Despite the headlines, that's not really the most important news. No the important news is buried in the piece.
Take a look at the picture. Look at all those black faces. Look at them.
Illegal guns. Illegal guns. Illegal guns drive violence. And military-type weapons like the one we believe to have been used in this shooting belong on a battlefield — not on a street or in a corner or in a park," McCarthy says.
Let's look at that statement. If the problem were definitively "illegal guns" then we would expect that the murder victims (via guns) would be proportionate to the populations. Whites are 45% of the population. African-Americans make up 33% of the population. Latinos (who can be any race) 29%. In a situation where all groups are
equally disposed to committing gun crimes, we would see about the same proportion of murder victims (and shottas). But the
reality is not so.
In 2011 75% of murder victims are African-American. 4.6% are white and 18% "Hispanic". In fact since 1991 the percentage of murder victims in Chicago has been near 80%. This from a population that makes up 33% of the population.
Question: Is it "Illegal guns" or something totally fucked up in our communities? Are "Illegal guns" up and jumping into the hands of African-American males and then by some kind of mind control making them point said "illegal guns" at other African-American males and pull the trigger? Are the "illegal guns" operating on some kind of remote control and taking out African-Americans all on their own? Do "illegal guns" someone dislike white people and therefore go out of their way to avoid the hands of white males?
See lets keep it real. "Illegal guns" do not do anything on their own. Guns of any legal status do nothing on their own. People are the problem and clearly in Chicago it is one set of people who have a problem: African-Americans. Let's keep it 100% real here. If we keep blaming inanimate objects for our total failure to properly socialize our children, we will
continue to see these
population control levels of murders
In a city of neighborhoods, though, crime rates are not equal, and many of the shootings here are gang-related in the city's South and West sides.
I know NPR doesn't want to offend African-Americans, but lets keep it real. The above should have read:
In a city of neighborhoods, though, crime rates are not equal, and many of the shooting here are gang-related in the city's Black South and West sides.
That would be keeping it real. But I'm sure folks would say it is "racist" to say that even though it is factual (I suppose I'm a self hating negro for pointing it out too).
Community activists and ministers recently attended a public hearing convened by the Rev. Al Sharpton. "They say that the shooting is down. Well, if one person is shot, it's one too many," he said.
Lets be clear here. Just like with any crime, there will always be crime. Always. So lets lay off the "one too many" talk. People lose control from time to time. It happens. It's a part of the human condition.
Natjuan Herrin lives on Chicago's West Side and is also skeptical. "Well, where I come from, they shoot every day, all day, but it's not safe nowhere in Chicago. Wherever you go, it's not safe," Herrin says
No ma'am it is not "not safe nowhere in Chicago." As pointed out, the
unsafe places are where African-Americans live in large numbers. You know, the places where illegal guns magically appear and jump into peoples hands and take over their minds to commit murders that is the fault of white people who don't live there and white people scheming in their white neighborhoods via their school systems where they control the minds of black men (who drop out and skip out at alarming rates) in order to remote control them into committing murder.
I suppose I'm an even more self hating negro for pointing this out too.
. Fardon says he doesn't believe the city can arrest its way out of its gang problem.
"It is too big. It is too deep. It is too insidious. It starts at too young an age," Fardon says.
Fardon is absolutely correct. You cannot arrest your way out of the problem because the problem starts at home. The crime problem in Chicago, among African-Americans is largely a problem of socialization. This means that it is generational. And no, it's not all African-Americans or even most. But it is enough. It will change when we decide we have had enough.
