“These murders went out of the comprehension of a civilized city,” … “The butchering of seven men by open daylight raises this question for Chicago: Is it helpless?” (Chicago Tribune on the St. Valentines Massacre)
As summer turns to fall, none of the news is good. COVID-19 is still a threat. Getting shot, killed, beaten, robbed, or carjacked in Chicago is a worse threat. Now, experts are warning the upcoming flu season could be “brutal.”
We are lost. We do not know what to fear most, disease or being violently victimized as the Summer Olympics of Violence winds down. If the violence abates during the fall, Mayor Lightfoot and her Police Superintendent, David Brown, will claim victory. All their failed, and failing plans, strategies, deployments, and precision deployments worked. The mayor will award Brown the Gold Cookie. The losers will be winners.
Crime usually drops off in the fall and through winter. Of course, the friendly media will credit failure and convince the gullible naïfs in this city that Brown was a success. The citizens of Chicago are easily fooled and will believe whatever the media tells them.
Chicagoans complain about everything except the things that matter, like life and death on the streets. The bloodshed is hushed up. Brown tosses out dry, boring data. How many guns the police took off the street, how many people were arrested for gun possession, blah, blah.
Whatever is being done is not stopping the violence. It is not mitigating or curbing it. Prevention is almost impossible.
Seven people were killed during the St. Valentine’s massacre, a mass shooting heard around the world. Newspapers nationwide were in an uproar. Headlines screamed. Editorials were brutal. The citizenry was appalled. It led to the demise of Capone’s grip on Chicago.
There were over 50 mass shootings this year, most over the spring and summer. Not one peep from the friendly editorial boards. Not one word from community groups or supposed activists. No outrage from the citizens. It is all ho-hum. Lightfoot and the incompetent State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx keep getting the benefit of the doubt.
Foxx is supposed to be the voice of victims in court. Foxx flipped the script. She is the voice of the criminals. The news media and editorial boards lap it up.
We are heading into another warm weekend. Already, “At least four people were killed and 10 others wounded in a string of shootings across Chicago overnight. A fifth victim was beaten to death.” (WGN9 9/17/2021) These shootings and the beating occurred from one end of the city to another, 78th Street to Irving Park Road, between 8:30 PM and 8:30 AM.
Why is the violence in this city not considered “out of the comprehension of a civilized city?” Are we no longer civilized? Where is the outrage over the daily butchering of men, women, and children, even infants, all hours of the day and night?
“Is Chicago helpless?” The answer is yes. If COVID-19 does not kill you, a stray bullet might. Yet, the news media is focusing on COVID more than violence. The mayor and Tex Brown are getting a free pass. There is no anger among the citizens. No one is pointing fingers at the real culprits, the mayor, most of the mute alderpersons, the Police Superintendent, Kim Foxx, and the courts. We are being failed on all levels. We are accepting failure as an option.
The weekend is upon us. The weather will be nice. It will be perfect for the Summer Olympic of Violence games to go on. So, mask up, social distance, stay out of crowds, and stay off the streets. Stay alive.