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I’m a news junkie, but the time has come for me to cut back. The first and best place to do so, I have decided, is local television news. It’s altogether too depressing, especially the nightly version that I usually watch before bed. In Chicago, where I live, most of each broadcast is given over to murders, carjackings, hit-and-runs, and interviews with grieving family members of the victims of these crimes.

Some years ago I stopped reading either of Chicago’s two local papers, the Tribune and the Sun-Times, those other vehicles of local news. Each paper grows thinner and thinner and, I am told by their readers, dimmer and dimmer. Local news isn’t readily available online. What brings me back time and again to local television is my continued interest in sports. Local stations provide scores, news of injuries, trades and the rest along with the weather, though I can get the latter, minus all the unnecessary flashy graphics, from my lady friend Alexa…

So rampant has crime in all its varieties become that no neighborhood in Chicago is free from it. Owing to local television news, I learn about gang murders where stray bullets kill innocent victims (often children) on the city’s South and West sides, but now also carjackings and other robberies in the once-safe neighborhood where I grew up. Retail stores on plush Michigan Avenue have been ransacked. Formerly serene suburbs have experienced murders. Two people were killed recently near a restaurant I frequent. All this is brought home to me nightly by local television news.

At the end of a report on a crime, more often than not the reporter will say, “No suspect is in custody.” Not reassuring, that. Saddest of all perhaps are the interviews with victims or, if they are no longer alive, their families and friends, who tearfully beseech the criminals to turn themselves in, so justice can be done for the deceased. Yeah, right.

In connection with all this crime, local news in Chicago will often feature interviews with Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot or police chief David Brown. In their rather pathetic attempts to maintain that everything is under control, the appearance of all three only provides additional discouragement. In her various pronunciamentos, Ms. Lightfoot is especially adept at self-righteously conveying a sense of hopelessness.

— Joseph Epstein in Chicago News Is Nothing but Crime

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72 COMMENTS

  1. If the people who lived there were tired of hearing nothing but violence and murder on the news broadcasts, they would demand change and vote.

    Since they don’t, they want what they get… 🙁

    • @ Geoff: Soooo true! It’s so far gone I don’t see it revived ever…..their political so-called leaders and politics are so deep rooted in graft and corruption it’s beyond imagination; Chicago needs a 100% transformation, a complete metamorphosis!

      • Unfortunately demoCrap is fashionable in crime ridden areas of most big cities. It’s the only way to go among history illiterates who do not know squat about the laundry list of race based atrocities attributed to their democRat Party.
        Frankly…A Black American belonging to the democRat Party makes as much sense as a Jew belonging to the nazi party.

        The real problem? You won’t hear placid mitch macconnell or anyone else in d.c. wanting to single out and hold the democRat Party responsible for its history of race based atrocities. Instead such things as Reparations are allowed to be talked about as if both parties are equally accountable. Such cowardly silence paves the way for history to be rewrote and there lies the biggest problem.

      • and it’s not confined to Chicago…but seemingly the case in many urban areas…where the powers that be have no meaningful answers…

    • I believe the DNC has been cheating the state elections in @ 8 or more states for 50 yrs or more. So it likely doesn’t matter how the citizens voted.

    • Geoff,
      it’s unfortunate, but Illinois’ biggest problem is that the city runs the state. The people who live in and near Chicago are so brainwashed the will believe anything that comes out of the mouths of Foxx, Lightfoot, and Prickster.
      And it’s only going to become more violent after January 1st.

    • We voted in the last 2 elections, and the dems stole both of them. Phuck voting. Solve these problems the old fashioned way. Permanently.

      • I hear you, I am sitting on go. To me it’s despicable how the country has been given up without a fight. Most secure election in history. All of the msm said exactly the same thing exactly the same way. No one noticed it. I am ready to vote with my lead.

    • They voted these animals in. They refused to support the police or denounce BLM and Antifa. So they reap what they planted. Sob.

    • Everyday I encounter people who go on long tirades that can be summed up as “I can’t stand anything these democrats are doing to this town/state/country” yet they always vote dem strait ticket. At the very least you’d expect people so disillusioned to abstain from the political process but these clowns almost always participate actively canvassing, holding signs and covering themselves, their vehicles and their homes with slogans and stickers for the very people and policies they complain about.

      Some people are just too stupid to live.

  4. “Owing to local television news, I learn about gang murders where stray bullets kill innocent victims (often children) on the city’s South and West sides…”

    and ya know something your “local television news” and any news in Chicago is very much unlikely to report on? its the ~80% of violent criminals that did not use a firearm and use some other non-firearm weapon in their crimes that get away with it and ignored because all the resources are focused by the democrat leadership on criminals with guns which represents ~12% of the criminal violence in Chicago.

    • when they were confined to knives and razors things seemed controllable…guns up the ante considerably…and make them a threat to the rest of us…you’re talking about people to whom violence is a way of life….

    • That is wrong on so many levels and perpetuates the retaliation factor. If gov won’t do it cuz will.

      • You kidding? Jail is wonderfully inclusive, anyone can get in if they do the barest minimum to meet the entry requirements and does not cast you out just because you don’t have the money to pay. If anything it is too inclusive.

    • Yeah Chicago newz sux. I watch only weather n sports too. Like every Dim dominated big city Chiraq sux. They poison the rest of ILLannoy too. I ain’t giving up my gats Dimscum©!

      • Epstein is just another whiner, expecting someone else to save his ass from ‘bad stuff’. I have no patience with that type.

        • expecting someone else to save his ass from ‘bad stuff’.

          While he continues to vote and support the clown show that lets all that stuff happen… Get that dude some cheese and crackers to go with that pathetic whine…

        • MODERATED AGAIN? This has got to be the most ignorant fucking algorithm on the planet, WHAT is offensive about THAT simple fucking statement… Is it CLOWN SHOW?, STUFF?, DUDE? I’ll bet it’s pathetic, you don’t like PATHETIC, right?… Funny, I just repeated everything except the quote and was NOT moderated… WTF?

      • I have zero patience with whiners like Epstein who expect someone else to make the world a better place for them.

  9. Just what do you think has been happening for the last 100 years? Chicago has always been gangland run for Democrats. This is the result.

    But anything called ‘news’ is something I can only take in small doses anymore (mainly since Covid started). Many news anchors have left the business because people were losing their minds and going emotionally unstable. About the only reason I have to watch anymore is for local traffic and weather.

    • Traffic has usually cleared by the time the report is sent to the station and the commercials run through their scheduled slot.
      Weather ?… they have a hard enough time reporting YESTERDAYS weather correctly. I haven’t watched ANY broadcast ” news” for years.

  10. In Chicago, where I live, most of each broadcast is given over to murders, carjackings, hit-and-runs, and interviews with grieving family …

  11. Detroit population in 1970 was 1.5 million it is now a bit over half a million. They have been bulldozing entire abandoned neighborhoods there for years. That is what the future holds for Democrat controlled cities.

    • “white flight” was a common theme in the 60’…leaving and taking their money with them…gentrification was supposed to reverse all that…but, because of rising crime…that trend may be reversed as well…..

  12. let some more Democrats in charge of stuff and it’ll continue. when are you people going to wake up and quit voting for these spawns of Satan?

  13. Chicago is a liberal $hithole city in a liberal $hithole state. Feel bad for those conservatives stuck there for family or financial reasons. Other than that, Illinois, you got what you vote for, 3rd world mentality. Enjoy.

    • letting people defend themselves may offer a partial solution…but liberals are averse to that and welcome others doing that for them…when that fails for whatever reason they’re left in a bit of a dilemma…many choose to go elsewhere where, unfortunately…because of their political views…the process starts all over again….

  14. I would encourage people to connect the dots. The gangs run rampant in Chicago because they guarantee votes will be forced for Democrats. The gangs are protected by the mayor. Across the US for all devout progressives, the common denominator is an immense hatred of the United States. The strategy behind this hatred is do anything that will weaken the United States and its traditional melting pot population. Eventually, the Democrats will call in Chinese “peacekeepers” to fully purge and eliminate most the US population. This is the reason for eliminating firearms from the public and why the Democrats have taken control of every major port in the United States.

    • the leftists lust for “control”…in all of it’s many facets…but privately owned firearms is at or near the top of the list…resistance can simply not be tolerated in any form…

    • Mike – the last I heard is that the KNOWN gang bangers in shytown outnumber the coppers by something like 3 to 1. Since the thugs Do Not Play By The Rules, is it any wonder that CPD is essentially hunkering down.

  16. Think of it as evolution in action.

    The citizens of Chicago votes for the malignant morons who have transformed their city into a $hit$how. They are getting exactly what they deserve.

  17. The problem is that the citizens of Chicago are not being allowed to vote. Between rigged machine voting, the gangs harvesting votes in some areas, and young “progressives”, normal honest citizens do not have a prayer of seeing anything other than a “progressive” in office.

    • Oh they are being allowed to vote. The problem is a large population in Crook county votes for the candy man and breeds like rats courtesy of the welfare system while productive citizens with good paying jobs are fleeing Illinois as fast as they can. Crook County and a few others have enough democrat vote to control the state.

  19. As long as the Gangster Criminals of the NRA are able to bribe the Criminal Republicans who are their prostitutes, we will continue to have mass murder and homicides by second hand guns because we do not have Universal Background Checks or Safe Storage Laws that would keep tens of thousands of second hand and stolen guns from being shipped into chicago and other large cities according to law enforcement via the proven and verified Iron Pipeline. That is a fact the lying Far Right cannot avoid no matter how much they scream they do not believe it because of their paranoia that they continue to scream from the rooftops.

      • so if you cannot put your own house in order… you now feel free to tell me how to manage mine?….and how many universal background checks are conducted in back alleys and out of car trunks?…those restrictions only impede the law-abiding…they have no effect at all on those who are not

    • Universal Background Checks or Safe Storage Laws

      dacian: Funny stuff, but still the same old stuff… Now the ONE “irrefutable” FACT is simply that nearly EVERY–STATE–THAT–HAS–THOSE–VERY–LAWS–IN–PLACE–HAS–EXPERIENCED–AT–LEAST–ONE–MASS–SHOOTING–EVENT–AND/OR–A–SERIOUS–INCREASE–IN–GUN–RELATED–VIOLENCE–THIS–YEAR.. THAT is a FACT even the most prolific of liars (that would be you) cannot deny no matter how much they scream they do not believe it because of THEIR paranoia … Hopefully those words are simple enough and paced slowly enough for even YOU to understand… My gift to you, Merry Christmas…

      • In reality Mad Man Max

        The Stats prove that on average when you look at the entire Blue State they have less homicides than Redneck States that have lax laws. Just looking at one big city and then screaming because its run by Democrats ignores the overall homicide rate of the entire state but that is way over your head and runs counter to your skewered far right beliefs none of which are true.

        • The obvious question is why Dacian does not move to the People’s Republic of China as he wants none of the Bill of Rights kept in the United States. It is very plain that Dacian would only be happy in a totalitarian state where he could be part of the “revolutionary vanguard” and be even more empowered with riches and rights that he would want denied to the “proles”. Maybe then he could move out of his Mama’s basement and actually learn to drive a car, and God forbid get a real job. But then his ideal job would be organizing the final solution for all those troublesome flyover denizens!

    • According to law enforcement? The same bully and incompetent undertrained cops you constantly rave about?

      And show me a crime that was prevented by gun control. It should be easy.

    • the leftists lust for “control”…in all of it’s many facets…but privately owned firearms is at or near the top of the list…resistance can simply not be tolerated in any form…

    • I lived in Philadelphia until age 32. I escaped. I now live in an Appalachian county in central Pennsylvania. I’ve been here 40 years. Philadelphians vote Democratic by 4 to 1. There are 500 murders a year in Philadelphia. People in the ounty I live in now vote Republican by 4 to 1. Gun ownership is 80% to 90% of households. The murder rate is zero.

    • With Chicago being an anti gun city, black market gun prices are three times they are in other cities. If you were selling a black market hand gun would you chose Chicago where the gun sells for $1,000, or an pro gun city where the guns sells for $300. The anti gun laws, which have failed miserably, drive the prices up, thus the demand goes up. The mayor of Chicago is the problem not the solution.

    • You keep beating that UBC and SS Drum, while totally ignoring the fact that States that have UBC and SS Laws on their books, still see significantly more crime committed with guns.
      Ignoring the facts, and cherry picking debunked studies is your MO.

    • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. There is no “bribery” by the NRA. There doesn’t need to be. You see Americans, of which it is clear you are not one, enjoy the right to bear arms for recreation, hunting, and self defense. You anti-gun radical freaks are a really small minority. The way you make it look like you are a “majority” is by wording polls to elicit the answer that make you look like the majority. You try to make yourselves look “reasonable” when in fact it is really all about control.

  20. ZERO Fs given to anyone in that craphole. YOU voted for a craphole, now live and die in it. Oh yeah, please quit sending your thug boyz to Arizona. They won’t last long.

  21. You get what you ask for and then cry about it til next time and then you ask for MORE of the same thing… I want to know who the hell thought “twinkletoes” would be the best successor to Mr. “no wasted crisis”?

    • organized crime beats the hell out of disorganized crime every time….I can remember walking down down a dark alley without a care in the world because I was patronizing “protected” businesses….whatever else you choose to call it…we had order…which seems preferable to the chaos we’re currently experiencing…..

  23. Funny how crime seems to run rampant in the Dem. controlled cities. Even those in otherwise red states. And the usual whine about guns etc. when the real problem is the people committing the crimes not being prosecuted or allowed to walk out of jail with no consequences for their actions.
    I honestly have little sympathy for those who complain about crime and broken society when they continue to support the same corrupt politicians who destroyed the cities in the first place.

  25. if you really want to reclaim these places…curfews and checkpoints may be necessary if people are to be able to move about safely…the homeless need to be somewhere else and the kids home after dark…that doesn’t need to be the case everywhere…just in the hellholes….

  26. I told my employer I was not going to Chicago for training… They will have to fire me before I set foot in that hell hole.

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