10 dead, 43 wounded in Chicago's bloody holiday weekend?

Three days. Ten bodies. Forty-three others injured in shootings. This was Memorial
Day weekend in Chicago, a city bloodied by a 50% increase in homicides in
2012.

Police and city officials have scurried to explain what they’re doing to fix
the problem in a city with a murder rate higher than New York City’s but with
half the population.

"It's not OK that we had 53 shootings last week, but that 53 shootings is the
same exact number of shootings that we had last year. So this is not a new
problem," said Chicago Police Supt. Garry
McCarthy at a Tuesday news conference convened to address the weekend’s
crime, according
to the Chicago Tribune.

As of Sunday, there have been at least 200 homicides from January through
May, compared with 134 during the same time in 2011, according to unofficial
police data cited by the Tribune.

For a relatively new mayor such as Rahm
Emanuel who campaigned hard on lowering crime rates, those numbers are tough
to explain away.