Chicago On Pace For Record Year Of Homicides With 400 Murders

I am in Chicago, my hometown, to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday.  I always love coming home to his city, but which is beautiful in the summer.  I took the kids swimming in Lake Michigan with huge waves and a perfect day. However, the city is reeling from an ever-rising murder rate.  Just four years ago, the city passed 400 homicides around Thanksgiving.  We just passed that mark in July in what could be a record bloody year in the Windy City.

 President Trump of course has made the Chicago crime levels a running theme.  The statistics can be a bit misleading in terms of the image of a crime ridden city.  The terrible fact is that most of the murders are concentrated on the South and West sides.  Northside City, where Wrigley is located and my family home is located, has not seen as much of this lethal uptick.

The murder rate was declining but began to rise last year again.  This year 16.5 percent of the 2,150 people shot have died.  When added to those dying from other homicidal causes like  strangulations and stabbings, the number of homicides reached 400 on Thursday.

For the first six months of 2017, more than 90 percent of Chicago homicide victims were slain by gunfire, according to Police Department records.

It is obviously a great concern among Chicagoans but the rate seems undiminished.

We will be holding our celebration of Angela Piazza Turley’s 90th Birthday (and my daughter’s birthday on the same day) this afternoon with Italian beef, Italian cookies and cannolis in the backyard of our home near Wrigley and the lake.  We have relatives from all over the country who have come in for the event.