Former Chicago top cop blames 'anti-police sentiment' for surge in violence
Chicago ended 2016 with more homicides than New York and Los Angeles combined – and the city’s former top cop is blaming the Black Lives Matter movement for contributing to the staggering tally.
Garry McCarthy, the former superintendent of the Chicago Police Dept., said protesters had created a “political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment,” helping lead to the 762 homicides recorded in the last year.
LISTEN: McCarthy sounds off on Black Lives Matter, Chicago crime surge
“So what’s happening, and this is ironic, is that a movement with the goal of saving black lives at this point is getting black lives taken, because 80 percent of our murder victims here in Chicago are male blacks,” McCarthy said on “The Cats Roundtable” radio show on Sunday.
McCarthy, who was fired in 2015 amid controversy over his handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting, said activism was “legitimizing” a belief in “non-compliance.”
The majority of the 3,550 shooting incidents in Chicago in 2016 occurred in mostly black areas and revolved around gang activity. More than 80 percent of victims in these episodes had been previously identified by cops as susceptible due to gang ties or a past arrest.