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Grim, grim, grim....

Whilst the world watches with a mixture of bemusement, amazement and utter concern the US presidential election campaign presently underway - President Trump heaven forbid! - the random shootings in America's streets continues unabated.     Chicago, the worst city for senseless killings, has just passed a milestone.     Grim!.....and one has to continue to wonder why the Americans don't do something - anything - to stop, or least reduce, this carnage.

"After an especially deadly weekend, Chicago’s spiraling violence passed a grim new milestone: more than 600 murders so far this year, up 45% from the same period last year and a level that hasn’t been seen in more than a decade.

Eighteen people were murdered from Friday through Sunday, bringing total homicides this year to 614, according to the official police tally. The last time annual murders topped 600 was in 2003.

The murders have far outstripped the totals in some other large cities this year, with more homicides than in New York and Los Angeles combined despite Chicago’s much smaller population. Along with cities such as Baltimore and Houston, Chicago is driving a surge in the national murder rate, which is projected to rise 31.5% this year from 2014.

While both 2003 and this year were chaotic and trying for many in the Chicago neighborhoods affected, community involvement in 2003 was relatively strong, helping police solve 51% of the murders that year."

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