UPDATE: Additional robbery reports have been filed over the phone. In the end, March 2014 exceeded last year’s robbery count by two incidents.
——————————————
Robberies are one of the measures by which the change in our neighborhood’s fabric can be seen. Coming off of three record-setting years, robberies started 2014 with a whimper. (Thank you, Polar Vort.. Oh, you know.)
 |
| The, um, fork in the road |
January’s robbery count was way under 2013’s and February followed suit. CWB estimates that March, though, will be exactly in line with March 2013’s performance.
The question is which road will we be taking from here? A road in which our police executives, politicians, businesses, and service agencies take responsibility and take action…or the well-worn road that got us here in the first place.
Inertia can be a real bitch.
Citywide Homicides Up. Again.
We’re expecting the usual first-of-the-month police department press release about crime being down any moment now. Indeed, reported crime is way down for 2014. (Thank you, Polar Vort.. Oh, you know.)
W.H. Thompson tracks Chicago homicides with laser precision over at HeyJackass.com.
According to his good work, March ended with a 36% increase in homicides compared to March 2013. That follows a year-over-year February increase.
The only thing keeping year-to-date homicides down is the low kill count recorded during January’s Polar Vort… Oh, you know.
Thankfully, murder is one thing that we do not have to worry about around here.
UPDATED 12:54PM: The press release came out right on schedule. How does the department cover up two consecutive months of year-over-year homicide increases? By suddenly deciding to look at quarterly statistics. The lowest murder count for the quarter since 1958. They fail to mention that the city had 850,000 more residents in 1958. That would water down their champagne.
