I just saw this article on Drudge.
So, having armed police in bad neighbourhoods has helped the Chicago homicide rate fall by 34%. That's not an insignificant number.
So, good guys with guns (police) help the crime level fall.
That seems to be easy enough to understand and follow. So much for gun control arguments.
But I have a serious question.
If the city is blowing all of it's police budget on overtime, why couldn't-or why shouldn't policing in Chicago be considered an essential service that operates on any shift during a 24 hour period? Why is there overtime? If you work another shift, you get paid for another shift-if you work a couple of hours beyond a regular shift, then you get those couple of hours-but not at an overtime rate.
I imagine this would be a very tough thing to negotiate, but it's a secure enough job that there are lots of people who would undertake that kind of employment under those kinds of conditions.
However, it is Chicago-thug union central-so I could just be dreaming.