Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson on Monday blamed repeat offenders for the gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend.
Many of the gun-related incidents this past weekend — including 84 people arrested on gun-related charges from Wednesday through Sunday by Chicago police — were carried out by people already familiar to police.
“We know that these offenders are likely to continue their behavior that landed them in handcuffs in the first place,” said Johnson. “We know this because we keep arresting them over and over again.”
According to Johnson, from 6 p.m. Wednesday until midnight Sunday, 42 shooting incidents occurred, leaving 66 wounded, and six dead.
“This is a considerable increase from last year, but the numbers are consistent with the level seen in the last several years,” Johnson said.
Last year, there were 29 shooting incidents, 31 wounded, and six dead during the holiday weekend, a representative from the Chicago Police Department told the Sun-Times.
Violence over the weekend was concentrated in the West and South sides. The Englewood police district had the most incidents, with five shootings, followed by the Deering district with four and the Harrison, Near West, and Austin districts with three each.
Johnson said the number of shootings from this weekend doesn’t encompass the lives “saved” by Chicago police while recovering guns or arresting individuals,
The 84 gun arrests made over the weekend, Johnson said, also are 84 times when “those police officers took a weapon off of somebody that could potentially be a violent situation.”
The challenge going forward for Chicago police is how to stop repeat offenders, especially in the face of systemic causes like the “stranglehold” of gang involvement in certain areas.
“As a black man who grew up in public housing in the city of Chicago, I understand the stranglehold that gangs have on certain neighborhoods … because I lived it,” Johnson said.
“I also understand the struggle, challenges and lack of opportunities when you grow up in certain neighborhoods in Chicago, and if you look a certain way,” he added. “But despite all of that, there’s still no excuses, or justified reasons for carrying the guns in the city. None.”
Weekends ”like this one” are ones that “we cannot continue to see,” Johnson said.
“Our city deserves better.”
