By: Matt Rosenberg
Coming home from a long night of driving Uber, John Gurney got carjacked near 24th and Western. Just about to park his car, he was blockaded by another vehicle and found a .357 Magnum pointed right at his face. Weekdays, the master’s grad of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business works in finance. But Gurney hustles for extra cash as a ride-share driver because of ongoing family medical expenses not fully covered by health insurance.
His jarring experience as a carjacking victim helps to put a face on a vexing violent crime problem that has worsened dramatically in recent years and continues at a near-record pace well into 2022. Until local politicians decide they’re willing to spend their political capital on a hard line against crime, carjackings and other violent felonies in Chicago will continue almost at will.
We recently talked to Gurney about Chicago’s epidemic of street “takeovers” for stunt driving, or “drifting,” gatherings which too often turn violent. He stresses that Chicago’s streets are crucial infrastructure that must remain usable 24-7 so that commerce and emergency vehicles can flow unimpeded. He says Chicago’s political leaders need to step up with serious and specific deterrent measures to keep the streets for their intended use.
Growing street takeovers are a bad sign, says Gurney; but getting carjacked while on the job driving Uber was another defining – and deeply dismaying – Chicago moment.
Here’s how it happened. On 24th Street, “at the very first alley there was a car with four young guys with hoodies and masks, blocking the street. No way around them. I saw one of the guys starting to come at me with a big .357 aiming right at my face, saying, ‘Get out of the car! Get out of the car!’ And then the other three got out and flanked me on the side. There was nothing I could do, it was over so fast.”
Gurney adds, “Of course they went in my pockets. Took my phone, took my cards, they took everything. They also for good measure mugged a day laborer who happened to be on the sidewalk, at gunpoint. Took his wallet, his phone.”
That revolving door, again.
Talking to detectives about his case, and tracking news reports, Gurney says he learned two striking things. First, the juvenile who pointed a gun at him to initiate the armed hijacking of his vehicle had cycled through Cook County Courts several times already on carjacking charges. Second, Chicago carjacking sprees are often a way of harvesting vehicles to use in other crimes like drive-by shootings, and armed robberies. In other instances carjacked vehicles may be stripped for parts including valuable catalytic converters. Or they’re taken by force for joyriding and social media bragging rights.
It turned out that according to what police later told Gurney, his carjacking was part of a spree of 17 violent crimes – mostly armed robberies – by the same crew. Gurney says Chicago Police detectives told him that one of the crew, the one who reached into Gurney’s pockets, would be dead an hour later after crashing another carjacked vehicle into a light pole at 90 miles per hour.
The crime news site CWB Chicago reported on this same crew’s one-night spree of 15 armed robberies and a carjacking on the North Side and downtown, before they came south to Pilsen to carjack Gurney and rob the adjacent day laborer on the sidewalk.
Growth in carjackings are part of Chicago’s “Great Unravelling”
Chicago’s ongoing carjacking wave doesn’t come from out of the blue. It’s part of a broader breakdown in public safety in Chicago. Chicago data paints a stark backdrop because carjacking and a series of related crimes have rocketed compared to 2019, before Covid and George Floyd. The Great Unraveling continued even after Covid and related restrictions eased markedly in mid-2021. As a result, the lawless atmosphere on the city’s streets is now felt widely and reflected in a recent Harris Poll.
Gurney’s carjacking happened last year, when Chicago set a new 21-year record with 1,848 carjackings. This year – at the current run rate based on data through October 26 – is set to end with 1,807 carjackings. That would be the second highest Chicago total since 2001 and once again, roughly triple 2019’s total.
So far this year 75 percent of Chicago carjackings have been “aggravated.” That means either involving a weapon, or an elderly or young victim. If that rate holds by year’s end it would be the highest since 2001. 
A Chicago carjacking arrest rate of less than 7 percent.
This year’s carjacking arrest rate in Chicago through October 26 is 6.7 percent. That’s lower than any year in the city’s database extending back to 2001 except 2000’s 5.3 percent. And it tracks with the overall arrest rate for violent crimes in Chicago, which last year was a shockingly low 6 percent.
The city’s 12th Police District on the near Southwest Side, including the Pilsen community, is a mix of working class and gentrifier Chicagoans. It is also one of the city’s current carjacking hot spots. Only the 11th District on Chicago’s high-crime West Side exceeded the 12th in reported carjackings last year and again this year-to-date.
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Meanwhile, the crimes now often tied to carjacking are also rising in Chicago. Robberies have climbed 10 percent so far this year citywide versus the same span in 2019. Similarly, motor vehicle thefts are up 110 percent from 2019; shooting incidents are 34 percent greater; and murders up 33 percent.
Who can flip this rotten script?
Chicago needs leaders who will limit the exodus of police and reverse their plummeting morale. Chicago needs a county court system that doesn’t favor criminals and dangerous pretrial defendants over the law-abiding.
The question is: who has the capability to build an alliance with Cook County’s courts and prosecutors, and with the city’s voters, to flip this rotten script.
Read more from Wirepoints:
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Less than 10% of Carjacking perpetrators are arrested…Unbelievable incompetence…Where’s Gov. Pritzker???
Key passage:
This year’s carjacking arrest rate in Chicago through October 26 is 6.7 percent. That’s lower than any year in the city’s database extending back to 2001 except 2000’s 5.3 percent. And it tracks with the overall arrest rate for violent crimes in Chicago, which last year was a shockingly low 6 percent.
I am angry and wary. I seldom venture into Chicago. I have a CCP. This is little consolation because of the tactics used by these street thugs. These thugs steal, threaten and murder because there are no practical consequences. Companies and people are leaving the city in droves. The trend cannot be reversed until the citizens of Chicago can finally understand that their votes have consequences. Note to the citizens of Chicago: Screw what the politicians are saying to you about “things are not so bad” and use what your eyes and ears are telling you and then ask yourself… Read more »
What terrifying times we live in and this article paints the picture. I once lived in Chicago and in the area mentioned which was safe to live in then. Chicago’s only hope is Darren Bailey as governor and Raymond Lopez or Chuy Garia as mayor even though they’re Democrats. I believe they aren’t afraid and will clamp down on the lawlessness unless a better candidate throws their hat in the ring.
Victims of crime in Chicago are the least cared about group in the City. All one has to do is look at that STUPIDLY NAME SAFE-T ACT- TO SEE THAT. It’s all about protecting those Violent Thugs and not the thousands of innocent victims in Cook and Chicago. It’s safe for them and. screw their victims. Chicago has sunk into an abyss led by Political idiots.
Maybe when Biden and Harris are here with chuckles the clown O’Bama and the great bloviator Pritzker some novice can ask them what they are doing to lower crime. Sure. Crickets. In the meantime they will attempt to scare people about ‘democracy’ in an election.
Aha!!
From the article: “ The question is: who has the capability to build an alliance with Cook County’s courts and prosecutors, and with the city’s voters, to flip this rotten script. ”
Truly, the million dollar question. I couldn’t have asked a better question.
How many more must die? Do the politicians in Chicago even care?
I carry. BUT… what if they get the “drop” on me? I’d like to wear kevlar. And why is THAT illegal now in Chicago? Because politicos think the criminals won’t wear it now that it’s illegal? We do the best we can to protect ourselves but how do we send any sort of message to the thugs? They got the “message” from Kim Foxx; that being “it’s open season on civilians with little chance of prosecution.” Sometimes these thugs shoot you no matter what you do, even if you comply. But WBBM on Facebook put out an article suggesting that… Read more »
If the powers that be wanted to create a climate of unraveling, what would they do differently? This is well past the realm of misguided policy or wokeism or even incompetence. It’s intent. It has to be. Nothing else makes sense. When ideas whose outcomes are known to be lousy are undertaken anyway, then the logical conclusion is that lousy outcome are the goal.
As I have been saying for years since Pritzker Obama’s puppet got voted in that now the goal is for the Black man to bring the White man down to his knees by any means. It’s by design Black Caucus ruling Springfield, Tim Evans, KWAME, Foxx, Lightfoot driving the destruction. This is the Obama playbook for the entire country.
Graduate of UC Booth School of Business but needs to side hustle driving on crime ridden Chicago Streets? Not a ringing endorsement for paying for a UC education.
Hey STINKY-stop walloping the victims. Get some anger up for the Thugs that have turned the City streets into frightening cash. business.
As mentioned in the article, he is also hustling to help pay ongoing family medical expenses not covered by health insurance. Not mentioned, he’s also working on a political novel set in Chicago. I drove a limo and then a Yellow Cab back in the day. You learn a lot, about a lot.
Stop whining snowflake.
This is shocking, sickening, and sad. I just don’t understand the mind set of these perps. You mentioned in the article they post on social media? Huh? What? Do they earn a badass badge? In the last few days some politicians have sent out a message stating that crime isn’t bad. That it is being promoted to scare people. Well I see, I hear, and I read. I can’t ignore the numbers. Of course Chicago has a mayor who’s auditioning for a talent show. Karaoke? Seriously? I loved my city. I had pride from where I came. I am now… Read more »
How do Chicago business leaders tolerate this complete breakdown of law and order? Why isn’t there a group of leaders with “clout” marching into the mayor’s office demanding action? Why aren’t wealthy businessmen and women slating candidates for mayor and council willing to put law, order and safety on the ballot? What are members of the Chicago Club, the wealthy powerful elites who supposedly “run Chicago” doing? How can a once world class city devolve into a violent hellhole so easily without anyone willing to stand up and lead? Hello? Anybody there???
My grandfather and father were both members of the Chicago Club. With regard to my father, who just passed away, I can tell you what he did – nothing. Likely a conservative at heart, he supported Democratic politicians because he found it expedient. And he certainly did not want to be called a racist, the great fear of the Chicago Club types. To mention crime – which was increasing even in his Gold Coast neighborhood with carjackings down the block from the Racquet Club (another place he belonged) – was to invite allegations of racism. Majority owner of a global… Read more »
No one records Chicago’s sad descent into chaos, crime and anarchy like Matt Rosenberg. In Lightfoot’s Chicago, law abiding citizens are prevented from their right of self defense as criminals run roughshod throughout the city. It’s time for freedom loving, law abiding Chicagoans to take a stand!
This sad state of affairs, makes me long for the good old days. Years ago, when some lowlifes were going to use a vehicle to commit a crime, they typically would steal the license plate of someone. Usually some senior citizen, out for their weekly grocery shopping, wouldn’t realize their plate was missing for days. Now we have illiterate teenagers, raised on Grand Theft Auto, with stolen guns, and no conscience, no parental guidance, no morals, vicimizing the hard working. Less than 7% of these crimes solved. Doesn’t seem like any deterrence if caught anyway, with the revolving door courts.… Read more »
When you don’t support Police, cheerlead laws to protect criminals and turn a blind eye to crime, this is what you get. Unfortunately too many people in Illinois are dedicated to voting for it.
Until Chicagoans start to conceal-carry and shot criminals daily in self-defense they will continue to be at the mercy of gang bangers and lawless politicians. It seems Illinois has put out the welcome mat for all criminals.
We are perhaps at a point-of-no-return…the tail is already wagging the dog. Society at large is being victimized by crime of all kinds — car jackings are only one example — the road back to having a safe living environment seems already to be out of reach…this laxity of response to crimes of all sorts is like letting the genie out of the bottle, or opening pandora’s box. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle…but if it were possible, it would require a wholesale change from top to bottom in places like Chicago and Illinois…law enforcement Governor, law… Read more »
Until carjackers start doing serious time this serious crime will continue. Seriously, the take from a bank robbery is usually less than the cost of an average car but bank robbers are caught more, convicted more, and spend more time in prison than murderers let alone car jackers.
This shows that Dems are not really here for you and is another reason for the 2nd Amendment. Don’t leave home without it!
No dear until Chicagoans start to conceal-carry and shot criminals daily in self-defense they will continue to be at the mercy of gang bangers and lawless politicians.
Northing less than Capital Punishment, dispensed routinely, will alter the course of this trajectory, and even then given the cavalier attitude of these career reprobates/politicians it appears insurmountable in my lifetime ! My family doctor built himself a brand new home in the suburbs after many decades of serving the community. My house warming present to he and his wife… A Winchester 12 gauge ! New Heat for your new Home Doc !
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