Winehole23
11-28-2011, 09:42 AM
"This case is a perfect example of how the war on drugs distracts police from doing the job we hired them for," Downing said.
Chicago is one of the most violent cities in the country, and is home to America's most violent neighborhood (http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/06/where-are-americas-most-dangerous-neighborhoods/). The city is usually left out of annual "Most Dangerous Cities" lists because of disputes between the state of Illinois and the FBI on how crimes are reported, but Chicago has roughly (http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-muckrakers/2010/06/chicago-is-three-times-as-deadly-as-nyc-and-twice-as-violent-as-la/) triple the murder rate of New York City, and double that of Los Angeles. Crime has gone down in Chicago over the last 20 years as it has in the rest of the country, but at a slower rate than in cities of similar size.
Perhaps more tellingly, the city's clearance rate -- the percentage of homicides solved by police -- was 70 percent in 1991. It dropped to under 40 percent (http://www.chicagojustice.org/articles/chicago-police-homicide-clearance-rates) in 2008 and 2009. According to a report (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=chicago%20drug%20arrest%20statistics&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CF0QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sentencingproject.org%2Fdoc%2 Fpublications%2Fdp_drugarrestreport.pdf&ei=5ZHKTti9Osi9tgeD_azaCw&usg=AFQjCNFprmXfIS87kAZoqWYbhPDIMkTQXw&sig2=qJGiNlwx5YVg926zA5kL5Q) (PDF) from the criminal justice reform advocacy group The Sentencing Project, drug offenses made up 4.8 percent of Chicago PD arrests in 1980. In 2003, they made up 28.2 percent. The overall number of drug arrests increased 264 percent over that period. An analysis (http://www.drugscience.org/States/IL/IL_tb1.htm) by the Marijuana Policy Almanac found that from 2002 to 2007 alone, overall pot arrests in Cook County jumped from 25,776 to 32,996.
The drug war's financial incentives appear to be having an effect. A drug offender is much more likely to be arrested in Chicago than he was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. But kill someone in Chicago, and you're only about half as likely to be caught as you were in the early 1990s.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html?page=2
Chicago is one of the most violent cities in the country, and is home to America's most violent neighborhood (http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/06/where-are-americas-most-dangerous-neighborhoods/). The city is usually left out of annual "Most Dangerous Cities" lists because of disputes between the state of Illinois and the FBI on how crimes are reported, but Chicago has roughly (http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-muckrakers/2010/06/chicago-is-three-times-as-deadly-as-nyc-and-twice-as-violent-as-la/) triple the murder rate of New York City, and double that of Los Angeles. Crime has gone down in Chicago over the last 20 years as it has in the rest of the country, but at a slower rate than in cities of similar size.
Perhaps more tellingly, the city's clearance rate -- the percentage of homicides solved by police -- was 70 percent in 1991. It dropped to under 40 percent (http://www.chicagojustice.org/articles/chicago-police-homicide-clearance-rates) in 2008 and 2009. According to a report (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=chicago%20drug%20arrest%20statistics&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CF0QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sentencingproject.org%2Fdoc%2 Fpublications%2Fdp_drugarrestreport.pdf&ei=5ZHKTti9Osi9tgeD_azaCw&usg=AFQjCNFprmXfIS87kAZoqWYbhPDIMkTQXw&sig2=qJGiNlwx5YVg926zA5kL5Q) (PDF) from the criminal justice reform advocacy group The Sentencing Project, drug offenses made up 4.8 percent of Chicago PD arrests in 1980. In 2003, they made up 28.2 percent. The overall number of drug arrests increased 264 percent over that period. An analysis (http://www.drugscience.org/States/IL/IL_tb1.htm) by the Marijuana Policy Almanac found that from 2002 to 2007 alone, overall pot arrests in Cook County jumped from 25,776 to 32,996.
The drug war's financial incentives appear to be having an effect. A drug offender is much more likely to be arrested in Chicago than he was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. But kill someone in Chicago, and you're only about half as likely to be caught as you were in the early 1990s.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html?page=2