns were easily available in the market both in New York and Chicago which led to many people bring the guns in the public. This is really a scary stuff and there was no effort from the federal court or the policemen to bring down the violence which is causing new sense in the public who are really innocent. There was an attempt made by the New York law in 2013 and it was rejected by the illIllinois legislature to imprison the rate black men.

It became more evident when the gang wars started in Chicago and the gangs started carrying the guns in public and started the shootout. There had been many instances where gangs started posting the threatening messages to other gangs. In addition to this gangs were posting their location on social media to make the rivals aware that they are very tough and they wanted to threaten the rivals. There were lots of indications in the New York City where the law hired more of the policemen. One of the professor mentioned looking at all these issue and said hiring more policemen will reduce the violence. Even after all these evident issues there was no reason why the government did not take an initiative to reduce the issues in the city by cleaning the culprits.

So, why these issues are happening in New York and Chicago. It was already quote that both the cities are flooded with people with different cultures. There are people from different countries and there are discriminations like black, white and Hispanics. Also there is a lot of discrimination amongst the groups and one group of people are happy and the others are not. In Chicago the crime rate is high compared to New York. All these are happening due to discrimination with blacks. There are more safe areas and there are non-safe areas based on the people who are living there. There are many black people who are very poor and hence they are getting instigated to do illegal things. The percentage of crime being done by black people are more. They do not have food, no house to stay in the city joblessness, environmental toxins and they cannot go back to their home country. The major causes for issues are common across most of the cities but the intensity of connection between social ills and violence seems to be more persistent in Chicago. Other cities where there is no violence you do not get to see these kind of discrepancies.

The perfectly isolated neighbourhood where every man, women child are in same race are very rare and it is causing the violence in many cities. There are dangerous countries like Brazil and Venezuela where people are living with same issues since many years. So, now the question is why the issue is causing and what could have been the preventive steps. In this case the federal law could have involved analyse the situation and ensure that all the people are treated equally and ensure that every citizen irrespective of caste, creed with no discrimination should have been provided with equal opportunity for jobs and ensure that all are earning the society for their wellbeing. This is one of the reason why so many issues are happening. When the people start getting money for their earning they will slowly start focussing on their work rather than involve in illegal activities.

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