Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Mayor Lori Lightfoot said GOP candidates for governor, making crime — especially in Chicago — central campaign themes should think twice about damaging the city’s reputation. “Vilifying the economic engine of your state just strikes me as a really foolhardy strategy,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday. Lightfoot said there are “definitely productive ways in which a governor can be helpful. But anybody who thinks that they’re going to solve crime by sitting in Springfield and lobbing bombs obviously doesn’t understand the first thing about public safety.”

CHICAGO -- Five people were killed, and 33 others wounded, in shootings in Chicago over the weekend through Tuesday morning. The period was significantly more deadly than last weekend, when nine people were wounded and no one was killed. It was the first weekend in months in Chicago without a homicide. Most of the violence this weekend was concentrated on the West and South sides. Almost half the shooting victims were wounded in just four police districts, which reported three shooting victims each: The 7th District in Englewood, the 9th (Deering) in Fuller Park and Gage Park, the 10th in...

With violent crime soaring over the last two years, Americans want a solution. Over and over, resident Joe Biden and gun control advocates frame violent crime as a gun problem. Relying on public health researchers, articles such as this one in the Atlantic and in local news stories this week point to increasing gun sales as the cause. But reported gun crimes fell in 2020, so the writers ignore the obvious explanation for rising crime, that law enforcement isn’t being allowed to do its job. Gun sales increased dramatically in 2020 before receding some in 2021. Background checks on gun...

The December 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry exposed the bungled “Fast and Furious” investigation, in which agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking the weapons. But the agency lost most of the guns, including two that were found at the scene of Terry’s death in southern Arizona. The U.S. government has heavily pursued prosecution of the men involved in the killing. Mexico says Mexican drug gangs and former officials also participated in or failed to stop the weapons trafficking. Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office...

CHICAGO (CBS) — At least three people are dead and 14 are injured in weekend shootings across the city. One of the victims was under the age of 18. The first homicide of the weekend happened around 8:11 p.m. Friday in Gresham. An 18-year-old man was walking in the 7900 block of South Parnell when he was shot in the neck by an unknown offender, according to police. The victim was transported to Saint Bernard Hospital where he was pronounced dead. In other shootings since 5 p.m. Friday: At 5:57 Friday, a 24-year-old male was standing in front of a...

CHICAGO - A 15-year-old girl was among 11 wounded in citywide shootings Thursday. The girl was inside her home about 2 a.m. in the 8000 block of South Crandon Avenue when a male fired a gun in a different part of the house, Chicago police said. A bullet grazed the teen in the thigh, and she was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said. Two people were shot about the same time in separate shootings in Chicago Lawn. About 2:33 p.m., a man, 18, was in a car in the 6400 block of South...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two gunmen fired more than 65 rounds on a Philadelphia street, sending nighttime pedestrians on a busy block teeming with markets and restaurants scrambling for cover and injuring six people, at least one of them critically, police said Friday. Police responded around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the Germantown neighborhood and found a 21-year-old woman shot multiple times in the abdomen and chest and lying near dozens of spent casings. Officers rushed her to the hospital, where she was in critical condition Friday. Five men ages 19 to 29 were taken with gunshot wounds by private vehicles to...

The Midwest grocery chain Hy-Vee is planning to place armed security guards in its stores across eight states in response to the climb of retail thefts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, based in Iowa, released its plans earlier this week, and while it hasn't said there was any specific incident that led to the decision, a company official said in an interview that a growing number of retail thefts across the country led Hy-Vee to bring in armed security, reports the New York Post. "I think across the country, we’re seeing an increase in thefts and different crimes in...

HOUSTON, Texas – A gang member who was convicted of shooting one man, and remains charged with another murder, has been sentenced to life in prison. Jurors convicted Javan Oxavia Williams, 30, of murder for the death of a man he shot from behind as he sat in a car. While jurors were deciding his punishment, they were told about another pending case, in which Williams is charged with capital murder, for shooting a man in the man’s own living room and stealing his possessions. “Jurors listened to the brutal details of this cold-blooded crime spree that left two people...

CHICAGO -- Chicago weekend violence has left 27 people shot, four fatally, police said. A man was fatally shot Saturday morning while standing on the porch of his friend's house in Palmer Square on the Northwest Side, police said. Suraj Mahadeva, 26, was found with a gunshot wound to his head by his friend who heard a loud sound about 3:25 a.m.. A man was found fatally shot Sunday afternoon in South Shore on the Far South Side. The man, 40, was found shot to death about 3:35 p.m. near a gangway of a residence in the 7500-block of South...

A gunman opened fire Sunday night on a crowd that had gathered at a Celebration of Life ceremony in Baytown, Texas. A motorist drove by the location and opened fire striking a number of people. The injured were rushed to area hospitals. At least one person was killed. A child is also believed to have been injured The Harris County Sheriff’s Office told television station KTRK that one person had been killed, and three others critically injured. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez gives update after deadly shooting today at celebration of life in Houston Texas… https://t.co/kde8Z56Zbs via @YouTube — SherrilMetalGSM (@SherrilMetalGSM) December...

A Chicago bus driver landed in the hospital after he was beaten on the streets Saturday night, resulting in a 15-year-old boy being arrested. The bus driver, 49, was inspecting his bus at about 9 p.m. after he heard a loud sound. He was reportedly pushed and punched by both a male and female, police said. An unidentified 15-year-old boy was charged with a felony count of aggravated battery of a transit employee and disorderly conduct in connection. Footage allegedly showing the incident has spread on social media. A large group of youths is seen surrounding the bus driver and...

My daughter has a nice little house in a safe neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. Until recently she never really had to worry about crime or her personal safety. But now suburban places like hers in Northern California and Southern California are being hit by a crime wave that has never hit them before. As you’ve seen on national TV, “smash-and-grab” gangs are hitting shopping malls like the one near her – the same one I often take my granddaughters to. And now there are even young thugs who’ll follow you home from the mall and break into your...

Two suspects were arrested Wednesday morning in connection with the theft of over $15,000 in power tools and other merchandise from five Bay Area Home Depot stores in the last week, a public information officer with the San Ramon Police Department said. Police received the call from managers of the Home Depot on Crow Canyon Road in San Ramon just after 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning. According to the police spokesperson, employees were already familiar with the pair of suspects. “They had stolen from enough Home Depots in the Bay Area that they were circulating flyers in the stores,” the...

After repeated brawls between students at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento, teacher Connie Steinman made a decision. She wants to transfer to teach independent study. The American sign language teacher said she no longer feels safe at the campus where she has taught for 21 years. Her decision comes after the latest violent incident on campus where a number of students began fighting on Nov. 18, prompting a lockdown that some teachers say was not properly communicated and placed students and staff at risk. Like other Hiram Johnson teachers, Steinman has seen constant fights on campus. With staff shortages...

CHICAGO -- Thirty people were shot, six fatally, in weekend shootings from Friday to Sunday, Chicago police said. A teen was shot Saturday night about 11:20 p.m. in the 200-block of North Wabash Avenue, as police responded to complaints of a "large group in the downtown district." The boy was walking and bumped into a male moving in the opposite direction, Chicago police said. Following an argument, the male shot the 15-year-old in the arm, police said. The teen was taken to Lurie Children's Hospital, where he was listed in good condition, police said. No one was arrested in that...

A Columbia University doctoral student was knifed to death Thursday night near the Ivy League college's historic Manhattan campus - one of three people attacked by an 'ecstatic' gang member on a violent stabbing spree. Davide Giri, 30, a PhD candidate in computer science, died around 11pm after being stabbed in the stomach by a 25-year-old member of the Bloods gang off-shoot, Everybody Killas, who has 16 prior arrests dating back to 2012 and was out on parole for a 2015 gang assault, police said. Officers arrested the suspect - Vincent Pinkney, of Manhattan- in Central Park 20 minutes later,...

With a month left in the year, Cook County has logged more than 1,000 homicides for the first time in 27 years. As of Tuesday midday, the medical examiner’s office had recorded 1,009 murders — 100 more than this time last year. The youngest person killed was a 1-month-old boy, the oldest an 84-year-old man. More than half the people murdered were under the age of 30. Black people made up 81 percent of homicide victims and Latinos made up nearly 15 percent, the medical examiner’s office said. The most homicides on record for any year in Cook County is...

No excerpt allowed. go to the google link.

An 82-year-old man was surrounded and assaulted by a group of people riding dirt bikes and ATVs in Boston last Thursday. Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the suspects. The victim, a Brookline man, suffered serious injuries and remains in the hospital. He is expected to survive. State Police said the man was driving his 1996 Buick Century from Park Drive to Boylston Street when 30 to 40 dirt bike and ATV riders forced him onto the curb. Several of the suspects then began smashing windows of the victim’s car.