They Said There’d Be No Math
Posted on December 29, 2014
“New Math” G-Mac held a presser today to inform the media that Chicago will end the year with the fewest murders since some excitable Potawatomi “yutes” beat and robbed Jean Baptiste Point du Sable of his wooden iPhone.
“Chicago is poised to have the lowest number of murders in years, but the city’s “gang culture” continues to be an obstacle to fighting crime in the city, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said.
As of Dec. 20, Chicago Police counted 390 murders in 2014, compared with 406 the previous year and 488 through the same period in 2012.”
According to the city’s own data portal, there have been 400 murders through 12/21. The Cook County Medical Examiner has 432 through today and we now have 455.
Why the difference? The CPD tallies murders (crimes) which doesn’t include incidents involving their own, cases of self-defense and some other slights of hand. We and the ME count homicides (one person killing another). We also include police-involved homicides plus some of those infamous “death investigations”.
In short, all murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murders.