Irony?

First up, good job by everyone over the past two months:

• Shootings in Chicago are down as the summer comes to a close, reversing a trend that dogged the city much of 2009, authorities said Friday.
  
  While homicides have been down, shootings have been a persistent problem with a few unusually bloody weekends over recent months.
  
  By July 1, the city had logged 927 shootings, 60 more than in the first half of 2008. Two months later, there had been a total of 1,335 shootings, 31 fewer than in the first eight months of 2008, police said.

This was a statistic studiously avoided in all recent crime reporting by the Department. We've been pointing out all year how shootings were up, yet never reported in the crime reduction numbers - selective reporting by the political animals that populate this city, department and media. Now that the shooting numbers are finally down, it's safe to release the numbers and take credit for them.

Then right afterward, the media reports this:

• Three people, including at least two females, were shot on a Woodlawn porch early Friday on the South Side.

  Emergency crews responded about 1 a.m. to a reported shooting at 6315 S. Eberhart Ave. and found two females were shot, according to preliminary police information.

• Two men were seriously injured after they were shot while sitting on a porch in the Englewood neighborhood Friday morning.
  

Five more shot in the span of a few hours. It's almost as if the shooters were waiting for the CPD press release touting the reduction in shootings before lighting up the south side again. The only bragging that ought to be done is (A) by the doctors and medical personnel saving the lives of these mutts and (B) by the Department on 01 January 2010 when the final tally is up and everyone can see what's up and what's down. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking just a wee bit foolish in the face of a bad weekend.