WHAT?  SOMETHING WORKS?  – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:  A piece in today's New York Post blows up much of the agonizing discussion about violence and how to deal with it in big cities.  It shows, also, the contrast between New York and Chicago.

The murder rate in Chicago is more than three times what it is in New York.  In Chicago they have a mayor who blames the gun manufacturers.  In New York we have a police commissioner who actually blames the criminals.  And when a problem grows in New York, action is taken.  It isn't a perfect situation by any means, but the police work with the district attorneys to make sure that the maximum number of criminals are convicted and actually sentenced, a revolutionary, apparently unacceptable concept in Chicago.  From the Post:

The city’s murder rate, which hit an all-time low last year, continues to plummet thanks to creative new police strategies that target youth gangs and spouse beaters.

The innovative tactics helped send the city’s homicide numbers tumbling to a record-low 414 murders in 2012 and they’re down another 33 percent so far this year, police said.

One novel approach involves charging teen gang members with conspiracy, using taunts and threats they post on social-media sites to build mafia-style cases against them.

These small crews of trigger-happy thugs are responsible for 30 percent of all the shootings in the city, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told The Post.

“For the last couple years, we’ve seen the emergence of younger males committing crimes in small geographic areas — turf,” he said.

“My idea, the Crew Cut concept, focuses on this directly, and we’re addressing it with the gang unit, patrol and SNU [street narcotics units] in the precincts that need it most in each borough,” he said.

The new units — dubbed SETs for Strategy Enforcement Teams — operate in eight precincts in all five boroughs.

Kelly also revealed he’s doubling the gang division’s strength, from 150 to 300 officers.

COMMENT:  Crime can be fought.  New York got a life-saving breather when it elected Rudy Giuliani in 1993, paving the way for a true, effective war on criminal activity.  New York became, and remains, one of the safest cities in the country.  And yet, please note how the mainstream media studiously avoids any real discussion about the contrast between New York and Chicago.  President Obama and his crowd never mention New York's success.  That would mean giving credit to a conservative mayor and to police officials who believe that their job is to keep the streets free of crime. 

We're pleased to see New York once again turn to innovative tactics.  Much credit belongs to Commissioner Ray Kelly.  But the leftist knives are out for him.  He's been too successful.  Gotta stop that man.

February 24, 2013