Dwayne Wade's nephew among 13 injured in Chicago shootings

[The Magistrate]

36. Again, Sir: 'Don't Believe The Hype....'

There is a nation-wide propaganda campaign on to paint Chicago as some pit of dystopian violence, in furtherance of pressing a concealed carry law in Illinois, and in some retribution for the former Mayor's legal efforts against the gun industry.

There are some turf struggles going on among the gangs, owing mostly to effective disruption over the the last few years of the higher levels of some of the longer established bodies; things like this always increase violence at the street level, as people scramble to gain status, and old understandings lose their force. Not an argument against arresting the leadership, mind, merely pointing out an inevitable short-run consequence of doing so.

The fact remains that Chicago is, and remains, far safer than it was a couple of decades ago, with violent crime rates off by about half since their peaks, conditions which, as a life-long resident of the city, are well within my adult memory.