Posted on 07/20/2013 1:53:18 PM PDT by jocon307
Chicago police are going to hand deliver letters to people suspected of committing or being victims of gun crimes in an effort to stem violence in the city, according to a new report.
Starting Friday, a district commander will be delivering letters warning certain targets in that district not to commit violent crimes, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
The pilot program is targeting individuals off a “heat list” developed by a Yale professor, who studied murders on Chicago’s West Side between 2005 and 2010 and found a small network of people was responsible for more than 70 percent of the killings, according to the Sun-Times.
The letters warn people who have been put on the list that they will be charged with the most serious crime possible if they are arrested for a violent offense.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Valannin • a day ago
After the letters fail to work, the CPD is going to consider Tweets to better reflect their recipients’ short attention span:
“@ Thugs We no who u r. Pls stop being bad ppl. This be your 35th warning #stupidideas”
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“The overwhelming part of violent crime is committed by a very small number of people.”
In fairness, that seems to be the angle they are trying to work here. And of course it’s part of the concept that was used in New York - criminals don’t obey ANY laws. So, if somebody jumps the subway turnstile they may be wanted on a warrant for a worse offense.
To a certain extent this is policing 101; I remember they finally tracked down “Son of Sam” because of a parking ticket. (And you know that could have just been a mistake, other than killing a bunch of people I think that parking ticket was his only offense, but they got him because of it anyway; and I don’t think he was anywhere close to stopping on his own.)
So yeah, keeping an eye on these particular people might not be a terrible idea, but I really don’t think that letter gimmick is going to work.
Yeah, that was great. I was actually LOL at that one. Stop being bad people - if only more folks would follow that advice!
FR is my daily place for good laffs.
A scene from “Demolition Man” comes to mind.
“Wait...what? Being a victim gets you a threatening letter?”
I would imagine that most of the killings in Chicago are gang-related retaliation hits.
It is actually a positive thing that this is being tried. It has worked in the other places it has been put into effect. I believe that the murder rate dropped in half.
Making those people who commit violent crimes responsible for their actions is something we should all applaud.
But they are not disarming them, they are just warning them; and I’m not at all sure if their letters even have any real weight. I don’t think anybody can be charged with some greater offense just because they got a warning letter in advance of some crime which they might at some later date be accused of committing.
If there is any real value in what they are doing, it is not conveyed in this piece.
If they know whose responsible for 70% of Chicago’s murders, why don’t they arrest, try, and execute them?
Bump
If there is any real value in what they are doing, it is not conveyed in this piece.”
I think you have hit on it. The article does little to convey the meat of the program.
First, you go to the community and tell them:
We want to stop the really bad guys. All this killing is stupid and pointless. Work with us to put the really bad guys in jail. You know who they are.
When you have identified the really violent, dangerous people, who are just a small number, then you put them on notice that they do not get any more “free rides”. Any infraction will be dealt with severely, and the police and citizens will be actively watching them for infractions. Even some of the really bad ones can see that their actions have no future and just lead to an early grave.
Last, you do what you said. Watch the really bad ones and lock them up for as long as possible. The murder rate usually falls by about a third.
The only problem is that you have to keep on doing it. Once you stop, the murder rates start to creep back up.
The article does a poor job of explaining this process and the fact that it has been done before with very good results.
One of the things this approach does is focus on enforcing the ban on firearms possession by convicted felons. This interview does a better job of explaining the program:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-vognar/chicago-homicides_b_1616607.html
This older article has a line at the bottom:
"He said the traditional answers to gun violence, such as improved schools, job programs and gun control, have not worked."
http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-11-28/cpd-puts-authors-dont-shoot-strategy-work-94388
Here is a link to an article that gives a better understanding of the program. It is a serious one, and it does work.
The best part? David M. Kennedy understands that gun control is a failed idea.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/may/12/david-m-kennedy-another-kind-of-gun-control/
“Work with us to put the really bad guys in jail.”
I’ll check out your links a little later, but I just wanted to say that this part might be difficult. We know there is a code of “no snitching” in large parts of the black community (and I’m not sure it is confined to blacks exclusively, but I’ll just use that as short hand here).
Of course in many cases someone will know (or suspect) who has killed somebody. Either it was some beef between the parties, or people boast about things, etc.
Instead of cooperation with the law we have things like were discussed on another thread yesterday where some people in Chi-town now think it’s the police who are murdering people, since so many cases remain unsolved.
Now, I will admit that is not entirely impossible in all cases, but I don’t think it’s likely.
NYC had an obscene murder rate for years but there was never any revelation cops had been killing people. (Well, aside from a couple, because I remember there were a couple of dirty cops who were finally revealed to have been in with the Mob and I think they might done a couple of hits. I’m not 100% sure about that and I don’t know when that happened, but if they did kill anyone it was other mobsters, not random black guys.)
Letters? Really, letters? Are they going to read them to them, because if they don’t, they are just paper.
They’ll get opened to see if there is a check inside and then they’ll get tossed.
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