What's Down Now?

Is crime down? Or is it "crime scenes" down? Because it seems like multiple people shot was the norm this holiday weekend. Here's two more incidents resulting in seven more wounded:

• Three woman were injured after being shot by a man wielding a shotgun in the South Chicago neighborhood, police said.

  The shooting happened at about 6 p.m. on the 9300 block of South Jeffrey Boulevard, police said.

  The victims included a 66-year-old woman, a 63-year-old woman and a 49-year-old woman, police said.

• Four teenage boys were shot and wounded as they sat on a porch in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side, officials said.
  
  A gunman walked up to the teens in the 7200 block of South Evans Avenue shortly before 3 p.m. and opened fire, according to a Fire Department spokesman. The teens range from 14 to 16, he said.

And that lovely Hyde Park neighborhood, you know, where President Sparklefarts matriculated from? They're seeing a sudden upsurge in "crime reduction" lately:

• The University of Chicago is warning students about two robberies Sunday night near the campus where students were robbed at gunpoint of their cell phones and a laptop computer.
  
  The first robbery occurred as two students walked along 57th Street near Dorchester Avenue at about 11:35 p.m., the school
  
  They were approached from behind by a man holding a revolver, campus police said. The robber took the students' cell phones and fled north on Dorchester Avenue.
  
  About 30 minutes later, another student was approached from behind by a group of three males while sitting in the main quadrangle near 57th Street and Ellis Avenue, police said. One of the males pulled out a gun and the group took the students' cell phone, a laptop computer and book bag, police said.

Mysteriously absent is a description of any of the offenders that might alert students to be aware of suspicious characters when traversing the neighborhood at night. And thank goodness the U of C Police Department is being run by a former CPD exempt who has his hands on the pulse of the neighborhood and swears the culprits will be caught and thrashed in short order.

And speaking of former CPD people:

• The embattled police chief of Country Club Hills is resigning after a series of controversies, including an attorney general suit to recover nearly $1 million in job-training grants.
  
  Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch said the south suburb's lawyers are working on paperwork to make the resignation of Chief Regina Evans official this week. The former Chicago police lieutenant was hired in 2009 and has been on disability leave since August
  
  The Tribune reported last month that the Illinois attorney general is suing a nonprofit run by Evans that secured a $1.25 million job-training grant to help restore a historic theater on Chicago's South Side.
  
  The lawsuit accuses We Are Our Brothers Keeper of using the grant money to rent space from the theater — which Evans also owned — for $12,000 a month, violating a conflict-of-interest rule.

Is it just us or is the entire northeastern sector of Illinois imploding?