With the President and First Lady in Chicago for the high-profile wedding of White House aide Valerie Jarrett’s daughter, national scrutiny has been directed at the alarming level of homicides in the Windy City.
Chicago columnists have pointed out that the murder rate in Chicago is far greater than the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan, even if you stretch the number all the way back to the start of the armed conflict in Afghanistan in 2001. While 144 Americans troops have been killed thus far in 2012 in Afghanistan, 228 Chicago residents have been killed since the start of the year. And while 2,000 troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, an astounding 5,000 people have lost their lives in Chicago over the same period.
Chicago’s murder rate stands out among big cities for its exorbitance. Chicago’s rate is 4 times greater than New York and twice as high as Los Angeles.
