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Tag: Chicago news media

His Name is Woom Sing Tse

Image: Family Photo

“He came here for a better life for his family and paved the way for his generation. You know, the immigrant dream to come to America,” his son William Tse said.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

Woom Sing Tse, 71, came to America from China with a hundred dollars in his pocket. He worked hard as a restaurant cook and saved his money. Tse opened a restaurant in the suburbs. After some years, he closed it and opened a second one.

As his son said, he accomplished the immigrant dream. He came here from China with little, and he succeeded through hard work and grit. Tse retired nine years ago.

Tse supported his family and made sure his children received educations. He was a husband, father, grandfather, and brother.

Tse was brutally gunned down on a Chinatown street while walking to get a newspaper for his wife. A car pulled up. Shots were fired from the vehicle. Then, the driver exited, walked up to Tse, lying on the sidewalk, and fired more shots. The driver went back to his car and drove off.

The murder happened near a Chicago Public School. The shots were heard at the school. The school was locked down. Tse’s daughter is a teacher at that school. She found out about her father’s death at work.

Chicago police arrested the shooter a short time later, and, surprisingly, he was quickly charged with murder. Surprisingly? In Cook County getting charges approved by State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx’s prosecutors, for violent crimes are as rare as hen’s teeth.

A family is devasted. A community is in mourning and living in fear. This murder proves that no one is safe in Chicago. No neighborhood is safe in Chicago. The mayor is silent. The alderman who represents the ward offered weasel words. Just another day in Murder City.

Within the next day or two, Woom Sing Tse will be forgotten. He will be just another number, a dry statistic. One of 756 souls shot and killed in Chicago. One of 806 souls murdered. These are just numbers and dry, boring statistics of adults, teens, toddlers, and infants murdered in Chicago this year.

There should be outrage over this murder and the number of murders this year. There should be scorching editorials from our local news media. Citizens in every neighborhood should be outraged. Mayor Lightfoot and City Council should be outraged. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx should be outraged. There is only silence. Silence is consent. The citizens, elected officials, and news media consent to and are complicit in these murders.

Chicago is not only Murder City. It is a city with no sympathy, empathy, pity, or mercy. Chicago is as cold as winter. We are a town without feelings.

His name is Woom Sing Tse. He is not some dry statistic. Like all the other murder victims, he should not be forgotten.

Say his name, Woom Sing Tse.

The Grades are in Fs Across the Board

Image: PV Bell
  • Mayor Lori Lightfoot- F
  • Chicago City Council- F
  • Cook County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle- F
  • Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx- F
  • Chief Judge Tim Evans- F
  • David Brown, Superintendent of Chicago Police- F
  • Chicago News Media/Editorial Boards- F

If you get an F in public safety, you have no business holding elective or appointed office or publishing or airing news.

One of the nice things about being an elected official in Chicago is never having to take responsibility for your failures. Elected officials are not responsible for anything. It is always someone else’s fault. They keep coming up with systemic lame excuses instead of effective solutions. Yet, you gullible voters believe their logomachy and keep reelecting them.

There were over 1000 homicides in Cook County this year, with one month left. 803 homicides were committed in Chicago. In Chicago, 4304 people were shot, and 3549 were wounded this year. Over 80% of the victims were African American. Over 14% were Hispanic. 3.9% were white or of other races. Add to those numbers the 1444 carjackings this year, most of them armed. (Cook County Medical Examiner and HeyJackass)

There is a daily spate of armed robberies in various entertainment neighborhoods. High-end stores are being burglarized and robbed by groups who steal thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise while traumatizing the employees. Flash mobs are causing havoc, injury, and shootings downtown and along Michigan Avenue near Grant Park.

Chicago witnessed out-of-control violent crime in every neighborhood for over one year. No area of this city is safe. Any citizen is at risk of becoming an innocent victim of violence or a shooting. Even children, toddlers, and infants are innocent victims.

Our elected officials are silent over the unrelenting violence in Chicago. The Mayor, Cook County Board President, State’s Attorney, and many Alderpersons and Cook County Commissioners are mute. When and if they do speak, it is word soup and jabberwocky.

Everyone keeps seeking the causes for this rampant criminality. Experts with no expertise are brought in and paid to give their reasoning and solutions through their narrow-minded mercenary lenses. The Chicago Police Department continues with its merry-go-round of plans, strategies, contingencies, and realignments. The politicians come up with solutions based on their communication spoke’s weasels. They toss around systemic this or that. They are not seeking effective solutions.

We are beyond looking for causes. We are witnessing the effects- death, wounding, and traumatization. We need effective solutions to curb this criminality. Effective being the operative word. The politicians threw effectiveness out of the window in their quest for the “why.” The most compelling question is “what.” “What” is a direct question that yields specific effective solutions. “Why” gives us more logomachy, nonsensical word soup.

There is a total lack of empathy and sympathy for the victims and their families. Our politicians are cold-hearted, devoid of pity, mercy, and basic humanity. The only time they display emotion is when they are harshly criticized. Then, after their faux over emotional Academy Award appearance before the news cameras, critics are slapped down and silenced. 

The Chicago news media goes right along with this. It appears they are working hand in hand with the politicians’ spoke’s weasels. The news media in Chicago is no longer courageous. The editorial boards are silent on the rampant violent criminality. They, like the gullible voters, believe whatever the politicians tell them. Like well-trained parrots, they repeat it.

We no longer have the luxury of time to figure out the causes- the “why”- of this criminality. We need to find effective solutions to curb it. We can figure out the why later. How many more people must die, suffer, or be traumatized before our elected officials start caring?

We do have one stubborn verified systemic problem in Chicago. It is the systemic stupidity of the voters. They keep reelecting the same people who are responsible for the criminality. Public safety is one of the most important, if not the most important, government responsibility. The voters keep voting for failures.

Public safety is not even a consideration to the politicians. They are all talk and no action. The county and city elected officials are gearing up for their next re-election cycle. They will tout their various supposed successes. There is only one solution. Shed the mantle of systemic voter stupidity. Embrace Critical Election Theory. Do not reelect anyone who did not and will not keep us safe. Throw all the bums out. Bring in new people who believe in public safety.

Maybe some long ago pundit was right. One of the most profane, obscene, and vulgar terms in our language is “career politician.”

Silence is consent

Image-Finger Pointing/PV Bella

I live in one of those nice, “quiet,” “safe” neighborhoods. There are old-growth trees, many birches, and maples lining the streets. There is a mix of people- families with small children, empty nesters, singles. The area is somewhat demographically diverse. 

It is no longer quiet or safe. Over the past week, there were two rolling shootouts. There were other instances of gun violence. It begs the question; can we walk or drive down our streets without being innocent victims of uncontrolled anarchy in Chicago?

Some may say that anarchy is incorrect or inflammatory. What else do you call uncontrollable, unpredictable rampant violence and the brazenness of the people committing these crimes? The politicians and news media toss around words like systemic and intractable describing the “root” causes of crime. This spate of violence is systemic and intractable.

I spent almost 30 years as a Chicago Police Officer. I worked in two of the most violent areas of the city. When I was in a citywide unit, I worked in many neighborhoods across the city. Occasionally there were short spates of violence in the safest areas. I never witnessed or even imagined violence this widespread and uncontrollable citywide. There is no safe area in Chicago.

Except for the criminals, I no longer know who to blame for this anarchy. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the alderpeople, State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx, Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle, or Chicago’s warfare politics.

I would blame the friendly, inept editorial boards of our local news media for ignoring the violence. That would be a waste of mental energy. “The press has always been this country’s single greatest force for social change.” ((Andrew Vachss) The press is no longer a force for change. They are a force for complicity.

First, the politicians tell us beautiful lies because that is what we need to hear. Then they call each other liars because that is what they do. Lies, lies, and more damned lies.

I finally concluded that we, the citizens, and voters are to blame. We should be outraged. We should be demanding accountability and transparency. We should be shouting from the rooftops and marching in the streets. We are silent. 

Our silence is consent. Our lack of action is consent.

We consent to murder and mayhem. We consent to children, especially infants and toddlers being killed. We consent to mass shootings. We consent to rolling shootouts. We consent to carjackings and armed robberies. We consent to prosecutors refusing to prosecute. We consent to the catch and release of violent criminals by the courts.

We consent to the epic public safety failure of our government systems.  

Chicago is in a public safety crisis. If this goes on much longer, it will be a catastrophe. Some of the alderpeople are speaking out. We should be too. We should be ringing their phones off the hook or jamming their emails. 

We do nothing. We are silent.

Chicago politics sucked since I have been alive. Never has it sucked this bad. Public safety is the top priority in governance. Our elected officials are failing and flailing. 

There are as many political finger-pointers as there are people pointing guns. This anarchy results from gross political malfeasance across every level of governance- city, county, and state. Yet, we remain silent. How much longer will this go on before we stop consenting and break our silence? 

If you want to see who is responsible for the violent anarchy in Chicago, look in the mirror.