Back in 2012, the WSJ ran this op-ed based on an interview with former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton where he talked about the “certainty of punishment” as being necessary to cure gun violence:

In Chicago, where the murder rate rose 16% last year, “to try to put someone in jail for gun-related activity you really have to go the extra mile,” he says. “If there’s one crime for which there has to be a certainty of punishment, it is gun violence.” He ticks off other places where help is needed: “Oakland, Chicago, D.C., Baltimore—all have gangs whose members have no capacity for caring about life and respect for life. Someone like that? Put ’em in jail. Get ’em off the streets. Keep people safe.”

And here we are 7 years later and . . . nothing has changed in Chicago. Via Chicago Police spox Anthony Guglielmi:

Is this the Chicago you want? For $500, you could walk out of jail after being arrested for possession of this arsenal. James Mather was charged with felony gun possession & 5 misdemeanor counts of unlawful use of a weapon. @CWBChicago has the story here. https://t.co/SHkN5mEzfc pic.twitter.com/h76ptrd2nT — Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) August 16, 2019

Use a gun, go to jail. And then leave jail with only a misdemeanor charge:

How does Chicago have some of the nation’s strictest gun laws and some of the nation’s highest rates of gun crime, you ask…? https://t.co/S4BAq06F2G — Emily “Al Fredo” Zanotti (@emzanotti) August 16, 2019

And that dude wasn’t even the worst one in the article:

All of these charges are possessory offenses, unlike the guy further down in the @CWBChicago story who actually fired shots during a fight and had six felonies dropped in exchange for a guilty plea to a single misdemeanor. — Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) August 16, 2019

So, will Chicago prosecutors charge these guys with a misdemeanor, too?

Also from the 5th dist, these assault style weapons were recovered by police in the vicinity of South Peoria. People of interest are in custody for questioning. Investigation ongoing. pic.twitter.com/ybUpWvn9Ek — Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) August 11, 2019

Please do read the entire thing here from CWB Chicago. It’s eye-opening, to say the least.

***