As you may have heard, there is talk from the White House about sending military to Chicago, Illinois.
The overall notion by the U.S. administration seems to be, that the crime in Chicago is generally to be attributed to undocumented immigrants, and that by deporting them, it will solve everything.
Looking at the crime numbers for Chicago, compared to Berlin in Europe, it does seem quite high. I.e. homicide rate, in Berlin, it is less than 10%, of what Chicago has. Two aspects strike me as quite relevant about this though:
First, the general prevalence of firearms in the United States of America. Back in the days, being all alone with the family-clan on a ranch somewhere, it sure sense, wanting to be able to protect oneself, in case Billy the Kid, or any of them infamous gangsters of the first days, showed up.
These days, kids grow up with constant pictures of destruction, such as from television, and with romanticized tales about the them tough guys, such as Billy, and then they get access to a gun. That doesn’t seem to be a good combination anywhere in the U.S. – In example, see Houston, where there are also hundreds of homicides per year, and e.g. biker gangs.
Secondly, while cartels sure seem to have a presence in the United States, from what I have read, many of the gangs are homebrew. Especially in Chicago, a number of the gangs go back to the 1950s – and their recruits, pretty much U.S. citizen, are simply from poor neighborhoods, who had barely job prospects, and it wasn’t until 1968 that all forms of segregation had been declared unconstitutional. And by estimates, there are more than 100,000 gang members in Chicago these days.
And to me personally, it would seem to make sense for actual politics to happen, for youth to not even end up joining a gang, and for there to be more professional detectives.
So, ICE may rake up their target numbers a bit from Chicago, even though the people it affects may be even mostly cases such as a single mother with child from Mexico, just looking for a better future for their child, who gets deported to some cartel territory.
But in regards to actual criminal cases, I find it to be very doubtful, that it will improve anything with Mr Hegseth going in with the Department of War, with statements about a “white deadly army”, which is supposed to be even more efficient at killing, due to some notion of “Clone army has no diversity, and therefore is strongest.” apparently.
And with it being mostly U.S. citizen there, with them guns, I would say, that it could become an actual warfare situation, as the White House makes it out to be. As in, the gangs sure may lay low for a bit, and not start out digging trenches, to defend the city. But if the troops are by now mostly the guys, who are in it, to establish ‘white dominance’ and such stuff, I wouldn’t be surprised if things flare up quite quickly after an incident, involving such a American Neonazi in uniform, with a gun he can’t wait to pull the trigger on. Hopefully, that won’t the be the case though.