Chicago has a homicide rate of 15.1 per 100,000. Last year we had a rate of 4.3 per 100,000. This year we're running behind schedule. Looks like we won't reach even a half of last year's total, but Chicago may have hit 20!
Yet, Chicago has one if not the strictest gun laws on the books... In fact hand guns were not legal in Chicago for the previous 28 years until July 2010, so look at the 1990 - 2009 murder rates in Chicago a time when handguns were outlawed completely and compare them to the last two years... It's easy to see that the prohibition did little to help the murder rate in the city...
My sister-in-law (who used to work for the police) took me for a drive through some of the worst places in her area. In one place she said that if we were in a police car we might expect people to take the occasional shot at us!
That is everyday for many of us here, but be aware that there is a difference between a criminal with an illegal gun and a law abiding citizen with a gun...
I used to frequent a musical venue in Detroit, the fried chicken restaurant (Brown's Chicken) across the street had the employees behind the counter enclosed in bullet resistant resistant glass, you paid by putting your money in a drop box and your food was passed to you though a larger drop box... This is a reality for many people in America, law abiding citizens that for all intents and purposes are living in a war zone but not allowed to defend themselves... BTW, the police rarely patrol those areas, as your sister said, the chance of them getting shot at is real... And sadly it's not only police, many firefighters and emergency personal also get attacked in those areas as the fire or 'inncident' was intentional and they don't want any 'help' fixing it...
Not saying it's all bad in America, as it is far from that overall, but there are a lot of isolated pockets and neighborhoods in some areas (usually big cities) that are just down right ugly places...
Some of these things are really hard for an outsider to believe, but I guess the statistics on violent crime are not made up.
No, they are not made up... There are some real screwed up places, places where your skin color alone will get you shot at for walking on the wrong side of the street... And you can go from good to bad in literally a few hundred feet of street, there are imaginary lines drawn between buildings cross it and you flip a switch... I dated this girl for a short time that lived on Chicago's South side in my early 20s... The first day I visited her parents house, her dad pulled me aside, took out a map of the area and told me to take this road and only that road in and out of the area, he advised me to ignore stop signs and only stop if absolutely necessary, and if anyone approaches the car, get the hell out of there even if it means running a red light...
Stats on other crimes are harder to compare. For example does Chicago's "aggravated assault" equate to our "assault", and should I include "domestic violence?"
Domestic violence is considered above assault (aka the worst kind of assault) in Illinois and should be included in aggravated if you are weighing it under the level of laws to some degree but possibly not 100%... Domestic is broken down into two levels, it is a misdemeanor charge for anything (even verbal) with a 2nd strike or physical contact generally being a Felony charge, Felony domestic is above aggravated assault in penalties... You lose your right to own a firearm once charged with domestic (even before being convicted), and will lose it for life if convicted of domestic violence even at the minimalist misdemeanor level... Generally misdemeanor domestic is instantly plead down to simple assault to avoid the stricter penalties...
Gee, I hope Chicago is a bad place...
It all depends on the street, the tourist areas and upscale neighborhoods are wonderful if you like city life, and I generally don't hesitate to visit or feel threatened when in those places or on those streets... But, you won't find me walking a street outside of those areas, or spending anymore time then necessary driving through them... There is still a ton of racial segregation in Chicago neighborhoods that makes outsiders big targets and if it's a bad neighborhood and you don't have the right skin color or wear the right clothing you might as well paint a target on your back for something bad to happen to you...