During the lengthened Memorial Day weekend, Chicago police responded to 42 people shot, seven of whom died of their injuries.
The violence was slightly above average for this time of year, according to homicide data indexed by the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters on Monday that the surge in violent crime over the weekend “is just an unacceptable state of affairs.”
“I certainly knew that before, but to see it graphically depicted is quite shocking and says that we’ve got a long way to go as a city,” she said. “This is not a law enforcement-only challenge. It’s a challenge for all of us in city government. It’s a challenge for us in communities to dig down deeper and ask ourselves what we can do to step up to stem the violence.“
Lightfoot stressed that gun violence is not how residents should resolve disputes. “For those who think it is, we can give them no quarter, they can have no sanctuary in our city,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure we flood these areas with a lot more resources.” – READ MORE