Memorial Day weekend proved even bloodier than last year in Chicago.
At least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded in shootings across the city since midnight Friday, police told WLS. Last year, over the entire weekend of the unofficial start of summer, seven people were killed and 45 others were hurt.
The victims, WLS reported, include China Marie Lyons-Upshaw, who was shot in the chest while playing with a gun; Bobbieana Lyons, 20, a young mother shot and killed on her doorstep while celebrating her 2-year-old’s birthday; and a 31-year-old man shot twice in the chest and once in the head after he got into a fight with another man.
To try and reduce the grim statistics, police had been trying to curb gun violence by employing 1,300 extra officers on patrol with help from state and federal partners.
The crimes come days after President Donald Trump tweeted about how Chicago police are unable to properly do their jobs because of the city’s bureaucracy.
“The killings are at a record pace and tough police work, which Chicago will not allow, would bring things back to order fast … the killings must stop!” Trump tweeted.
As Fox News previously reported, Trump’s comment came after “Blue Wednesday” in Chicago, during which members of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police showed up at a City Council meeting to address their grievances against Mayor Rahm Emanuel. They claim that Emanuel, who is in the middle of an election as he runs for his third term as mayor, has “turned his back” on them.
During the meeting, members accused Emanuel of not taking their interests into consideration because of, in part, a consent decree with the federal government that’s in the works, The Chicago Tribune reported. The decree will give a federal court oversight over the Chicago Police Department.
Chicago police have argued that the decree is a shroud for even more anti-police policies.
“You are more concerned with consent decrees, settlements, pandering to police-hating groups than negotiating a contract with us,” said Patrick Murray, union vice president, according to the newspaper report. “Our members are starting to believe you have no intention of negotiating a contract with us until after the next election.”(Frank Miles | Fox News)
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/28/8-people-killed-25-wounded-in-bloody-weekend-in-chicago.html
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