Year In Review
Posted on January 2, 2015
With another year in the books, it’s time to lovingly look back at the year that was, 2014.
The year started off with Chicago gripped by the Polar Vortex. Brutal cold and record amounts off snow did more to keep the stupidity off the streets than $95MM in overtime could do in a year. “It’s Not The Weather” became the new #CrimeIsDown as the usual suspects attributed the drop in stupidity to “our strategies are working” and not to “it’s f*ckin’ cold out!”. Some morons even went so far as to contribute the drop to the new concealed carry law – only it didn’t take effect until March 1st and to this day there aren’t many CCW permits in Chicago’s worst neighborhoods.
As spring showed up, we partook in the LSD Standoff and witnessed a Blue Line train run up an escalator at O’Hare. Chicago Magazine’s bombshell article on crime stats hit the stands and as is always the case, the first warm weekend of the year was a total shitshow.
As summer heated up, so did the stupidity. Homicides were still way below 2013, but shootings were up and were adding up quickly, Then came the most epic shitshow of the year, 4th of July weekend, tallying over 80 people shot. August witnessed the murder of 9yo Antonio Smith with little accompanying outrage of his execution. The summer ended with 151 homicides and 850 others shot & wounded.
Fall saw an increasing number of homicides and shootings. By October, we blew past 2013’s total people shot count. Then came the Brown/Wilson grand jury decision and for a brief moment in time, people actually paid attention to Chicago’s dismal metrics. “No True Bill” was our most read post and contributed to our most heavily trafficked few days of the year.
In addition to Rahm’s kid getting his ass kicked, December tallied 42 homicides which helped exceed 2013’s homicide total by just 1. With some pending “death investigations” and late expirations, the final number will slowly rise throughout 2015 to 460-465.
Looking ahead, 2015 likely see another 450 homicides (+/-25) and another 2,600 total people shot (+/-100).
Thanks again to everyone who visited, commented, liked and followed last year. Have a safe, healthy and prosperous 2015.
UPDATE: We’ve added a few additional links to stories/events that we had forgotten about. We’ll make the switch to 2015 in the next couple of days. Final 2014 stats are going to hang around for a bit longer.