Words From McPilgrim

This has to be just about the dumbest quote ever:

• And citywide, McCarthy said, the police have seen a “decrease in the increase” in shootings this year. Through March, shootings were up 40 percent citywide over the same period the year before, and murders were up 66 percent. Through the end of June, shootings were up by 9 percent compared to 2011, and murders by 37 percent.

So they're killing each other at a slower pace? Wow. Fucking brilliant. This as we roll into something like our eighth month in a row of homicide increases.

And guess what else is on the way?

• Now, McCarthy is preparing to roll out a new tactic.

  Social scientists who have studied murder say they’ve gotten to a point where they can predict who is most likely to become a victim of homicide.

  McCarthy wants to take that further. He’s laying plans to have his officers study criminals’ social networks to identify likely killers before they kill.

Uh oh - a new strategy! Again.

Wait a minute...weren't we all banned from social networking during work hours? Now it's going to be part of our investigatory tool kit? Damn, we better set up some accounts and get to twittering.

As to running a "study" on who's likely to get killed, we're going to take a wild guess at it and say minority youth on the south and west sides, heavily involved in the dope trade, failing in school, members of gangs and with numerous citations for curfew, truancy and a bunch of contact cards on file.

Were we close?