BlackAmericaWeb's Jeff Johnson writes that retweeting the city's murder numbers isn't enough — we must get angry and active and address the issues fueling the tragic loss of life.
Why is there no national outrage about what is taking place in Chicago? And I am not talking about national dialogue … talk. We retweet the murder numbers for weekends in Chicago like they are scores from the basketball game and then say "Damn, what a shame." When 15 people get killed in a weekend outside of urban communities, the national media swarmed like scavengers around a kill. When it happens in cities like Chicago, Philly, New Orleans, and other urban centers, it is just some "ish" that happens.
A headline in yesterday's Washington Post read: As Chicago’s homicide rate spikes, mayor and police boss defend their new crime-fighting plan. The article highlighted the debate between current and past policing strategies. Many believe that it is the strategy of the two previous administrations that brought homicide numbers down from the 900-murder-a-year numbers of the 90's to the more recent averages of 450-murders-a-year since 2005. But the article, and much of the media I have seen and read about Chicago violence, always talk about gangs and crime fighting. But this crisis is bigger than gangs and crime fighting.
All of the violence that is taking place in Chicago and other urban cities is not about gangs and crews. It is about the convergence of massive and generational poverty, under-education, addiction, a culture of violence to solve problems, lack of opportunity and unemployment, and oh yeah … lack of hope … on a packed city when it gets hot.
Read Jeff Johnson's entire piece at BlackAmericaWeb.
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