'Enough Is Enough': Chicago Mayor After 14 Shot in 15 Hours

Rahm Emanuel notes 'anguish' of city, calls for stricter penalties for gun crimes
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 29, 2015 4:23 PM CDT
'Enough Is Enough': Chicago Mayor After 14 Shot in 15 Hours
In this July 1, 2015, file photo, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at a news conference in Chicago.   (AP Photo/Christian K. Lee, File)

Fourteen people were shot over a 15-hour period in Chicago starting Monday evening, with six of those people succumbing to their injuries, the Chicago Tribune reports. Of the eight wounded, one was an 11-month-old and one was a 2-year-old; among those killed were a pregnant mother, a grandmother, and the mother of a 4-year-old. Ten of the victims were gunned down at two locations just a few miles apart on the South Side, the paper notes. "Wherever you live, you should be able to get out of your car and go to your home," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said while addressing the shootings at the opening of a revamped Red Line CTA station, adding that he was angry: "Enough is enough."

These shootings weren't, unfortunately, an anomaly: The Tribune ran the numbers and reports that more than 2,300 people have been shot so far in the city in 2015, about 400 more than at this time last year; the homicide rate has jumped 21% from 2014. The past two weekends have been particularly bloody, with more than 50 people being shot. Emanuel also took the opportunity at the station opening to call once more for making all Chicago communities safe, as well as for stricter punishments for gun crimes. "You can say this happened in the neighborhood of the Back of the Yards, but everybody [who] woke up this morning, or heard it last night, felt a pain of anguish," he said. "It's time that our criminal justice system and the laws as it relates to access to guns and the penalties for using [them] reflect the values of the people of the city of Chicago." (An army of moms set up shop on Chicago corners to keep neighborhood streets safe.)

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