The very public servants we pay to protect us and maintain order in Chicago are increasingly under attack themselves. At an order of magnitude dramatically greater than in years past.
The total number of Chicago Police officers shot at in 2020 was 80, versus a yearly average of 20 from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, total shootings at police were almost as high again, at 76.
In 2015, there were only 12 shootings at police the entire year.
If the recent jump in violence directed at officers is not soon squelched by judges and politicians who make it clear criminals will pay a steep price for their variegated misdeeds, then the violence eating at Chicago will only spread.
Shootings which struck police but were not fatal increased to 10 in 2020 and then to 14 in 2021, versus just less than five on average yearly between 2014 and 2019.
Fatal shootings averaged 0.66 between 2014 and 2019. There were none in 2020 but two in 2021.
It’s not a good time for police to be on the backs of their heels, wondering if the next traffic stop will also turn into an attempt on their life.
Many types of crime in Chicago are up.
Reported shooting incidents in Chicago not involving police numbered 3,561 in 2021, up 66 percent from 2019. Shooting incidents in 2022 through the end of this year’s Week 23 on June 5, were up 29 percent versus 2019. Compared to that year, motor vehicle thefts so far in 2022 are up 44 percent in Chicago citywide, thefts 24 percent, murders 19 percent, and robberies 10 percent.
But now on top of all this, since 2020 Chicago Police have been increasingly under attack. Wirepoints got the detailed data from the Chicago Police Department through a public records request.
Who knows where the numbers will land by the end of 2022? Two Chicago cops and a federal marshal have been shot in Chicago just within the last week. There’ve been 25 cops shot at this year to date. And we’re not even in summer yet – when everything blows up.
The now-intensified war on cops in Chicago is one more sign of a greater social breakdown which shows no signs of being arrested.
With our police at ever greater risk of mortal peril, we should pause to think deeply. About things like parenting in Chicago. About big-city politics. About our media and their ability or inability to confront hard truths and hold all to equally high standards. About policing and prosecuting and sentencing. And we should consider our elected leaders, their temperament, and their accountability.
It all goes to the strengthening of our city’s institutions.
Because if your sheriff has a target on his back, you’re really living in the Wild West.