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Take for example\u00a0Chicago<\/a>, five men were killed and at least 20 people shot over the four-day Christmas holiday weekend.\u00a0Last year, 59 people were shot over the same period, leaving 11 dead.<\/p>\n Across the United States, homicides rose about 9% last year with more than one-third of the increase concentrated in Chicago neighborhoods, according to the\u00a0Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Despite the overall deterioration of American inner cities, there was some improvement in areas such as\u00a0Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., where declines in violent crimes have been in downward trajectories since the 1990s.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Washington and Los Angeles, \u201cgang interventions and community policing,\u201d which explores ways to strengthen\u00a0the community have led to a long-term reduction in homicides. The article brings up the dreaded word gentrification, while it has worked in Washington to suppress\u00a0crime, it has certainly\u00a0not been effective in\u00a0Chicago and or Baltimore.<\/p>\n David Weisburd, a\u00a0criminologist at\u00a0George Mason University said about 1% of city streets contributes to 25% of a city\u2019s\u00a0crime, and 5% of the\u00a0streets produces half the crime. He coined the phrase the \u201claw of crime concentration.\u201d<\/p>\n In Chicago, half the violent crime came from five neighborhoods,\u00a0including West Garfield Park, exemplifying\u00a0Weisburd\u2019s\u00a0theory. In fact, crime in the area has surged to levels not seen since the \u201cdrug wars\u00a0fueled by the crack-cocaine epidemic\u201d of the 1990s.<\/p>\n As the WSJ<\/a>\u00a0adds, “violence in Chicago erupted last year, with the city recording 771 murders\u2014a 58% jump from 2015. The third largest city in the U.S. with 2.7 million people, Chicago had more murders than New York and Los Angeles combined.<\/strong>” Violent crime in Chicago is concentrated in just a handful of neighborhoods, where inequalities are wide and it\u2019s\u00a0not just in wealth.<\/p>\n WSJ interviewed Amarley Coggins who started dealing drugs aged 12. A decade later, he sits in jail for \u201cfelony drug charges and possession of a weapon\u201d.<\/p>\n Amarley Coggins remembers the first time he dealt heroin, discreetly approaching a car coming off an interstate highway and into West Garfield Park, the neighborhood where he grew up on Chicago\u2019s west side. He was 12 years old and had just been recruited into a gang by his older brothers and cousin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A decade later, he sits in Cook County jail, held without bail and awaiting trial on three cases, including felony drug charges and possession of a weapon. \u201cI have a lot of friends who didn\u2019t make it to 22,\u201d said Mr. Coggins, who hasn\u2019t entered a plea. \u201cI want to stay alive for my son and my family.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPeople see these empty buildings standing there, over four years on, and it is just a reminder that the city has turned their back on them,\u201d said Danton Floyd, a community member in West Garfield Park. According to police, drug dealers and residents said West Garfield Park has an abundance of drugs, as demand is surging \u201cby white suburban and rural consumers of heroin and opioids.\u201d<\/p>\n With the drug crisis surging, Chicago city officials have attempted to make strategic investments in ailing neighborhoods. Officials have begged multi-national corporations such as Whole Foods and Wal-Mart for local investment in hopes to spur economic development. The problem with neglected neighborhoods, which have had decades of little to no investment, is that death and despair are hard to change overnight.<\/p>\n Much of the same is happening in Baltimore, where police trust is eroding post the Ferguson effect (2014). The city of 615,000 has just hit a 100-year low in total population, along with a three-year surge in violent crime fueled by opioids. While Chicago seems dangerous, Baltimore has the highest homicide rate in the United States, on par with Venezuela (See: Baltimore Murder Rate Surges Again In 2017 (Now Tied With Venezuela).<\/p>\n \u201cBaltimore City has a lot of people walking around that have committed homicides and shootings,\u201d said former deputy police commissioner, Tony Barksdale. Meanwhile community leaders and former police members warn that police have disbanded proactive operations to combat crime since the April 2015 riots:<\/p>\n Some community leaders and former police officials say police have pulled back from a more proactive approach on the street since April 2015, when riots erupted after Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died from a broken neck he sustained in a police van. Officers had chased Mr. Gray from North and Pennsylvania, a known drug corner, and arrested him for allegedly possessing an illegal knife.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A police department spokesman said foot patrols have increased because now officers are mandated to walk through neighborhoods in the first months of field training, which wasn\u2019t the case a few years ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, in charge since July 2015, also said violent criminals feel emboldened. He said judges too often give offenders who use guns suspended prison sentences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou look at Baltimore\u2019s crime numbers, that\u2019s criminals taking advantage of weakness<\/strong>,\u201d Mr. Barksdale said. He further said:\u00a0\u201cI am against mass arrests, but you still need arrests.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n JPMorgan Chase funds the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative at CFED, and warns an astronomical amount of Baltimore citizens have a net worth of zero; the racial divide and wealth inequality is among the highest in the country, contributing to high levels of violent crime.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/user5\/imageroot\/2017\/12\/23\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-26-at-9.17.55-AM_0_0.png\")
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\nAccording to the\u00a0WSJ<\/a>, soaring homicides in\u00a0Chicago and Baltimore share wide wealth inequality rates, de-industrialization, depleted residential real estate, and a reduction of police officers following the Ferguson effect in 2014. Nevertheless, the opioid crisis is fueling much of this death and despair in the inner cities, trapping the younger generations into a perpetual world of crime.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/stockboardasset.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2017-12-26_09-52-46.gif\")
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