CHICAGO - Two teenage boys - ages 13 and 14 - were among four people killed, and at least 30 others were wounded in shootings in Chicago over the weekend, CBS Chicago reports. The weekend incidents highlight a disturbing trend that makes the streets of the Windy City even deadlier than Kabul, Afghanistan.
By some accounts, rising murder rates have made Chicago more dangerous than a war zone: According to The Daily, homicide victims in Chicago outnumber U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year.
While 144 Americans have died in Afghanistan in 2012, 228 Chicago residents have been killed. The murder rate is up 35 percent from last year, a rash of homicides that quadruples New York City's rate and doubles Los Angeles' rate.
Antonio Davis, 14, was gunned down during a drive-by shooting just before 9 p.m. Friday in Englewood, CBS Chicago reported. Tyquan Tyler, 13, also died in a gang-related incident after being shot in the chest at a party in a different Englewood neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
Two more people were fatally shot in other Chicago neighborhoods on Sunday: 29-year-old Hansen Jackson was shot several times in the chest and later died at Mount Sinai Hospital,and 22-year-old Anthony Jones who was also shot and killed, according to a CBS Chicago report.
At least 30 others, including two other teenage boys, were reportedly wounded in shootings throughout the city. A 15-year-old and 14-year-old were taken in stable and fair condition, respectively, to a children's hospital following a shooting attack while they were playing basketball Saturday around 8:45 p.m.
Other victims include a man shot and two other hit by a vehicle in a suspected gang-related incident about 4 a.m. Saturday in front of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, police said. Another man, 36, was shot in the arm in an unrelated incident and was taken in critical condition to a hospital.
Violence also struck one of the city's most popular areas, where the floats rode down the streets for the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday.
The city said street gangs are responsible for the bulk of the recent gun violence and announced this week that it will allow police to work overtime in order to put more officers on the street, according to The Daily.
"Just look at what's been happening every single weekend," Vice President of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police Daniel Gorman told The Daily. "Although we appreciate the overtime, we still can't ignore that we've got a manpower crisis, and the recent violence in the city is proof of that crisis."
But highly publicized accounts of the recent murders, shootings and gang activity have some police arguing that the media have blown Chicago's crime problem out of proportion. Police superintendent Garry McCarthy said Chicago is facing a "perception issue."
Though there have been 228 murders in the city so far this year, The Daily reported that Chicago's murder rate has actually fallen over the past several years - but not as fast as the rates in New York or Los Angeles.
"We have a lot of violence, but the fact is, we have to keep doing what we're doing, because the trend is actually turning," McCarthy told CBS Chicago over the weekend. "You would never know it, but the trend is actually turning. It's hard to tell that for somebody who hears gunfire."
Police to partner with CeaseFire on anti-violence pilot program
CeaseFire is expected to receive funding through the city’s Department of Public Health to target crime in two Chicago police districts under a pilot program. CeaseFire has received federal and state funding over the past decade but no money directly from the city.
Originally, CeaseFire was supposed to receive $1.5 million, but the figure could be lower now that it will operate in only two districts instead of three, as originally planned, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The partnership was proposed after Chicago’s bloody Memorial Day weekend, druing which10 people were shot to death and the city’s homicide rate reached 200, a nearly 50 percent increase over the same period of 2011.
Through June 17, murders were up 38 percent compared to the same period last year.
According to sources, at a violence reduction meeting with federal and local officials last week, McCarthy expressed his discomfort at having to work with CeaseFire, which sends ex-felons into high-crime neighborhoods to “interrupt” potential violence.
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