To echo Cam, sometimes it’s just too easy to come up with news out of the Windy City. Regularly our own editor-in-chief will pull stories from some Chicago publications that cover crime and public safety. Honestly, talking smack about the continual systemic failures of the city is just like shooting fish in a barrel. A recent community alert from the Chicago Police Department described a string of events that aids in keeping Chaicago ranking high on the list of awful places to live.

“CPD Community Alert - 6th District - Robberies & Aggravated Vehicular Hijacking - 24-2-023B” goes into some detail on what the criminals are doing to get their crime on. From the alert:

October 27, 2024

ABOUT THE CRIME – ROBBERIES & AGGRAVATED VEHICULAR HIJACKING 

This alert gives notice of robberies which occurred in the 006th District, specifically in a small area of Beat 614. In these incidents, offenders approach victims on foot and demand property. Offenders usually display a small black firearm and demand wallets and cell phones. Offenders are also believed to be the same who have committed armed robberies involved delivery drivers as they approached a home with items and most recently ordered UBER rides and robbed driver using mace and handgun before fleeing in UBER driver's vehicle.

The alert lists off 15 robbery events that are linked to this modus operandi, dating back to July. While this string appears to have started on the 24th of July 2024, the gross majority of the events have occurred in September and October, with a week left of the month since the last reported robbery.

Chicago Police Department stated that perpetrators use both a “small black firearm” and/or mace when committing their crimes. Two stolen Uber vehicles were also recovered by CPD, that are linked to these events.

The fact that firearms are being used in these crimes is almost meaningless. As the alert noted, mace has been used as well. If we were going to be honest, perpetrators don’t need to be more heavily armed than their victims. They just need to be able to overpower them.

For the crimes involving offenders approaching on foot, they have the pick of the litter on who they wish to victimize.

A more troubling trend – not only in Chicago – of ordering food and/or rideshare, then robbing the driver upon arrival, has become more prevalent. 

How does the Chicago Police Department say potential victims of crime should handle such situations?

• Always be aware of your surroundings
• Immediately report suspicious activity
• If you are confronted by an assailant remain calm
• Remember any unique physical characteristics (scars, limp, acne, teeth, etc.)
• Never pursue a fleeing assailant, provide the information to the police
• If approached by a witness to the incident, request their contact information
• Immediately dial 9-1-1 and remain on the scene when possible
• Check any video surveillance for incidents and report any helpful footage

As with every notification from the Chicago Police Department, there’s something noticeably absent. The police don’t advocate for victim empowerment by encouraging the practice of lawfully arming oneself.

Telling people to “be aware of [their] surroundings” is great and all, but there’s really so much more that CPD could be doing to help enable that. There’s no lack of curriculum out there that teaches and preaches situational awareness, and as a starter, they could propose folks engage in some entry level basic safety/self-defense/situational awareness training.

I’ll take it a step further and say the City of Chicago should offer such classes like this free of charge to affected communities. Afterall, it's their failures that allow such crime to persist.

Finally, the CPD could talk about the elephant in the room, which is that if they had a responsibly and legally armed populace that would defend themselves, a lot of these antics would stop. How many incidents of an armed citizen stopping such criminals via the use of a firearm would it take for the criminals to get the hint?

It’s doubtful that Chicago will ever take any advice from us pundits here at Bearing Arms, but that shouldn’t stop us from continually pointing towards their failures. Beyond that, programs like Operation Ceasefire, which are known to have stalled and reversed crime epidemics are also discussed here. There are options and unfortunately they opt for the easiest, inaction.

We can’t exactly expect these progressive strongholds to actually want to solve the violence problem – otherwise they’d be out of a job and no longer have that blue chip in their pile of empty promises.