Expressway shootings in Chicago are surging, with two on the same day last week, bringing the total to 137 just so far this year. There were 52 in all of 2019 and 128 in 2020.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-expressway-shootings-surge#&_intcmp=hp1bt1

Of course, the roadways aren’t the only dangerous places to be in Chicago. Over the weekend, 70 people were shot and 12 killed. Last weekend, 56 were shot and 11 killed. The details are here, and they're heartbreaking.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-expressway-shootings-surge#&_intcmp=hp1bt1

The state police got a $12.5 million state grant in February for automated license plate readers, software and specialized cameras to help fight the expressway shootings, but they haven’t been installed yet. Meanwhile, Democrats like President Biden continue to blame the problem on gun dealers who don’t run background checks, as if criminals buy their guns from legal gun dealers. Or maybe the guns just go around firing themselves.

Or maybe, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot suggested, it’s all due to racism and is Trump’s fault. That’s why she rejected his offer of federal troops to help, but is now begging Biden for them. I guess she assumed the shooting victims prior to January 20, 2021, would rather have been shot than accept Trump's help.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/07/09/hypocrite-after-rejecting-help-from-trump-lightfoot-asks-biden-to-send-federal-troops-to-chicago-n1460609

If you’d like to read about all the “nuances” of the argument over why Chicago is so bloody and whether it’s due to the “defund the police” movement (Mayor Lightfoot has proposed cutting nearly $59 million from the police budget), here’s everything you might ever want to know from NBC News:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-crime-complicated-truth-behind-defund-police-efforts-n1231381

On the other hand, since Democrats always insist we have to get to the “root cause” of crime, okay, here’s your root ball: thanks to the city’s leadership driving cops to quit, they’re now outnumbered up to 10-1 by gang members. Gangs commit about two-thirds of all the murders in Chicago, and thanks to the corrupt city government, gang leaders enjoy a great deal of protection from the police.

https://lettersfromflyovercountry.com/urban-criminal-gangs-in-the-civil-war-to-come-210/

And this all grows out of one big root: Chicago’s last Republican Mayor left office in 1931.