CHICAGO — Over the long Fourth of July weekend, 100 people were shot in Chicago Police Reported, including two police officers, with 18 homicides, according to the city’s police department.
The carnage was akin to last year’s lengthy Fourth of July holiday when 17 people were killed and 70 more were injured. That weekend, a 7-year-old child and a 14-year-old boy were among the deceased.
A judicial system that enables persons accused of serious crimes, including murder, to be freed from detention on electronic monitoring, according to Police Superintendent David Brown, bears a large part of the blame for the gun violence.
Brown’s criticism of electronic monitoring drew a rebuke from Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who said in a statement Tuesday that it is “based on the constitutional concept should not be imprisoned before they are convicted unless they represent a serious risk to the community.”
“Looking at specific sad incidents in isolation may add to the notion that releasing people before trial rather than imprisoning them — whether under EM or other types of monitoring — leads to a rise in crime,” he said. “However, conjecture based on individual incidents is not the same as reality based on the big picture, and research has proven that bail reform hasn’t increased crime.”
He continued up to where he left off last week when he was brought before the City Council to explain his crime-fighting methods ahead of one of the year’s most violent weekends.
Brown defended his department, saying in his briefing to media that his police had seized 244 illegal firearms during the holiday weekend, just as he said in his City Council appearance.
“We did our share in terms of strategy,” he added.