Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy tells the New York Daily News that the city’s rise in homicides last year is due to political pushback against police stops and other proactive measures to curb the ongoing violence. McCarthy said the number of police stops is down by nearly 90% this year compared to last. The department no longer holds CompStat meetings to focus on crime hot spots, he said.
“We have completely flipped the script where we investigate police and not criminals,” said McCarthy, a Bronx native who served as the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of operations during the early 2000s. “And as a result, we are reaching a lawless state in this country.” Chicago police say more than 40 people were shot over the New Year’s holiday weekend. McCarthy was fired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel over criticism of his handling of the 2014 fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.