Chicago is the U.S. “murder capital”
Chicago Beats New York, Los Angeles In Murders
Police Supt. Jody Weis To Take Hot City Council Hot Seat
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago is the Second City in nickname and the third in population, but when it comes to murder, the city has the dubious distinction of being second to no city in America.
As CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli reports, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out on Friday that Chicago has seen 426 homicides this year through Tuesday, compared with 417 in New York and 302 in Los Angeles.
At the end of 1998, Chicago made international headlines as the U.S. “murder capital” after surpassing New York’s homicide totals for the first time ever. Chicago shed that dubious distinction when murders plummeted over the last decade.
There are more than 8 million people in New York, compared to slightly under 3 million in Chicago. The population of Los Angeles exceeds that of Chicago by more than 800,000.
Murder is also up, at a lower rate, in New York.
The alarming statistics were expected to come up on Friday when Police Supt. Jody Weis once again appeared before the City Council to address a crime rate that many believe has spun out of control. He appeared at a City Council budget hearing, which began at 10 a.m.
Weis, a career FBI agent, took office this year with a mandate to clean up the department in the wake of several scandals. But murders have risen, and arrests have fallen, on his watch.
Back in July, Weis addressed the media after being grilled by the Council on the subject.
“I don’t mind tough questions,” Weis said in July, not long after a shooting erupted on the streets of the Loop as crowds were leaving the annual Grant Park fireworks show. “The City of Chicago has the right to ask tough questions, especially when our crime is up nearly 13 percent.”
Under tough questioning at a Council hearing that month, Weis suggested there was a “degree of timidness” among officers afraid of having lawsuits and citizen complaints filed against them.
At the hearing Friday, Weis may highlight what police v