Jeff Asher, Co-Founder, AH Datalytics:
Well, it’s very difficult.
First off, you don’t ever want to downplay the tragedy, downplay the horror. Even when you’re talking about dramatic declines in gun violence, dramatic declines in murder, you’re still talking about too many of these incidents, too many of these tragedies.
That said, it’s difficult for people, I think, to put these things in context, because very rarely or never do you see a story there were no shootings yesterday, there were no murders yesterday. It’s only in the presence of these tragedies that these things come to media attention.
So, the fact of the matter is, Chicago has seen, I think, a 40 percent decline in shooting victims this year compared to the same time frame last year. It’s seen a 30-something percent decline in murder. Nationwide, in cities of all sizes, we’re seeing double-digit, 20-something percent declines in murders. So we are seeing these declines occurring pretty much everywhere, including in Chicago.
But you also have something like this that comes to the public attention that very rightly so gets a lot of press and a lot of attention. It’s just very challenging, I think, to balance that with the overall big-picture trend, which is certainly far more rosy.
