ANOTHER WEEKEND IN CHICAGO – AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  And not just another weekend, but Christmas weekend.  And the weekend after the announcement that President Obama will make his farewell speech in Chicago, his hometown (for a while).  From The New York Times:

At least 27 people were shot, seven fatally, in a 48-hour period in Chicago over Christmas weekend, according to the Chicago Police Department. It was the latest bloody chapter in a city besieged by gun violence.

Killings and shootings, already an all-too-common hazard in the city, have skyrocketed since last year, when the numbers were already high. The rise in violence is fueled in part by gangs, whose disagreements range from neighborhood turf wars to disputes over girlfriends. The conflicts often escalate quickly to gunfire.

This weekend, one of the victims was an 18-year-old Hispanic man who was shot multiple times in the neck and back while he was driving in the Gage Park neighborhood, on the city’s southwest side, at 1:30 a.m. Christmas Day.

His death would become another entry in a police log of murder investigations, many with no suspects in custody.

Officer Jose Estrada, a spokesman with the Chicago Police Department, said in a telephone interview Sunday that the total number of homicides this year was 745, a 56 percent increase from 476 at the same time last year. This year was the first time in nearly two decades that more than 700 homicides had been recorded in the city, the Chicago Tribune reported this month.

Estrada said the total number of shooting victims stood at 4,252, up 47 percent from 2,884 at the same time in 2015. Data of the shootings over Christmas weekend logged by the Chicago Tribune reflected a relentless crime blotter: Nearly all the people shot were men, the majority younger than 30.

COMMENT:  Of course, it's all the fault of the gun manufacturers.  Or oppression.  Or Israeli settlements.  Or something.

I wonder if Obama will have the courage to mention the near-collapse of his hometown on his watch.  Maybe he'll even stick his neck out and ask why New York was able to put such a huge dent in its crime problem, and Chicago hasn't.  Does the name Rudy Giuliani strike you? 

December 26,  2016