I conclude my debate with a man I am calling Ferdinand Yocum as we debate whether President Donald Trump is justified in sending in the National Guard into Chicago to try to quell the violence. Ferdinand says no. I say yes. Again, my designation uses the initials AN.
AN: You wrote: “As to this increase in crime, from AI: Chicago experienced a 32% year- to-date drop in homicides through July 2025, with 240 homicides recorded, putting it on track for its lowest total in six years, alongside significant decreases in overall violent crime (-21.6%) and shootings (-37%).”
My reply: I still say it’s horrendous. I have no misgivings whatsoever about the stats you cited which show a decrease in violent crime and homicides compared to the recent past. But let me explain why I find your reasoning unpersuasive.
The way you are using stats is somewhat like saying: “Hey! Good news, everyone! My obese son, who weighed 615 pounds last year now weighs only 575 pounds! Isn’t that fantastic?!”
OK, so your fictitious son lost 40 pounds. Yes, that is moving in the right direction. But you seem to be forgetting HE STILL WEIGHS 575 POUNDS! His heart may explode any moment now. He is begging for his liver to implode. He is putting enormous stress on his skeletal system. He is STILL a walking disaster!
Since you quoted several statistics about crime in Chicago, and since you wrote “simply because someone [Ara] says crime is horrendous doesn’t make it so” perhaps you might be persuaded by the following statistics.
While you are 100% correct that there is an overall decline in crime in the general Chicago area, that does not tell the whole story.
From the year 2000 to the year 2016, Chicago experienced significant INCREASES in crime, with annual homicides peaking at 762 in 2016.
Starting in 2017, we started to see a downward trend as you have argued, with homicides reaching 573 homicides in 2024.
(Still, I ask you, if you were the mayor of Chicago, Ferdinand, would you be beating your chest and shouting “Look at what great work we’ve done: only 573 people got murdered this last year! Hallelujah!”?)
But let’s look deeper still.Your stats are for the overall Chicago region. What about certain very dangerous neighborhoods?
If we were to isolate the South Side of Chicago, and, . . . let’s include the West Side of Chicago, we would see a very disturbing and dark picture. Combined, those areas report a homicide rate up to about 68 TIMES HIGHER THAN THE CITY’S SAFEST NEIGHBORHOODS!
Were you aware of that?
Are you content with that?
Still think Chicago is safe?
Would you dare take a leisurely, early evening stroll in those neighborhoods?
Let’s drill down a little deeper into the South Side and West Side of Chicago.
In 2024, the most recent year for which we have complete data, these areas reported homicide rates SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER than those of many other major U.S. cities.
For instance, neighborhoods like Englewood and West Englewood had homicide rates EXCEEDING 100 per 100,000 residents, which is SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER than the national average.
Comparatively, cities such as Jackson, Mississippi, and Birmingham, Alabama, had homicide rates of 78.7 and 58.8 per 100,000 residents, respectively, in 2024. These figures indicate that certain neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West Sides experienced homicide rates MORE THAN DOUBLE those of some of the most violent cities in the U.S.
Can we go a little deeper to illustrate the nature of the problem you seem to think is not really a problem?
Let’s compare the 2024 homicide rates in certain select communities in Chicago’s South Side and West Side with those of other very dangerous U.S. cities:
Now, let’s compare the 2024 homicide rates in the following Chicago neighborhoods:
These statistics demonstrate that certain portions of Chicago are far more violent than the most dangerous communities in other parts of the country. Chicago Lawn is comparable to Detroit and Baltimore, but the other 4 Chicago communities are far worse than even New Orleans and St. Louis, two of the most dangerous areas of our entire country!
When measured on a per-capita basis, several individual Chicago neighborhoods experience homicide rates that exceed those of the most violent major U.S. cities as a whole. This is not a matter of aggregate city statistics masking local variation; it is evidence of extreme, geographically concentrated violence within specific communities.
Ferdinand, I am asking you now to be intellectually honest and tell me what you make of that?
Chicago is a dysfunctional hell hole and neither the Mayor nor the Governor have any inclination to deal with the problem. All they do is hate Donald Trump and they are willing to allow people to be murdered due to their hatred of Donald Trump.
And that, my friends, is the latest elephant in the room.
