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May 17, 2008 5:10 pm US/Central
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Bringing Out Big Guns Alarms Civil Rights Groups
Weekend Initiatives To Target Violence
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Civil rights groups are concerned about a plan by Chicago police to bring out the big guns to keep the city safe. As CBS 2's Susan Carlson reports, they fear it will only escalate violence.
Rev. Jesse Jackson says the Chicago Police Department's plans to curb violence by arming officers with M4 assault weapons may backfire.
"I think that for them to get these weapons is to escalate the kind of violence and set the stage for a shootout," Jackson said in a press conference Saturday.
His attack on the police department came one day after Supt. Jody Weis announced new initiatives to target an increase in gang activity. Murders in Chicago were up nine percent in the first four months of 2008. Weis' strategy includes heavily arming officers and deploying SWAT teams in areas prone to gang violence. But Jackson says if that happens, "the gang settlement will become more armed as well and make police and people less secure."
In fact, Jackson says the new police policy intensifies the need to outlaw those kinds of guns altogether.
"Let's fight the right fight, revive the ban on assault weapons," Jackson said.
"Why do we have AK-47's in Chicago? Why do we have automatic weapons in America? Who are we fighting? One another," Daley said.
Daley is also an outspoken critic of assault weapons, but he's defending the decision to put them in the hands of Chicago police, saying any officer armed with an M4 will be well-trained.
"They're discliplined. It's going to be used only when it's necessary," Daley said. "Because you cannot come up against people with AK-47's with your little pistol."
Jackson says he plans to meet with Weis and Daley next week, to try to get them to change their minds about allowing police to carry assault weapons.
There were 134 murders from January to April compared to 123 murders in 2007. April was an especially deadly month, with 47 murders compared to 35 last April. Eleven of the murders were classified as two triple homicides and one quintuple homicide, according to a release from police News Affairs.
Of the murder total, 51 involved people aged 17 to 25. Nine of the total murders involved those 10 to 16 years old, the release said.
In total, violent crimes, which include homicides, criminal sexual assaults, aggravated assaults and robberies, increased 6.1 percent.
There were 100 murders in which the motive was not known. Of those, the two most common motives were gang-related murders and robberies, the release said.
Seventy one percent of the murder victims had prior records compared to 68 percent in 2007, and 96 percent of the offenders had prior records compared to 85 percent in 2007, the release said.
There were also 196 aggravated batteries with a firearm in April compared to 152 in 2007, the release said.
Meanwhile, Chicago Police say they'll attempt to curb weekend violence by focusing on the deployment of specialized units, resources and equipment from certain operational bureaus, the release said.
The Bureaus of Patrol, Strategic Deployment and Investigative Services have been coordinating resources to address some of the gang conflicts and drug hot spots where police say violence has spiked, the release said.
The Bureau of Patrol will deploy its new Violence Response Teams, made up of specially trained officers to target areas of public violence. Midnight Gang, Gun and Tactical teams will also target areas and join missions with districts involved in gang conflicts, the release said.
Specialized equipment including the Bearcat, helicopters and light trucks will also be used to support ground officers for better coordination at crime scenes, the release said.
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
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