Jim Young/Reuters
The year of seemingly unending violence in Chicago continued this week as the city’s tally for homicides in exceeded 700 for the first time in nearly two decades. Two men in their twenties were shot and killed Wednesday, in two separate incidents, putting the Windy City over its latest morbid milestone. As the Chicago Tribune reported Friday, “The 701 homicides through Wednesday marked a nearly 56 percent jump from the 450 killings a year earlier. With one month still to go, that represents the most homicides since 704 in 1998. There were 761 homicides in 1997.” Police officials have blamed the uptick in violence on the flow of illegal firearms into the city, the splintering of highly structured gangs, and heightened scrutiny of and restrictions placed upon police officers in the wake of video showing cops gunning down Laquan McDonald last year.