Chicago still goes by the old nickname “Windy City.” But it has cemented its reputation as America’s Bloody City.
No amount of statistical whitewashing can cover up the stains of the left’s ideological failures there. But President Obama’s home team is trying its hardest to spread smiley-face lies upon damned lies to downplay Chicago homicide statistics.
On April Fools’ Day, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy held a press conference to tout a “dramatic” drop in the city’s homicide rate. The headlines read: “March homicides drop dramatically in Chicago” (USA Today) and “Murders fall 42 percent in America’s deadliest city: Chicago” (NBC News).
Emanuel hyped statistics to the Associated Press showing that first-quarter 2013 murders in Chicago tied the same time period in 2009. Murders fell 69 percent compared to the same month last year; first-quarter homicides fell by 42 percent compared to the same time frame last year. Emanuel insisted: “We are clearly having an impact on the homicides.”
But it’s all in how you slice, dice and spin it, of course.
In 2012, Chicago racked up the nation’s deadliest death toll, with 506 of its residents murdered. The murder rate has simply returned to its bloody business as usual over the past five years. Here’s the first-quarter death toll breakdown:
2013: 70
2012: 120
2011: 75
2010: 75
2009: 70
The Second City Cop crime blog adds that Emanuel’s claim regarding the homicide rate dropping to levels not seen since the 1950s “is based solely on the population decrease in the city of Chicago. This is an amazing abuse of numbers, but as Mark Twain said, ‘There are lies, damned lies and statistics.’ Welcome to ‘statistics.’”
Chicago CBS 2 reporter Jay Levine challenged City Hall with a piece entitled: “City Touts Lower Homicide Stats, But Context Reveals Return To Normal.” Put simply, “2013’s 70 first-quarter homicides was a major improvement over 2012’s 120 — but not over 2011 or 2010 or 2009.”
While Emanuel sang “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” for the press, the Bloody City was still reeling after a 6-month-old baby was shot and killed in gang crossfire. On Easter weekend, a mob of violent teens terrorized shoppers in the Magnificent Mile district. By some police estimates, gang violence accounts for up to 80 percent of the city’s homicides.