“It’s like my soul left my body,” said Chanell Holliday during a visit with classmates of her son. He was fatally shot on Saturday near The Bean. …Chanell Holliday has barely slept since her 16-year-old son Seandell was shot to death in Millennium Park on Saturday, ripping her world apart and sending the city of Chicago into a tailspin. (WBEZ)
It is every parent’s nightmare—the death of a child. The membership in a club no one wants to join, and no one is welcomed. Chanell Holliday is the newest member of that club. Her 16-year-old son, Sandell, was murdered at Millennium Park over the weekend. He was shot and killed by another teen.
Seandell Holliday is now a nameless, faceless victim. He is just another piece of a data set to be analyzed by the research pornographers and experts with no expertise. The hormonal teenagers in the news media will use the data porn to prove something or other positive about crime, hyping for City Hall. A City Hall that needs all the hype it can get.
We saw this before. We will keep seeing this—children, from infants to teens, being murdered. Parents are living their worst nightmares. And a cold-hearted city doing little to stem the rampant violence plaguing every neighborhood.
“Because this is hard. This is so hard for me.” (Chanell Holliday/WBEZ)
The words of a mother in mourning. How many more children will be murdered in Chicago before City Hall wakes from its wet dream of a “Summer of Joy?” When will elected officials in this city rise from their somnolence and realize there will be no joy in Chicago this summer? There will only be more mourning and grief. More nightmares.
2022 will be another Summer of Murder. A Summer of Grief and Mourning. A City Hall that is asleep at the wheel.
When will the people of this city of silence start making noise? A noise so loud it is heard around the world. There is only one thing politicians care about. Only one thing that will force them to do something. A big noise. A noise so loud it puts fear into their merciless, pitiless, cold hearts. A sonic boom noise that makes them quake in fear of losing their six-figure jobs with Rolls Royce perks and benefits.
As long as the public is silent, elected officials will do nothing. Oh, they will talk. Talk is cheap, like the cheap suit politicians. The lies must stop. The cover-ups must stop. City Hall has been covering up for Chicago Police Superintendent David “Tex” Brown’s total incompetence since day one.
No matter what we think about past mayors, not one of them would tolerate this constant citywide violence. They all would have done something, including holding the Chicago Police leadership accountable. Heads would roll and keep rolling until the surges in violence were curbed and mitigated.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot ran on a platform of transparency and accountability. She rules through secrecy with zero accountability. No one is held responsible, including her. No one knows what she is doing.
All Lightfoot has left is the news media which keeps throwing her life rings. Ring after ring, excuse after excuse, lie after lie. When those fail, they quote the experts with no expertise to keep their narrative alive.
Summer begins on June 21st. If you citizens do not rise up now and demand better, there will be no Summer of Joy. There will only be a summer of death.