Ousted Chicago U.S. attorney leaves open letter behind about violent crime

By Andrew Shepperson

Former Chicago U.S. Attorney Zach Fardon speaks at a July press conference (Photo: Chicago Sun-Times)
Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Zach Fardon left an open letter behind after tendering his resignation Monday, highlighting key violent crime issues in Chicago and offering honest suggestions on how to fix them.
Fardon describes a city “on fire” after the release of a video showing then 17-year-old Laquan MacDonald being shot to death by a Chicago Police officer. That shooting then led to the firing of CPD Superintendent Garry McCarthy, a DOJ investigation into the police department, and a police force hesitant to make as many stops on city streets.
“So cops stopped making stops,” Fardon wrote. “And kids started shooting more — because they could, and because the rule of law, law enforcement, had been delegitimized. And that created an atmosphere of chaos.”
According to Fardon, there are both long term and short term reasons for the city’s gun violence problem.
Long term, the city has seen gangs entrenched in poverty stricken neighborhoods for decades, which are not going to magically disappear anytime soon.
Short term, the 2016 spike in violence can be seen as directly related to the destabilization of the police force and civil unrest caused by

Source: Guns.com