We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata data point of the day

I am not sure this works as a quote of the day, but it certainly does count as a data point so eye-popping that I wanted to share it:

Forty-three hundred people, including two dozen children under the age of 12, were shot in Chicago last year.

That’s right: 4,300 people shot in a major US city during a period of 12 months.

51 comments to Samizdata data point of the day

  • Mr Ed

    Yes, but that 4,300 was in a Leap Year, so the extra day makes it atypical.

    And the article indicates that the 4,300 people shot were black, and ‘shot’ does not mean ‘died’. It’s getting on for one person shot every 2 hours. I suspect that everyone knows, but is too timid to mention it, lest awkward questions be debated.

  • Mr Ecks

    It should also be mentioned that Chicago is a haven of “gun control”. Which does seem to mean hitting their targets in this case.

    But don’t worry –The Horseshit –sorry–Huffington Post–tells us that there is evidence that Chicago’s strict gun laws are “working”.

    Not as hard as its gangsters presumably.

  • Chicago’s draconian gun laws insure that no one but the police and the gangs have guns. The gangs are active politically and work to reelect several of the aldermen. Black lives Matter so the police are reluctant to take any action unless they’re actively being shot at.
    http://heyjackass.com/ has a pretty complete breakdown. Note that the police hardly ever shoot anyone. Note also that hardly anyone seems to ever be charged in a shooting.

    On a possibly related note, Cook County (Chicago) is the tail that wags the dog (Illinois). I find it unsurprising that Illinois is essentially bankrupt at the moment.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Billll,

    You got that right. Chicago has a mighty shady political past going back a century at least, but it got a heckkuvalot worse with the rise of the New Left, the glamorization of the murderous Black Panthers plus the spreading of the myth that they were just po’ ol’ discriminated-against boys tryin’ to help they brotherz, and the REV Jesse Jackson, who made a lucrative and powerful career out of creating “black” fear and hatred of “whites” in Chicago. (That’s the minimal minimalist Short Form.)

  • Julie near Chicago

    I see I’m on the Smite-Bot’s Watch List. At least I don’t have to go through the full-body scanners….

    ANSWER: because you keep posting comments with no name, meaning I have to keep adding your name to get smitebot to stop freaking out

  • bobby b

    The demonization of the police in Chicago has led to a situation where the new police slogan is “stay fetal!”

    The 4300 shooting victims are significantly comprised of gang members and people unlucky enough to be near gang members when someone tries to shoot them. There’s a gang war going on in Chicago, and the unwillingness of the Chicago police to work proactively – an unwillingness fueled by their perception that they are being singled out for punishment whenever something goes wrong – has freed up the gangs to attack each other without restraint.

    It’s interesting to read blogs such as Second City Cop – a cop blog written for cops – where one can see the “Ferguson Effect” in action.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Perry or Whomever,

    I apologize — I didn’t notice the absence. I took it for granted name & address were there, as always. 🙁

    I did wonder where the two single-quote marks came from.

    Mea maxima maxissima culpa, und Grazie.

  • Julie near Chicago

    bobby: Amen to that. Right you are. –By the way, thanks for reminding me about the “Second City Cop” site.

  • Fred Z

    I guess the liberals who control Chicago don’t think Planned Parenthood is killing blacks fast enough.

  • Sean

    That’s some spectacular community organizing – those responsible will go far I reckon.

  • bobby b

    ” . . . those responsible will go far I reckon.”

    Rahm Emanuel, current Chicago mayor and past Obama Chief of Staff, was climbing in popularity as he cast the Chicago police under the bus, and seemed destined for another term, or even to moving on to the US Senate, but lately his constituents in BLM and the local SJW community have been more and more hostile towards him.

    So, it’s likely that “those responsible” will be cast aside for being insufficiently leftist, and be replaced by the ones who were actually calling the shots anyway.

    Chicago is where the left goes to eat its own.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    If this is what Chicago is like WITH gun control, how much worse would it be WITHOUT?

  • bobby b

    Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray
    May 23, 2017 at 1:13 am

    “If this is what Chicago is like WITH gun control, how much worse would it be WITHOUT?”

    (I’m strongly suspecting Unlicensed Irony, but, just in case . . .):

    Gun control doesn’t affect how hard it is to obtain and possess guns. I can go to Chicago and buy several formidable guns within an hour, and I’m an OWG.

    It simply makes it harder for law-abiding people to possess a weapon and remain law-abiding.

    There are severe consequences under Illinois law for illegal possession or use of a weapon, but the Chicago courts rarely punish anyone for such offenses. Police do charge them, but they’re usually dropped quickly in the plea-bargaining process.

    The underlying offenses – the murder charges, assault charges, etc. – are very lightly punished (relative to the punishment exacted throughout the rest of the country), as the Illinois jails and prisons are overfull as it is, and there is no money for expansion or upkeep, plus the idea that black men are overpunished is pushed strongly in the state’s criminal law legislation.

    It’s a mess. Here’s hoping Julie isn’t TOO near Chicago.

  • Laird

    If it weren’t for the unfortunate side-effects to innocent bystanders, I’d be happy to see the gangs kill each other off. Of course, that does seem to be pretty much what is happening by default. Perhaps Chicago could designate an official “gang-war zone”, where the cops promise to stay away and once a day other officials come in to carry out the bodies and hose off the blood?

  • Julie near Chicago

    bobby, I’m right on one of the two major dr u g routes between Chicago and Madison.

    It’s not, perhaps, the ideal location, but not as bad as the South Side the West Side Lakeview, et cetera et cetera et cetera ….

    And of course, all the stores post No Weapons Allowed signs, and that includes store “Security Guards.” I had an interesting chat with a retired local cop who holds one of those jobs. (He seems to be in agreement that actually following the 2nd Amendment would be in both the citizens’ and the cops’ best interest. Very refreshing.)

    .

    P.S. What’s an OWG?

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    Some irony in there, but also an honest question- is there another city of comparable size, but with different gun laws, so we can compare them? Is it gun laws or are Chicagoers just more naturally inclined to violence? (Settled by convicts, maybe.)

  • The Wobbly Guy

    ‘One Weapon Guy’?

    Just a guess.

    My wife is going to Maryland/Baltimore for her pharmacy attachment this November/December, and we’re both freaked out by the per capita murder rate, which is even higher than Chicago’s. She’s going to scout out the safest (read: white) neighbourhood to stay, with a nearby grocer, and take advantage of the hospital’s escort security service. She’s going to stick to her residence and her workplace and not go anywhere else.

  • George Atkisson

    As I recall, if the shootings in Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., and New Orleans are subtracted from the total annual shooting incidents of the United States, the statistics for the U.S. are approximately the same as Europe. All four cities are majority Black and have been run by Democrats for the last 50 years. We are, of course, not allowed to notice any of this.

  • The Wobbly Guy

    Noticing is racist!

  • Julie near Chicago

    Old White Guy ???

  • bobby b

    Yep. Old White Guy. Well, not “old” so much as “getting close to knowing about old”, but the acronym was too long for that.

    Nicholas, it’s a tough area in which to prove or disprove positions. Most all of our larger cities have had predominately Democratic control forever, with the associated strict local gun controls, which in some cases can vary greatly from state-level laws. I can’t think of any large city with loose gun controls to use as a comparison point – maybe loosER, but not loose – and even if I could, it would simply descend into a controversy involving demographics which is better avoided here.

    I can say that, in almost all geographical areas in which gun controls have been loosened over the past decade or so, urban or rural, crime has decreased, more so than in areas which have retained gun control. I cannot think of one area which loosened gun controls and then suffered an increase in crime differing from surrounding areas.

    If you’re interested, look through any of the books written by John Lott. He’s done some very detailed studies on the impact of access to guns and the ability to carry guns versus crime rates.

  • bobby b

    Wobbly, if you want more input, name your possible cities/suburbs. I have a source at Fort Meade who knows the area quite well – just did their own neighborhood survey.

  • Paul Marks

    And the mainstream media?

    They just report what a wonderful place Chicago is – for “bravely standing up to” the evil President Trump over illegal immigrants and so on.

    The city is bankrupt (as is the State of Illinois) – but the media (and the education system) will find some way of blaming that on “the rich” and “Big Business Republicans”, and as “the rich” fall over themselves to pay the left, and the media is owned by “Big Business” it is hard to have much sympathy.

    “These people are murdering me and my family – HELP!” will be the cry in a few years time.

    You mean the people you subsidised for years are murdering you and your family – and you were warned many times (and just laughed and made mocking remarks against those who were warning you).

    As for the murder gangs in Gun Control Chicago – and other Gun Control American cities. According to the media (and the education system) it is “racist” to complain about them. The education system and the media have been playing that game since at least the 1960s – even though the majority of victims are black.

    Remember “the rich” and those who run “Big Business” tend to be “good students” who believe everything they were taught in High School and university – people who dissent from the “liberal” doctrines do not tend to prosper in Corporate America.

    Read the infantile ravings that are posted by, for example, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook (which always get “liked” by her billionaire boss – the man who flung a billion Dollars at government schools in New Jersey and was surprised that they did not improve). The people who run Twitter and Youtube and so on are the same – one knows their opinion in every matter (including Chicago) without even needing to look, their opinion is the standard leftist line they were taught in High School (before they even got to university – where the line they were taught was even more, not less, crude).

    This is the rule of the “new economy” – it is the rule of MORONS. Billionaire MORONS. Listen (just listen) when Bill Gates or most of the other zillionaires opens their mouth to give the world their opinions – they are MORONS.

    Most of the “new economy” types would nod with agreement at the “Dr Who” episode I watched last week – with “capitalism” being denounced (by name – and “Big Business” shown as evil murderers to be overthrown) and the assistant of “the Doctor” was a black lesbian with a “working class” accent – although the lady had two legs (it would have been more in keeping had she been a black, one legged, lesbian) – but “the Doctor” made up for that by being blind – thus ticking the “disabled” Frankfurt School of Marxism P.C. box.

    Yes most of “the rich” and “Big Business”, especially in Chicago,m would agree with all of this – “Death to us! Kill us now!” might as well be their motto. For the killing will not stay confined to the black areas of the city.

    Chicago may be the only American city mentioned in “The Red Flag” – but New York is not different (check who the Mayor is – a Castro lover, and listen to the opinions of the Credit Bubble Wall Street crowd if you can do so without vomiting).

    Most of the other American cities (and the Western world generally) are much the same.

  • Julie near Chicago, May 22, 2017 at 7:37 pm: “Chicago has a mighty shady political past going back a century at least”

    I had always assumed that the last time the vote was counted honestly in Chicago was when Al Capone was in school, but perhaps I exaggerate – perhaps it was longer ago than that.

    I have also always assumed that the job of a modern community organiser in Chicago is to connect the gangs and the politicians, especially when it is time to “vote early and often”. (Are there any reasons to suppose any particular Chicago community organiser could be an exception to this general rule?)

    I was interested, glancing at the intra-state electoral map on November 9th, to see that (IIRC) Illinois was a sea of red except for a very blue dot around Chicago – which nevertheless determined the outcome. I presume Chicago has many ballot boxes like the ones found in Jill Stein’s recount (in Michigan IIRC) with a recorded count of 306 but only 50 ballots inside, and the rest of the state is fairly well aware of this.

  • Greg

    Tell me again how a city’s law against being armed trumps State law or the US Constitution? Paul Marks talks about MORONS above…the court benches must be uniformly populated by such if they can’t answer my question with “it can’t and here’s why…” and they are evil to the core if they answer with “here’s how…”.

    When was the last time a victim in all the Chicago shootings sued over this issue?

  • Surellin

    Chicago’s draconian gun control regime started in, I think, the early 1970s. Neither the Mob nor the police wanted Ordinary Decent Citizens interfering with their rackets, and so cut a deal.

  • Watchman

    To be fair UK cities have tougher gun laws than Chicago and lower murder rates, so I suspect there is something more to it than that. Anyway, if most of the victims are involved in violence against gang members (even if only caught in the cross fire), as suggested above, I’d suggest that the fear of the person being shot at being armed is perhaps not a deterrant to shooting, which makes sense if you consider that a bullet does not wait for someone to produce a gun. The argument about carrying weapons deterring people shooting at you probably went out with the introduction of chambers in guns (I will give it credence for making burgalars a bit more cautious though).

    I’d go with the political culture as the cause myself. Corruption and removal of personal responsibility are not ideal for producing law-abiding populations (see the 1970s, everywhere…), and Chicago does appear to be good at this. In a US context, I suppose this includes the gun control laws.

    Or, alternatively, the population of Chicago are just better shots than elsewhere in the US…

  • bobby b

    Watchman
    May 23, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    “To be fair UK cities have tougher gun laws than Chicago and lower murder rates, so I suspect there is something more to it than that.”

    It’s not that simple.

    If there were no guns, there would be no shooting. If the entire USA shared Chicago’s gun laws, and enforced them, the Chicago gangs wouldn’t have easy access to guns, and the shooting would decrease.

    But we have a Constitutional guarantee that our right to possess weapons remains secure along with a huge constituency that values that right, plus we have hundreds of millions of weapons already scattered throughout the country, and we now have (through the gifts of 3D printing and small and affordable machining mills) the ability to make our own rather sophisticated weapons. That particular cat is out of that bag. I suspect that gun ownership in the UK is minimal compared to the USA.

    It’s not possible, in individual small locales, to keep lawbreaking people from procuring weapons and possessing them illegally. I’d just feel better if those lawbreakers weren’t the only ones who are armed.

    “Or, alternatively, the population of Chicago are just better shots than elsewhere in the US…”

    There were 4331 shootings of individuals in Chicago in 2016. There were 762 deaths. They’re not actually very good shots at all.

  • Julie near Chicago

    bobby (I mean, AMWG — “Approaching Maturity White Guy”),

    43 is the ideal age, which is why I’ve been 43 for some decades now. (At one point I’d thought 36, but that was the opinion of a know-nothing kid.)
    55: beginning to get a little handle on things — maybe sorta perhaps
    65: there is seen a faint glimmer of what might be some sort of maturity, in the very far distance. But it is veiled by mists.
    74: the time for maturity has came & went, having passed several miles to my west. Or north. Or south…. Fortunately the capacity for rage continues unabated, else there’d be no reason to get up in the morning. Just wait till I tell — no, SHOW — that no-good dirtbag piece of scum what I think of HIM! And Her, too. And definitely THEM.

    👿 👿 👿

    😆

  • Plamus

    I live in Philly, which split down the middle between black and white, so here is what murders and shootings looked in 2012/2013 (could not find a more recent PD report). TL;DR: your typical murder in 2013 is:
    – perpetrated by a black (79.7%) male (87.7%) age 18-44 (92.2%) who has at least one prior arrest (92%) most likely for robbery or aggravated assault
    – killing another black (77.3%) male (90.7%) age 18-44 (78.2%) who also has at least one prior arrest (79.6%)
    – outside (73.7%)
    – between 8:00pm and 4:00am (59.5%)
    – over an “argument” or drugs (also 59.5% – likely higher, because 11.7% is “unknown”)
    – by gunshot (81.3%) with a 9mm or 40 caliber handgun (66.7%).

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    Paul Marks, off with your Marksist terminology! The correct term for Bill Gates would be an ‘idiot savant’. He knows a lot about one subject (software and marketing of such), and not much about anything else. He couldn’t have become rich if he really was an idiot, and he won’t stay rich if he leaves his field of expertise.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Niall, your remark about the purpose of Community Organizing in Chicago brought this thought to mind:

    The purpose of the Community Organizer is to round up all the sheep he can find, and then to get them to coalesce into a flock.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    So, Julie, he’s telling them to get flocked, is he? Good use of euphonisms!

  • Julie near Chicago

    Oh, Nicholas — I never thought of that!

    Oh well, speaking of doubles-entendres, actually you’re right and naughty both. Congrats! ;>))!!

  • Hobby Models

    I live in the Chicago area, in Cook County. I just completed my conceal-carry permit course; I can now legally carry a concealed firearm anywhere in Illinois, including Chicago and Cook County. And I do, because my commute to work has me driving through a violent neighborhood where a great many of the shootings take place.

    So, I’ve got that going for me.

    Just fyi, the shooting incidents mostly take place in a few neighborhoods, primarily black but also Hispanic. Huge sections of Chicago, i.e. the majority-white neighborhoods, are not at all violent — are, in fact, typically quite pleasant and peaceful. The city’s predominantly white northwest side and far southwest side are very nice. Chicago is actually a great city and you can have a lot of fun there as long as you stay away from the bad neighborhoods.

  • bob sykes

    America doesn’t have a gun problem, it has a Negro problem, and the way to control gun violence is to control the Negros.

  • Watchman

    bob sykes,

    You might find ‘negroes’ (seriously – does anyone still use that word? I’m not for banning language, but I thought that had gone obsolete) living in the predominantly white areas aren’t any more violent than their neighbours. Which might be a teeny problem in your argument.

    There is a black problem, which is that they have a tendency to vote for those who promise to support them, who try and create them an identity, and then find they are unable to do anything because they are so busy creating and reinforcing an identity in order to control people who they say have that identity that they have lost the ability to do anything else. I’d say the biggest problem in America is that a black person is a black person first in the eyes of the state and the media, whereas in the UK they have more options about who they are. So congratulations – you’re part of the problem with your nicely identity-politiced argument – please go and stand alongside those nice community organisers over there…

  • bobby b

    “I’d say the biggest problem in America is that a black person is a black person first in the eyes of the state and the media, whereas in the UK they have more options about who they are.”

    I’m guessing you don’t spend a lot of time in America. You have the tabloid view of life here.

    Most blacks and whites get along just fine. I know black and white Democrats, black and white Republicans, black and white Libertarians, black and white poor, rich, angry, happy . . .

    Most of us have gotten past the concept of Other, and consider everyone to be real people and everything.

    Within some of our large cities, there is a culture – amongst pockets of black people primarily – that has become unhealthy and self-destructive, and leads ultimately to Chicago. This culture is decried as loudly by blacks as by whites. The culture is not caused or fostered by blackness qua blackness, but is primarily shared among black communities, for mostly historical reasons.

    You’d not guess this from reading a mostly liberal media. I’d suggest you read something other than the mostly liberal media.

  • Laird

    I second what bobby b said.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Third. :>)

    . . .

    “Negro” is a perfectly good word and should be the preferred term, since it has claims to being based on facts of the history of anthropology. “Black” (as in “a black”) is a euphemism that nowadays sounds to me both condescending and patronizing. Also inaccurate, of course. Even worse is “person of color” as a eumphemistic term.

    I very rarely refer to Negroes or those with some Negro ancestry as “black.” I don’t refer to persons of Caucasian ancestry as “whites,” either. I call them Caucasians.

    Caveat: There’s a lot of argument as to whether the way we’ve been using the word “race” is actually valid. Me, I stick with the terms that seem to me most suitable.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    Gee, Bobby B., I know what you meant, but it seems as though you know Americans who come in stripes, like zebras!

  • Julie near Chicago

    Heh.

  • The Wobbly Guy

    Adding to the confusion are the different shades of mulatto.

    Brazil’s admixture of the white-black spectrum and how they deal with it is especially interesting. E.g. Neymar’s transition from clearly black player to a mulatto in a decade.

    The blacks in the US used to be progressing quite nicely to sustainable prosperity and an enlightened culture before Democrat leaders implemented policies which destroyed their budding culture of self-sufficiency and progress.

  • bobby b

    ” . . . it seems as though you know Americans who come in stripes, like zebras!”

    Of course I do. Did you think that the phrase “Stars and Stripes” was just figurative?

    (The Stars have severely decreased in number over the decades, as their coloration was just . . . too strange . . . and so their marriage possibilities were few.)

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    You should get the Stars and the Stripes together, for some sort of TV show! Or could it be that the striped people are really were-zebras?

  • Alisa

    Julie, as you know, ‘Negro’ means ‘black’ in Spanish, so might as well use the English version – otherwise it sounds to me even more of a euphemism. That is if one really cares about skin color or race either way (whatever the meaning of ‘race’ might be…).

  • bobby b

    Here in Minnesota – New Somalia – you can just call them madow. “Black” is now a pejorative term for “enslaved, whipped, and beaten.” Interesting group dynamics.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Alisa, yes. Also “Nigeria,” etc. … all those come from the Latin word for “black.” A great many English words have Latin roots (and before that, Greek). Shall we therefore throw them all out, and stick with only those with Anglo-Saxon or Celtic or German origins?

    So “Schwartz” means “black” in German. Perhaps we should all do as Germans and Yiddish-speakers (I believe) do, and call persons with Negro ancestry “schwartzers.” (And that, in my experience, really is a pejorative when used by certain European immigrants, who really do look down on them as a group.)

    Or we could return to our own vulgar (as in “common,” not “indelicate” or “indecent”: The Vulgate Bible) terminology and call them Darkies, which they certainly are except when they’re not largely Caucasian. Or “niggers,” which used not to be an insulting word, just a regional pronunciation of “Negro.” Or, of course, “coloreds.”

    The point is that in fact “Negro” (or Negroid) is, still, a technical term, as are Caucasian or Caucasoid, and Mongolian or Mongoloid. As such these are “value-free.”. And until the word was recast as insulting and pushed by the Usual Suspects, back in the late ’50s and the scummy ’60s, it was in common use as the non-pejorative term.

    If one truly does not care about “race,” but has a need to discuss persons of what is still thought of as the Negro race (which does not include “browns” such as East Indians, or “yellows”), Negro is the best and most non-demeaning term.

    “Blacks,” particularly in the plural as referring to the racial grouping, is in fact highly divisive because of the way it was pushed and the way it’s used politically.

    I can certainly see why you feel more comfortable with “black,” however; it’s the English word you’ve seen and heard most often used for the allegedly racial group.

    . . .

    Yes, mulattoes. Persons of mixed race. Complifies things greatly. In some places persons of part-Indio, or American Indian, blood are also mulattoes, I believe.

    .

    bobby, that’s interesting indeed. To me that description of the word “black” does carry such a connotation, or something like it. It certainly smacks of Victimized Other. But, why “madow”?

  • bobby b

    “But, why “madow”?”

    It’s the Somali word for “black” without the negative connotations that they see in it.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Interesting; thanks.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    We just had a case involving terminology in Australia. A white man was fired (but got his job back later) for using the term ‘gin’ to refer to an AboriGINal woman in a crude tale he was telling. He thought it was a general term, not automatically derogatory, and was surprised when looking it up on the internet to find that it is always considered derogatory.