Fewer Chicago Homicides, Except in Englewood

56 people were killed in Englewood this year, a 40 percent increase

Chicago’s homicide rates are among the lowest in decades, but not in Englewood.

With days left before the new year, police logged 419 murders, down from 437 in 2010, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Englewood saw a 40 percent increase, though, to 56 people killed in 2011.

The stat follows a fatal Englewood shooting Tuesday night at Church's Chicken. Stray bullets killed Jawan Ross, 16, and Dantril Brown, 17, and injured five people, two critically. Police said the shooting stemmed from an argument outside the restaurant.

"My grandson belonged to me not whoever took it upon themselves to kill him," said Ross' grandmother, Georgia Jackson, on Wednesday.

Chicago has seen progress, though. Back in 1970, more than 800 murders were tallied.

This year Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Garry McCarthy redeployed 1,000 officers to street beats to keep up the decline. They moved 114 police officers to the street in September, bringing the total to 881. In October, the number hit 1,000.

"We're never done," Emanuel said in October, a sentiment McCarthy echoed this week to the Sun-Times.

"The goal is zero," he told the publication, and until that happens he said he's not satisfied.

What's next? Focus on Englewood, McCarthy said. Boost efforts to reduce crime in the neighborhood and on the West Side by shutting down open-air drug markets and keeping officers visible on the streets.

FOP president Mike Shields has called the extra officers a shuffle of resources. "The promise of 1,000 new [officers] turned out to be 1,000 shuffled," Shields said in September. "Tell people enough, they start to believe it."
 

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