The Four Furies of Chicago’s Rising Violent Crime: The Chicago Way

[Valin]

John Kass

John Kass

May 22,  2022

On the latest edition of The Chicago Way podcast, a question for a desperate city:

Who are the Furies that are busy ripping Chicago apart?

(Snip)

Chicago, now in the so-called “Summer of Joy,” as violent crime continues to spike, is the city where I was born. It is hurting. It is not some mythic place in a land of mists. It is not on the high, rocky, sunny hills overlooking the Aegean.

Chicago is that once-great city by the lake that is now on the verge of dying from an overdose of uncontrolled, rising violent crime. It is a real place suffering real pain. Some say the city is on life support, which is a polite way of saying it is dying.

And it’s not just Chicago. Violent crime is spiking in urban centers across America, from New York to San Francisco. This is what happens when the law is not enforced. Thugs are emboldened. And all people–black, brown and white–suffer.

In Chicago, every day the violent street gangs claim more innocent lives, in the neighborhoods, downtown, and on Chicago’s expressways where the innocent are shot while driving home from work.  Politicians and media talk in terms of “gun violence,” but calling it “gun violence” is a cheap word game designed to let politicians off the hook.

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The Furies of Chicago are hardly ever mentioned all together. And that’s unfortunate, because they deserve to be immortalized, for what Chicago has become. You’ll never see their names together in editorials or in broadcast news commentary from tepid corporate media. But they do have names.

Toni, Kim and Lori. And Tim.

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The Four Furies don’t want the credit for the violence on the streets. Their mouthpieces will shriek. The Furies can make reasonable arguments as to why they’re not to be held responsible. I’ve heard their reasons and respect their skill with words. And backed by allies in the media, their arguments give them cover.  They talk and spin for a living. They’re good talkers. They’re such good talkers.

But to my mind, they own it all.

They’ve put cops on the defensive, they turned over the downtown to the BLM riots, they’ve encouraged some lawyers to make fortunes suing the police and taxpayers while clamping down on judges who enforce the law. They don’t want to put violent offenders behind bars to protect others–particularly minorities–from violent crime. The papers once covered crime and the bond courts religiously. But now? The papers don’t even run mug shots of criminals. They’re woke.

(Snip)