Why Chicago isn't as Dangerous as People Like to Say it is

[Malik00]

Beautiful Beautiful City.

So As someone who lives in Chicago, a city that seems to have this reputation as the "Murder capital of the US". I find that its reputation is largely undeserved

This rep popped up from a combination of Chicago's history as a center for organized crime (I.E Mafia) and a statistic showing that the amount of Americans who died in Chicago is equivalent to the number of Americans who died in Iraq and Afghanistan , as shown here.

Note that i specifically said "American" Because what this shows are the amount of American soldiers that died and doesn't really count for iraqi civilians....when we take that into account

Afghanistan in 2015 alone has 9 times more homicides then Chicago and if you go to https://www.iraqbodycount.org/ remember chicago having almost 8,000 deaths since 2001. Well go to this site and you find the total body count for iraqi civilians is well over 200,000....you could multiply chicago's deaths by 10 times and still not even be close.

AND might i add, not only is chicago not the violent place people around the world seem to think it is.....it doesn't even have the highest homicide rate in america.

New Orleans, Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington D.C....the home of the white house has a higher death toll then chicago.

Look i'm not trying to be apologetic about it. Crime in chicago is a big problem and our local officials should be ashamed of themselves for letting it get this bad....but to say that chicago is the murder capital of the US, and more dangerous then Iraq....is just blatantly false. I honestly don't get how so many people actually believe this.

[Anonymous]

As someone who lives in one of the five largest cities in the US, let me tell you, when people talk about crime, murders, and robberies, etc. the numbers are high. You can split hairs on what you personally want your city to be called and perceived as, but the reality is, in ANY major city with a huge populous, it's dangerous in certain parts.

I have friends in Chicago and when I visit, have I ever been mugged, has any other type of crime happened to me, thankfully no, but then again, they live on the "better" side of town where people with hipster beards walk their designer dogs to their HGTV inspired homes. Of course it's wonderful and safe there for the most part but they warned me day one, that past a certain zipcode, in certain places, don't go there. I say the same about my own city. I can tell any traveler here where to go where the odds of crime happening to them would be low and they would leave the city with a positive experience, but a murder/crime rate is what it is for a reason and trying to say, but look at that country over there and their problem, doesn't help solve your own. That doesn't revive the bodies left on the pavement. Our police chief is trying hard to crack down on crime and violence here and getting communities involved in the fight, and I think it's helping because it is our problem to solve and it's not just on them to do it, but everyone who sees anything happening in their neighborhoods.

[front2back]

I dunno, I have coworkers and friends who lived or currently live on the South Side and they have woken up to bullet holes in their house before.
But yes, it certainly isn't as bad as places like DC or St. Louis.
However, I personally don't like using per capita for murder in super large cities. If a random serial killer props up in a town of 1000 and kills 2 people, that town is now, per capita, more dangerous than every town listed above by a good bit.
I think the problem with Chicago is scale, sure it may not be bad per capita, but the brutalness of the gangs and how they strike so often in the same neighborhood is astounding. The military even training their combat medics in some of those bad neighborhoods because it better prepares them for treating shot people than the Middle East.

[Malik00]

Thing is the reason its not as bad is because the violence is usually contained in certain areas and pockets.

[WalterRadio]

Chicago is the murder capital of the US because it has more murders than any other city.

Of course, Chicago is HIGHLY segregated. In spite of, or rather because of, the liberals in charge, the whites shall never mingle with the blacks.

The last time I was there a few months ago, I went into a restaurant. The patrons were mostly white and the remainder Asian. Zero blacks. The staff were about half white and half Hispanic. Zero blacks.

The white northside of Chicago is reasonably safe.

So just how much time do you spend on the southside?

[Malik00]

I live on the south side...

[WalterRadio]

I hope you have a gun.

[Malik00]

-_- lord give me strength.

[Benedek38]

Do you have a gun?
I hope you realise it is illegal to have a gun.

[WalterRadio]

@Benedek38
"I hope you realise it is illegal to have a gun."
That's funny. The last time I was shooting at the range with some police officers, they never said anything.

Guns are legal in the US, even in Chicago now. They were not legal in Chicago until about 8 years ago, but the murder rate there had been dropping from when guns were made legal compared to before when they were illegal in the 70's through the early 2000's. The murder rate jumped a couple of years ago as a result of BLM.

[JimRSmith]

I didn't think it was that bad, when I was there in May.

But, as others have said, already, it's all about zones and areas.

[Benedek38]

Uhm... Afghanistan is a COUNTRY. A particularly poor and violent country. No shit is has more suicides. It also has a population of around 36.7 million people. Chicago has 2.7 mill. Meaning yes, Chicago is STILL more violent than Afghanistan. That's what I would call an epic fail.

Also, Afghanistan has arouns 1200 intentional homicides in 2012, so I hardly think it jumped up 3 times under a few years. State your sources.

Also also:
"Well go to this site and you find the total body count for iraqi civilians is well over 200,000"
I suppose you mean in the Iraqi Civil War, which was an ACTUAL fucking civil war with open battlegrounds. Not the fucking same as a supposedly peaceful and lawful city.

As for which city has the most homicides, this is the actual list, so I don't know WHAT THE HELL you were looking at.
https://i.imgur.com/5s492EN.png
As you can see, Chicago is the 8th most violent city.
Now, you might also notice another thing. The first 7 cities have a combined population or around 3.6million, while Chicago has a population of 2.7 million ALONE. So Chicago provides far more crime than most of the cities up there.

Either way, I don't see why one would pretend that Chicago is a good place. Even the residents admit it is a hellhole.
And I don't think pointing out Chicago's crime problem was ever about bashing peaceful Chicago residents. It is usually used to point out the ineffectiveness of gun control.

[OfDeath]

I thought Chicago had more people than that

[Benedek38]

@OfDeath
1) *homidides. I don't know why i wrote suicides. I am an idiot.
2) Yes, it probably does have more people. Most major cities' population fluctuates heavily, because people from the areas surrounding it come to work during the day, and leave when their shift is over. I don't know exactly how much this changes the population, but I'd say it can easily grow several million during the daytime, as the population data only counts registered residents. If you live in a town 10 miles from Chicago, but go there every day - that's still not considered being a resident, even though any reasonable person would say you from Chicago.

[OfDeath]

That's true actually

[HungLikeAHorsefly]

Yeah, you're preaching to the choir. People like to talk a lot of shit about Chicago because it's a Liberal stronghold, and it's got a lot of people. That's basically it.

It's not even in the Top 10 insofar as crime goes, and the violence there can't be correlated with any kind of gun laws, demographics or whatever. It's just a non-starter.

That said, there are obviously areas of Chicago I tend to avoid (I find myself there a few times a year). Every American city has areas like that. Hell, I live in Portland where it's all white and everybody's all hippy-dippy and we still have a few shootings, stabbings, shootouts with police, etc. each month.

[RasmusAiken]

Chicago gets attention because it's Democratic run government claims to care so much about minorities. Still there can be 75 minority people shot and a dozen of those killed on any given summer weekend and no perpetrators arrested.
Recently to acknowledge its many rodents, Chicago was awarded title of the Rat Capital of the US.

[linds34]

Yes, none of those U. S. cities is comparable to a place like Afghanistan, Venezuela, etc. It's insane how many people are afraid to go into the city to like, go to a cultural event or a basketball game. I think a lot of people are afraid of not just criminals, but seeing homeless people or anyone who's in poverty.

[goaded]

"Less dangerous than a war zone!"
That should be the motto for Chicago.

From an outsider's point of view, anything over 2.5 is worse than the worst city in the UK. Your table of 19 cities stops at 12.8.

en.wikipedia.org/.../Crime_in_London

[Malik00]

So... what does that just automatically discredit my argument?

[goaded]

No, but having to compare your city to a war zone to make it look comparatively safe should ring some alarm bells.

I've been to Chicago, about 25 years ago, it didn't feel unsafe, but I was in the city centre.

[SketchForger]

Dude have you even been to Chicago?

There was literally a shooting this weekend but nobody heard about the one in Chicago because some Football player lost his shit during a twitch stream.

[HungLikeAHorsefly]

I know the part where the OP said "So As someone who lives in Chicago [...]" was confusing, so let me clarify: he lives in Chicago.

There are most likely a number of cities in the United States that had a shooting this past weekend.

[SketchForger]

@HungLikeAHorsefly (not to be that guy, but he probably live on the north side.)

[SketchForger]

So telling someone that Chicago isn't as dangerous as you believe is very misleading.

To be fair the people who aren't trying to kill you are very nice and polite.

[Malik00]

I live on the south side.

[SketchForger]

Damn really?

by the way I actually took another read of your MyTake, and I actually agree with your point.

Apologies for not reading all of it, I recognize that's it not actually worse than other extremely dangerous countries and cities.

[Anonymous]

Chicago is bad, yes, but there are other places that are worse

[AuroraRoseat]

I think the reason people think that is based on stereotypes. Chicago is not a bad city at all.

[Anonymous]

I think its that the city is less dangerous to locals. Tourists often are targeted for things like mugging or human trafficking in any large city.

[Malik00]

frankly that's ANY city if you ask me.

[Opinion Owner]

Did you even read my comment? 😅

[Malik00]

i might have misread it yeah.

[Opinion Owner]

Shit happens

[hammeronfire]

THANK YOU! I've been trying to tell people chicago isn't that bad.

[AdmiralBailey]

They want to make black people seem more violent than we actually are. They don't talk about the majority of blacks rallying to stop the murderous thugs in Chicago.

[Benedek38]

Would you look at that! Another accusation of racism!
The facts don't lie. The African American population still contributes to crimes in a vastly disproportional rate. That's not racism. That's basic logic. When someone is 8 times more likely to kill you or rob you or rape you based on statistics, you think "well, maybe there's a problem here".

[goaded]

@Benedek38 The problem is thinking it's because they're black, and not because they're poor with little education and fewer prospects.

[Benedek38]

@goaded
Why can't you have both?
How about they are poor and badly educated BECAUSE they are black?
Maybe talk about certain toxic elements in traditional black culture, and how kids are a lot more inclined to oppose authorities. Talk about gang violence. etc...

[goaded]

@Benedek38 Yeah, that's obviously racist.

There are people with black skin all over the world, not many of them behave like poor, under-educated, inner city Americans. That's because it's the environment, not their skin colour, that leads to bad outcomes.

Who were joining the gangs and shooting each other in 1920's America? Was that because they were white?

[Anonymous]

I think it’s because it’s so close to no where mid-west that the death toll seems huge compared to everything around it.

[zagor]

It is most dangerous if you're a young black male in the wrong neighborhood.

[Malik00]

That's kind of a moot point cause any place is dangerous if you go to the wrong neighborhood, and that's not limited just to chicago. That said anyone crazy enough to go into englewood after dark is just asking to die.

[hammeronfire]

not true I've been there numerous times both of my parents grew up there. you aren't asking to die. you just gotta be aware of your surroundings

[AoiKaito]

Basically, as with most cities, the level of safety depends on the area you are in.

[SwoleCook]

Lol whut? I was born in south side. It’s dangerous af

[StickStickity13]

Conservatives don't know what per capita means

[Malik00]

Alright then explain what it means.

[StickStickity13]

It's a ratio, 5 in 1000 is more than 3 in 1000. Sure Chicago may have more murders, but it also has a larger population. So you need to look at per capita to see if it's really more dangerous

[Iron_Man]

Chicago's a cool Great clean City

[Anon-ymous1]

Yeah good points all.

[OfDeath]

How do you get (point) something of a homicide?

[goaded]

It's the rate per 100,000 inhabitants; there are 27 lots of 100,000 inhabitants in Chicago, so multiply by 27 to get roughly the absolute numbers of murders.

[OfDeath]

@goaded I see...
I wonder how many homicides there were in each place over the last 5 years including everyone.

[goaded]

Wikipedia is your friend!

The USA has four (or 5, if you include San Juan) in the top 50 cities with over 300,000 population by murder rate. By the look of it all of them are in the "New World".

en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of_cities_by_murder_rate
en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_rate_by_country