February Slayings Drop

Down to 14 as compared to last year's 29:

• After a violent start to the year for Chicago, the number of homicides plummeted in February to a level not seen in more than a decade, police statistics show.
  
  By Thursday evening, with just hours left in the month, 14 homicides had been logged in Chicago, down from 29 in February 2012 and less than a third of the 43 killings in January.
  
  A Tribune analysis of department statistics since 2002 showed that the previous low for a February came in 2006, when the city recorded 17 homicides. Over the past 11 years, the month has averaged just under 25 homicides, the analysis showed. A month-by-month breakdown for years before 2002 was not available Thursday

And they finally interview someone with a brain:

• The up-and-down numbers could be due to a variety of factors, including bad weather, an increase in officers on the streets and the worldwide attention given to Chicago's epidemic of gun violence after the slaying of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, Arthur Lurigio, a Loyola University criminologist, said Thursday.
  
  "Statistics fluctuate for a variety of reasons, but for us to be confident of crime reductions, they have to take place over the course of years," Lurigio said.

Exactly. January had the largest total in a decade. February was the lowest in 11 years. Trends are measured over the years, not month to month.

The snow and cold have been more severe this February. Rahmen Noodles and Mc501 are putting 400 extra cops on the street daily at time-and-a-half along with stripping the taxpaying parts of the city of police protection. Let's see if someone keeps McJersey away from the cameras this weekend lest he jinx the whole thing.