Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel welcomed the help of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to help stop the violence in Chicago neighborhoods. In welcoming Farrakhan's help, Emanuel said last Wednesday that he was more concerned with reducing a 40 percent surge in Chicago homicides than the Nation of Islam leader's anti-Semitic history. "People of faith have a role to play and community leaders have a role to play in helping to protect our neighborhoods and our citizens," said Emanual, the first elected Jewish mayor of the city. "You cannot get there on just one piece of an anti-crime strategy."

For the past two Mondays, Farrakhan has dispatched hundreds of "Fruit of Islam" members on patrols in city neighborhoods in Chicago's inner cities. Farrakhan ordered the show of force in response to last month's murder of 7-year-old Heaven Sutton. In just the first six months of the year, more than 250 homicides were recorded in Chicago. It is an astounding number for a city that is only a third as large as New York City, which reportedly recorded 193 murders in the same time frame.