• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

In my day, never was longer.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

This really is a full service blog.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Books are my comfort food!

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Six and Two is Eight

Six and Two is Eight

by @heymistermix.com|  January 14, 202010:30 am| 15 Comments

This post is in: Gun Issues

FacebookTweetEmail

This is pretty interesting:

In 2016, Chicago experienced an unprecedented spike in gun violence. From 2015 to 2016, Chicago saw a shocking increase in homicides of 56% from the previous year — 778 people were killed and more than 4,200 people were shot. The spike led to headlines about “out of control” violence and for President Donald Trump to declare that “Chicago is like a war zone.”

But very little has been written about what followed: Over the past three years, homicides in Chicago decreased by 37%. In 2019, the city experienced fewer than 500 homicides — the fewest since 2014.

[…]

Forty foundations and funders — including Chicago’s professional sports teams — came together to form the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities. Since its inception, PSPC committed $75 million toward reducing gun violence in Chicago. Nine community outreach groups from different neighborhoods formed Communities Partnering for Peace — a coordinating body that meets every other week. The University of Chicago’s Crime Lab became involved in the day-to-day decision-making of the police with analysts working daily in the districts (possible because of a $10 million donation). State Attorney Kim Foxx, Chicago’s equivalent to a district attorney, shifted resources away from low-level offenses to create a new unit of prosecutors who are embedded in police districts struggling with gun violence.

This is all good stuff, but also another example of how we pour money into preventing and dealing with the after effects of gun violence, all while letting gun manufacturers flood the country with guns.

I lived in Chicago in the 80’s, and I always felt that the East Coast media (a.k.a., the media) really internalized the notion that Second City is first loser, so I’m glad to see a positive story about what sounds like a real achievement.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Mutual Contempt Society (Open Thread)
Next Post: What Is This “Re-Establish Deterrence” They Keep Talking About? Auto Draft 1»

Reader Interactions

15Comments

  1. 1.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    January 14, 2020 at 10:42 am

    Thanks for this post, mistermax. It’s inspiring, and likely to be ignored by most big media.

  2. 2.

    Ruckus

    January 14, 2020 at 10:50 am

    Wasn’t Chicago the center of the moonshine BS after prohibition? The gangsters etc.

    Chicago has had the rep of being gun happy for a long time and republicans will never let anyone forget anything they can use against their enemy, which of course is anyone standing in their way, truth be damned or at least ignored completely.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 14, 2020 at 11:00 am

    @Ruckus: Al Capone was a low taxes IGMFY Republican.

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    January 14, 2020 at 11:14 am

    Chicago is a perfect example of how we need to regulate guns at a wider scale than the city or even the state.  Chicago is so close to the state line with Indiana that its strict local gun regulations are easy to flout.  Anyone who wants to evade them can drive a short distance, buy a gun in a place with much laxer regulations, and come back with it.  Until Indiana (and to a lesser extent Michigan) are willing to tighten their gun laws, there’s really nothing Chicago can do to reduce the supply of guns.

  5. 5.

    satby

    January 14, 2020 at 11:16 am

    Saying the name Chicago was always a code for urban violence, and we all know what the racists mean when they say “urban”.

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    January 14, 2020 at 11:19 am

    Great point about how we usually/only deal with the after-effects in these here Yoo-Nited States, MM.

     

    Dan Heath’s upcoming book, “Upstream”, is centered around that concept, with the main idea being that if we put more of our energy and resources into ‘upstream’ (ie preventative) actions, we’d spend a lot less on the ‘downstream’ or after-effect end.  Smart nations already do this, of course.  Just not us.

  7. 7.

    Roger Moore

    January 14, 2020 at 11:21 am

    @satby:

    Talking about Chicago was also a way of getting in a dig at Obama, as if he was somehow personally responsible for what was going on their after he had moved to Washington.  It was also the best example of urban violence the racists could dig up, because those other urban hellholes, New York and Los Angeles, were experiencing unprecedented drops in violent crime to the point they were much safer than the cities in Red States.

  8. 8.

    hitless

    January 14, 2020 at 11:25 am

    @Roger Moore:  It’s galling that the influx of guns from Indiana, a documented phenomenon, is always ignored by national media when discussing how gun control “doesn’t work”.

    Moreover, the homicide rate now, and even in 2016 when it spiked, is significantly lower than it was in the early 90s (currently half I believe). And Chicago isn’t anywhere close to the top in per-capita homicide rate. But Obama was from Chicago, and the message that he would turn the United States into a crime-infested hole like his home town was too delicious for the mainstream media not to amplify, didn’t matter if it was true.

  9. 9.

    natakamus

    January 14, 2020 at 11:29 am

    As a resident of Chicago for the last 20 years, I have to say that one of my favorite things about the city that New York (Manhattan) doesn’t have is a robust service/delivery underground road system in the downtown area, and well lit alleys for garbage and refuse. Seeing 8′ tall piles of garbage bags on street corners is something you WILL NEVER see here.

  10. 10.

    glory b

    January 14, 2020 at 11:48 am

    @satby: Exactly. It was@Roger Moore:  Exactly! In any event, Chicago was NEVER had the highest rate of homicides, several cities, including some in red states, were always higher, Gary IN, Chester PA, Danville, VA, Salisbury NC to name a few. In 2018, Chicago wasn’t even in the top ten.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 14, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    @glory b: Right now, STL, KC, and Springfield are all in the top 15. Misery has hit the trifecta,

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    January 14, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    @hitless:

    It’s galling that the influx of guns from Indiana, a documented phenomenon, is always ignored by national media when discussing how gun control “doesn’t work”.

    At the very least, it should be understood to be an explanation of why we have a hard time making gun control work.  It’s far worse in a place like Chicago, where the closest place with lax gun laws is very close by.  Somewhat surprisingly to me, though, California’s strict gun laws seem to make a difference, even though people here could go to Nevada or Arizona to buy guns with many fewer restrictions.  Apparently a few hours’ drive is enough deterrent to keep a lot of people from getting guns, though it’s also possible cultural factors are at play.

  13. 13.

    Another Scott

    January 14, 2020 at 1:15 pm

    Speaking of counting…

    https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/01/cryptic-rumblings-ahead-of-first-2020-patch-tuesday/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    January 14, 2020 at 2:43 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Talking about Chicago was also a way of getting in a dig at Obama, as if he was somehow personally responsible for what was going on their after he had moved to Washington.

    Yep.

  15. 15.

    satby

    January 14, 2020 at 2:49 pm

    @hitless: @glory b: @OzarkHillbilly: The link I included in my comment goes into detail about just your points.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - beckya57 - Copper Canyon, Mexico, April 2025 6
Image by beckya57 (6/19/25)

Recent Comments

  • WTFGhost on Excellent Read:‘The Struggle to Fulfill Juneteenth’s Promise and Reckon with Its History’ (Jun 19, 2025 @ 3:45pm)
  • Miss Bianca on AM in NC – NO KINGS – Durham, NC (with the Durham images this time!) (Jun 19, 2025 @ 3:38pm)
  • prostratedragon on Excellent Read:‘The Struggle to Fulfill Juneteenth’s Promise and Reckon with Its History’ (Jun 19, 2025 @ 3:32pm)
  • WTFGhost on Thursday Morning Open Thread: Juneteenth (Jun 19, 2025 @ 3:29pm)
  • Enhanced Voting Techniques on Excellent Read:‘The Struggle to Fulfill Juneteenth’s Promise and Reckon with Its History’ (Jun 19, 2025 @ 3:24pm)

Personality Crisis Podcast (Cole, DougJ, mistermix)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!