It's only concentrated in south and west sides of the city. Poor ghetto areas. Everywhere else it's safe.
This. You'd have to try to find the violent areas, you'd never notice otherwise. Out of the 762 murders last year, only about 30 of the victims were white.
To answer the question of the OP, there's two main reasons I can think of. One is the splintering of the local gangs. Previously, there were two main factions, Folks & Peoples, akin to the Crips and the Bloods. These gangs have been broken up into dozens of little gangs that may only control one or two blocks. Allegiances and loyalty between all these gangs are unstable, and increased bloodshed is the result.
The second main reason is the corruption within the police department. The Laquan McDonald case is maybe the most notable example, but similar incidents occur multiple times a year. Coerced admissions, police brutality, wrongful convictions, falsified evidence and so on. The city has had to pay out
$662 million as restitution since 2004. Even though it's only a minority of police officers committing these wrongdoings, the end result is that the people don't trust or support the police. They are unwilling to come forth and help a police force that they view as racist and corrupt.
What is the solution? Who knows. But as long as its only poor minorities being shot & killed, I doubt we'll see much improvement any time soon.
