In fact, the shooting in Chicago is nothing new. In his opening speech at the annual meeting of international police chiefs, Trump said that gun violence in Chicago, where there were more than 560 murders in 2018, was "more dangerous than Afghanistan".
From the overall data, Trump’s metaphor is not unreasonable. According to the data provided by the Chicago Tribune, from 2001 to 2016, the number of deaths of US troops in Iraq was 4,504, and the number of deaths in Afghanistan was 2,384. During this time period, the number of abnormal deaths in Chicago was 7,916. Therefore, Chicago is called the "city of violence" and "shooting capital" in the United States.
So, how did the most modern city in the United States gradually become the "most unsafe city"?
Text | Xie Fang Zeng Linhao (intern)
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one
requently happen
The gunfire in Chicago never stopped.
In the first nine months of 2019 alone, the number of people killed by shooting in Chicago reached 408 and 1972 people were injured.
During the Labor Day holiday in the United States (August 31-September 2), Chicago staged a "bloody weekend". The police said that within 48 hours, at least 7 people in the city were killed by shooting and more than 30 people were injured.
The picture shows the police investigating a crime scene. Source: Chicago Sun
Among them, on the morning of August 31, a man named Willie Coker was shot outside. On the same day, a man shot at the crowd with a gun, killing two people and injuring three others. There were also two shootings in Humboldt Park, resulting in one death and one injury.
On September 1st, Wan Tai Jackson, a 15-year-old boy, was shot in his neighborhood and died instantly. Soon after, an unidentified man and woman were shot at a party, and the man was pronounced dead on the spot. On the same day, a gun battle by car occurred in southwest Chicago, killing one person and seriously injuring another.
The picture shows the distribution of shootings in downtown Chicago as of November 7, 2019. Source: HeyJackass!
Then, from the evening of September 22nd to the early morning of the next day, there were 10 consecutive shootings in Chicago, in which 12 people were shot. The frequency of the shootings was unimaginable:
At about 7:30 that night, a 24-year-old man was shot and had two wounds on his shoulder.
At about 8:30 pm, a 23-year-old woman was shot in her house and her leg was injured.
About 15 minutes later, a 39-year-old man and two 14-year-old boys were shot while walking, and all three were injured in their legs.
At 10 pm, a 33-year-old man was shot in the back;
At about 11: 45 pm, a 28-year-old man was shot in the back;
At 12: 10 pm, a 21-year-old woman was shot in the back of the yard and her arm was injured.
At 12: 30 pm, a 45-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man were shot while driving. The woman was injured in the shoulder and the man was shot in the hip.
At about 2: 15 am, an 18-year-old man was bruised by a bullet in the head;
……
What’s going on in Chicago? This needs to start from the beginning.
2
emigrant
From 1620, when the first group of Puritans sailed into New England on the sailboat "may flower", up to now, one in four Americans is a new immigrant or the child of an immigrant, and the United States is a country established by immigrants.
Immigrants have brought advanced technology, laid the foundation of American civilization and culture, and also brought hidden dangers of social unrest.
This is particularly prominent in Chicago.
When immigrants first come to the United States, they generally choose areas with superior geographical location and rapid urban development.
Geographically, Chicago is located at the intersection of the tributary of the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, backed by the Great Lakes. There are many rivers in the area, and the terrain is flat, forming a dense land and water transportation line.
The picture shows the geographical location of Chicago.
Relying on its excellent geographical advantages, the coal from Illinois, the iron ore from the Great Lakes in the north, the timber from Wisconsin and Michigan, and the grain from the Midwest of the United States were all transported to Chicago, and its steel industry developed rapidly.
By the 1980s, the three largest steel mills in Chicago accounted for nearly 30% of the total rail production in the United States. Huge production capacity has spawned a large number of job opportunities. In the 1970s alone, the number of employees in three steel mills reached more than 3,100.
The picture shows a group photo of steel workers at the south factory in Chicago. At its peak, this factory employed 20,000 people. Source: Wikipedia.
Just as the steel industry in Chicago was in full swing, a disaster suddenly came. In 1871, an unexpected fire burned for two days, and most of Chicago’s urban areas were destroyed. At last, at least 300 people were killed and 100,000 people were displaced, accounting for one-third of the population at that time.
While the fire brought disaster, it also brought opportunities for re-planning and construction in Chicago. During the period of reconstruction, the world’s first skyscraper with steel frame was born in Chicago. Since then, its innovative urban architecture has sprung up and gradually gained a worldwide reputation.
The picture shows a painting about the Chicago fire in 1871. Source: The Paper
Convenient transportation, a large number of jobs and a city in ruins have attracted many immigrants. During the second wave of immigrants in the United States (from 1861 to 1880), about 5 million immigrants came to the United States, and quite a few of them chose to settle down in Chicago. During this period, the five-year civil war ended, and many oppressed blacks moved from the south to the north.
For the above reasons, the population of Chicago increased from 112,000 in 1860 to 503,000 in 1880. The intersection of various races has made the composition of Chicago society rapidly diversified and complicated, and racial contradictions have begun to stand out and escalated rapidly.
In the summer of 1919, a white man threw a stone at Eugene Williams, an African-American young man swimming in Lake Michigan, who later died of his injuries. The police refused to arrest the perpetrators, which triggered protests from black groups. This tragedy became the fuse of racial riots in Chicago. During the riots, whites and blacks threw stones or bricks at each other in the street and shot at each other with pistols or shotguns. The police turned a blind eye and the law and order in the city disappeared. The 13-day riot eventually killed 38 people (including 23 blacks and 15 whites), injured more than 530 people and left more than 1,000 black families homeless.
The picture shows the white militia confronting an African-American veteran in the street during the riots. Source: Chicago Tribune.
Afterwards, Woodrow Wilson, then president of the United States, condemned the white people as the perpetrators and promoted racial harmony through the establishment of voluntary organizations and congressional legislation.
However, today, racial discrimination in Chicago and the tragedy caused by it still exist.
In October 2014, a Chicago policeman named Jason Van Dyke had an altercation with a 17-year-old black youth, Rakuan McDonald, and then fired 16 shots at him, causing McDonald to die on the spot. However, more than a year later, after Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder, the Chicago Police Department released the video of the incident photographed on a police car at that time at the request of the court.
The cover-up behavior of the police station and the bloody truth of the video made Chicago people take to the streets to protest the abuse of force by police officers, and the trust between the people and the police collapsed. This incident is even considered to be one of the main reasons for the serious out-of-control of public security in Chicago in 2016 and 2017.
In October 2018, Van Dyke pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and 16 counts of serious assault, and was sentenced to 81 months (6 years and 9 months) in January 2019.
Of course, behind immigration, there is far more than racial discrimination.
three
sinister gang
There are many kinds of immigrants going to America.
Immigrants from Britain, Germany and other countries came to develop North America with large sums of money; Irish and Italian immigrants, on the other hand, are forced by the sluggish domestic economy and turbulent political arena, and have no choice but to seek a livelihood in the United States.
At that time, the traditional white Americans regarded the latter as a different kind and rejected them in all fields of society.
Italians from Sicily are eager to change the fate of the bottom. With their experience of participating in gang activities in their hometown, they started the road of creating the Chicago Mafia, an overseas branch of the Mafia.
However, Irish immigrants who experienced the "potato famine" and the cruel rule of Britain, faced with the increasingly intensified racial contradictions in Chicago society, chose to "organize groups" to carry out violent struggles.
Gangs controlled by these two ethnic groups have completely changed the social composition of Chicago.
Most of these gangs were established at the end of the 19th century, and they penetrated into every "capillary" of the city in blocks. More dangerously, some gangs even buy arms from the military through special channels, and gangs with military weapons have become the primary threat to urban security.
The picture shows gang members accepting arms. Source: Wikipedia
It takes a lot of money to keep gangs running and buy arms. Where does the money come from?
In 1920, the American government issued the "Prohibition Order" to help the gangs solve this problem. During the prohibition period, the formal liquor market was banned, which resulted in the rise of the black market. For a time, smuggling and underground trading became a lucrative business, and a large amount of money poured into the private liquor selling industry in Chicago.
Due to the depression caused by prohibition, many Chicago people not only gave their money to the gang, but also gave their knees. It can be said that a steady stream of "selling wine money" helps gangs buy arms, develop offline and expand their power.
At that time, the private liquor trade in Chicago was mainly controlled by the Irish gang under Moran, a "bug", and the mafia led by al capone.
Among them, al capone, the mafia leader, was hailed as "the underground mayor of Chicago". During the prohibition period, he accumulated huge wealth by selling private liquor. According to the data, the daily profit from selling alcohol in al capone is as high as $5,000.
The picture on the left shows Moran, the bug, and the picture on the right shows al capone.
However, as the smuggling of liquor became more and more serious, the interests of the two factions became entangled, and the feud gradually became a "Valentine’s Day tragedy" that shocked the whole country in 1929. Capone sent his men to dress up as policemen, forced seven Irish gang members to line up against the wall in the garage, and then shot them mercilessly.
In broad daylight, pretending to be a policeman shot his opponent, which shows the extent of al capone and Chicago Mafia at that time.
The picture shows the police simulating the "Valentine’s Day tragedy" crime scene.
What are the real cops doing?
They were bribed. During Capone’s mafia rule, more than half of Chicago police officers worked for him. It is said that Capone spends millions of dollars every year to bribe and win over a large number of police, government employees, lawyers and judges. Therefore, in the murder case, Capone does not have to worry about bringing risks to himself.
However, Capone’s craziest move in Chicago’s political arena was to personally control the 1927 Chicago mayoral election.
At that time, under the cover of campaign funds, he became the financial owner of Thompson, one of Chicago mayoral candidates, and six months before the vote, he made 62 bomb attacks and murdered at least two politicians in order to undermine Thompson’s campaign opponents.
Capone’s behavior was so rampant that the federal marshals in Chicago asked the US Attorney General to authorize 500 federal marshals to ensure that voters voted safely that day. But Chicago people, who were afraid of mafia forces, finally chose Thompson, and Capone also ushered in his peak.
In the presidential election in 1928, the captain of Chicago criminal police team, Roth, found Capone and asked him not to get involved in the presidential election. In return, the police promised not to "disturb" Capone and his men for "small things" such as murder.
With the help of many parties, the gangs in Chicago have developed like bamboo, and they are still active today and become a major threat to the whole city. According to the survey data of the police in 2015, there are at least 59 gangs and 625 subordinate branches in Chicago. Nowadays, Chicago, new york and Los Angeles are also called "the three gangster cities in America".
As an American journalist wrote, "guns are the passport here, drugs are better than dollars, and killing people represents honor." Whoever kills more people can be promoted in the gang. "
four
politician
In addition to gangs, there is also a famous family-the Daley family that has a far-reaching influence on Chicago.
The picture shows Kennedy, then president of the United States, meeting the Daley family at the White House. Source: White House official website
The first generation "political star" of the Daley family is Richard J. Daley, a former Illinois senator who combines the characteristics of American "old white men" (meaning old, white and male) politicians. He was re-elected as the mayor of Chicago for six times, with a total term of 21 years.
During his tenure, Daley successfully grasped the golden age of world economic development after World War II and completed the reshaping of Chicago’s heavy industry. However, his two actions with obvious racial discrimination left a legacy for the city.
The first is the "public housing plan" with racial segregation.
Chicago’s "public housing plan" was born in the early 20th century. The city government with strong financial resources hoped to provide a clean living environment for people with difficulties, so the original design was mainly two-story townhouses.
After Daley took office, he also vigorously promoted the "public housing plan", but compared with the previous public housing design, the public housing he admired was huge, with a large number of households in each unit, and a community could accommodate at least 75,000 people.
From cleanliness and comfort to maximum accommodation of population, why did the change happen?
Because Daley is a racist supporter. In the 1950s, the southern United States imposed extremely strict racial laws and brutally oppressed blacks. Many blacks had to leave their hometowns, and a large number of them chose to go to Chicago to look for opportunities.
In this case, the old-fashioned public housing with a large area and a small number of people can’t meet the influx of black population. In 1955, when Daley took office, Chicago white politicians headed by him did not want blacks to flood into traditional white communities, so new standards of public housing rose. Daley’s idea is to isolate blacks in a corner of the city and divide and rule the two ethnic groups.
The picture shows the robert taylor community with the largest number of blacks in Chicago at that time. Source: Observer Network.
Therefore, Daley’s new "public housing plan" is actually the result of the practice of "white supremacy". In the new public housing with a large population, the signs of violent crimes began to grow. These buildings with complex structures and densely populated areas can become fortified fortresses on the outside, and can serve as "arsenals" and "drug factories" on the inside. Gangsters also use ordinary residents as a cover to walk freely through them.
The second is the education system with the color of apartheid.
In the mid-1950s, Chicago’s public schools were overcrowded. Daley and his inspector Benjamin Willis set up a mobile classroom-625 "Willis trailers" on the campus of the black community, so that black students would not transfer to the white community. However, due to the limited space, black students still need to take turns to go to school.
The picture shows the police on duty to defend the mobile classroom in Guggenheim junior high school. Source: Chicago Tribune
When civil rights organizations urged Daley and Willis to integrate schools in Chicago, Daley flew into a rage and asked civil rights organizations to keep their distance from school affairs.
In 1965, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would stop providing $30 million in federal aid because the Chicago school board still practiced racial discrimination in schools. Daley told the media arrogantly that he could use his influence in Washington to overturn the decision.
In 1968, 85% of black students in Chicago attended "exclusive schools" with 95% black students.
In the early 1970s, Chicago’s schools were in trouble, and more than 40% students did not graduate from high school. The average reading ability of eighth-grade students is almost one and a half years behind that of students in other parts of the country, and students in slum schools are more than two years behind.
In 1976, Daley died of illness. After family trading, his son "Little Daley" Richard M Daley became the mayor of Chicago in 1989. Daley Jr. surpassed his father for 22 years.
The picture on the left is Richard J. Daley, and the picture on the right is "Little Daley" Richard M Daley. Source: Chicago Tribune.
Under Daley Jr., a large number of relatives, friends and political allies of Daley family benefited from urban contracting. Jeremy Joyce, Daley Jr.’ s confidant, won the contract to be a McDonald’s franchise store at O’Hare Airport, Chicago’s largest airport, earning $1.8 million a year. Michael Taddin, another friend of Daley Jr., signed a $100 million municipal road maintenance contract with the city.
A survey in Chicago Tribune in 1999 found that since Daley Jr. took office, 68 Daley family relatives had been employed by the government at different times.
In addition, Daley Jr. is more racist than his father. He once said in public that Chicago needs a "white mayor" and turned a deaf ear to the illegal law enforcement by the police against ethnic minorities.
By the end of 2009, Daley Jr.’ s approval rating had fallen to an all-time low of 35%. Subsequently, he announced that he would give up seeking a seventh term. People’s livelihood is sad, prices are soaring, gangs are rampant, and capital outflows are the last impressions left by Chicago under the Daley family.
five
go bankrupt
In 2008, the financial crisis broke out in the United States, and the global financial market was in turmoil. Chicago was also affected. Since then, its steel industry has been depressed, traditional manufacturing industries have moved out, and urban tax revenue has dropped sharply.
This decline has continued to this day, as can be seen from the rising fiscal deficit year after year.
Chicago’s fiscal deficit in 2011 was US$ 655 million (equivalent to about RMB 4.6 billion). On August 29th, 2019, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the city was facing a budget deficit of US$ 838 million (equivalent to about RMB 5.9 billion) due to the increase of labor cost, pension expenditure and debt cost, and the severity of "income not meeting expenditure" set a historical record. By 2021, this figure is expected to exceed 1.1 billion US dollars (equivalent to about 7.7 billion yuan).
The picture shows that Chicago’s pension liabilities ranked first in the United States in 2014. Source: Chicago Tribune
In the face of financial problems, the Chicago municipal government did not come up with a reliable plan, and the plan of issuing $10 billion bonds proposed by the former mayor was stillborn.
To make matters worse, in 2014, Moody’s Investors Services, an international rating agency, downgraded the credit rating of $388 million bonds issued by Chicago from "A3" to "Baa1" and set the outlook of Chicago as "negative".
[Note: In Moody’s credit rating, the "A3" level indicates that the enterprise’s credit degree is good, and its financial strength and asset quality are average and it has certain strength. "Baa1" level means that the city’s credibility is average, and various economic indicators such as assets and financial status are at a medium level, which may be affected by uncertain factors and have certain risks. 】
The damage to the city’s financial reputation has brought a series of bad consequences to Chicago. The deterioration of municipal services has caused more high-end industries and elites to be reluctant to enter, and poverty has led to crimes, and the vicious circle has continued.
The current predicament of Chicago is also a difficult problem to be solved urgently in many cities in the United States, and the "rust belt" is a typical representative.
"Rust Belt" refers to the traditional industrial areas in the Northeast, Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.
The picture shows the American "rust belt"
These areas are the heart of American manufacturing. Oil refining in Ohio, automobile industry in Michigan, metallurgy in Pennsylvania and steel industry in Illinois were once the pride of American industry. However, under the background of globalization, the traditional manufacturing industry has launched fierce global competition, and cheap steel and manufacturing products from developing countries in Asia have had a strong impact on the economic structure of the "rust belt" States.
In 2013, Detroit, the "rust belt", was officially approved by the bankruptcy law. At that time, the city’s debt exceeded 18 billion US dollars (equivalent to about 110 billion yuan), making it the largest bankrupt city in American history.
Looking back at Detroit’s bankruptcy road, in fact, many "causes" are what Chicago is facing.
First, the expenditure on municipal projects is still huge, and the government’s fiscal revenue is too single.
Second, the competitiveness of traditional manufacturing industries has declined.
Third, racism is still prevalent and gang conflicts are still fierce.
Of course, it is not only the "rust belt" that faces the "urban crisis". In October 2017, the US financial website "Zero Hedge" published "Where is the next American city to file for bankruptcy? The article said, "If you live in these’ red’ cities, it may be time to start looking for another home."
As can be seen from the picture, these "red" cities include Oakland, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, Atlanta and Pittsburgh, and cities such as San Antonio, Sacramento and Dallas are second only to "red".
The picture shows the credit risk levels of major cities in the United States. Source: JPMorgan Chase
Where should these declining cities go?
In 2017, Trump, who was about to succeed Obama as president of the United States, shouted to rahm emanuel, then mayor of Chicago and former White House chief of staff of Obama, meaning: If you can’t manage it well, let my government manage it for you. Now that more than two years have passed, the situation seems to have not improved, and the mayor has changed, and Trump’s trip actually has a number of "tasks." During the meeting on the 28th, he signed an executive order to set up a "presidential committee" in the local area to directly intervene in the management of crime and law enforcement in Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, the committee’s functions include studying the causes of criminal activities and providing practical suggestions on police training and police assistance.
However, the "opposition" between Trump and Chicago is, in the final analysis, a huge conflict of political ideas. As mentioned above, Chicago is one of the famous "asylum cities" in the United States, which means that the city will refuse to implement the federal government’s immigration policy to a certain extent and protect foreigners living illegally in the United States, while the Trump administration pursues a tough immigration policy; For another example, Chicago, which is controlled by the Democratic Party, claims to have the strictest gun control laws in the United States, which is often slammed by the Republican government with guns. In the latter’s view, the rampant gun violence in the city just shows that the gun control policy is not effective. For Trump, Chicago can almost be regarded as a "failure model" for the Democratic Party’s governance.
"He (referring to Trump) should listen to public opinion, understand the status quo and see what he can do to help … If he just comes to’ get money’, he might as well stay in the White House." Faegri, an anti-gun violence activist, said so. Whether Trump can really help Chicago is still unknown.
References:
1. The development history of Chicago steel industry | Sohu. com, July 23, 2019
2. Wikipedia "Great Chicago Fire".
3. Wikipedia "Richard J. Daley (Richard J. Daley)"
4. The Chicago police shot and killed African-American teenagers and was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison | China News Network, January 19, 2019.
5. Chicago mode "? Cure social violence by treating infectious diseases | Southern Weekend, June 7, 2019
6. In Chicago, 66 people were shot and 12 people were killed in two days. Let me tell you something about the gangsters here | Southern Weekend, August 8, 2018.
7. Many cities in the United States are facing bankruptcy, and Chicago is the most dangerous | Sohu.com, October 9, 2017.
8.What’s the stoopidest thing Mayor Richard Daley has ever said？ | Chicago Tribune, May 26, 2010
9. Let’s talk a little: How did the super-strong political family that ruled Chicago for 43 years move from glory to edge | Lawrence Wang, Observer Network, May 24, 2019.
10. America’s third largest city is facing bankruptcy! Many cities have issued alarms, and California is also listed | Tencent. com, September 1, 2019
11. Chicago’s long weekend was not peaceful. A total of five people were killed in multiple shootings | China News Network, May 28, 2019
12. From the rise and fall of Chicago, look at the centenary of American cities | The Paper, January 10, 2019
13. American cities will face bankruptcy! Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston and Chicago are all in danger | Jiang Ding, national business daily, October 8, 2017.
14. Daley vs Daley | Chicago Magazine, September 10, 2008
15. The mayor and the police chief are both absent, and Trump’s trip to Chicago is like "being in an enemy camp" | Lin Jing Liu Haoran, Global Times, October 30, 2019
Original title: "Half of the police in the third largest city in the United States used to work for gangs. A father and son have been in control for 40 years, and now it is more chaotic than Afghanistan! 》