Why didn’t you resort to fact refutation the first time around instead of personal attacks?
Perhaps I should have said A murder capital instead of THE murder capital. I believe the figure I heard yesterday was 443 murders in Chicago so far in 2009. That projects to an increase over 2008. Also, I believe that I said that bloody attacks are “standard fare” in gang-infested cities, not that they happen “every day.”
I am fully aware that some years ago the murder rate in Chicago was even worse. But it is still a deplorable situation. By “every day” I was referring to gang murders in general and not just in Chicago though I evidently didn’t make that clear, for which I apologize.
After reading a couple of posts, I saw that you were obviously from Chicago. I’m sure you are proud of your city and justly so. I happen to like the place myself. But you know very well that gangs have been a plague there for generations, just as they have been in L.A., Detroit, and all the other cities you mention. And it is an incontrovertible fact that many gang members are sociopaths who don’t blink at violence and human suffering and some people who have to live in gang and drug-infested areas have become de-sensitized to the inhumanity and brutality that they have to witness all too frequently.
Just for the hell of it, check out some of the gang videos on YouTube and read the comments. The gangbangers and wannabes who post them are actually boastful as to which gang and which city has the most murder and mayhem. Crips vs. Bloods, Sureños vs. Norteños, etc., etc. Bangers from Chicago do in fact flaunt the city’s murder rate as evidence of how big and bad Chicago gangs are.
And that was the simple point of my post: given the coldness and inhumanity of the gang culture, there is no reason to be shocked and surprised that a few of its members would beat a kid to death with 2X4’s.
It was NOT to derrogate Chicago.
There was nothing personal in any of my remarks. Nor would I have been offended had I spoken incorrectly about something and been called to task for it. I called you no names and just expressed the wish that people would check out facts before posting about them.
Chicago has certain areas which are more dangerous than Iraq or Afganistan and they are that way because the Black/Latin leadership will not tolerate cleaning them up. If these were white areas something would be done but Black/Latin leaders not out have a vested interest in the gangs but use them to get out the vote and attack their opponents. This has been the case with other ethnic groups in the past and is nothing new. At one point in history the city was run by saloon keepers and brothel owners who used thugs and criminals to repress their enemies. We even have had a couple of mayors assassinated.
I do not doubt anything you reference regarding the gang braggadocio or the malicious evil of pop culture.
Chicago has the best and the worst of life and always has. It is as beautiful a city as exista and that does not mean there are not the ugliest scenes humanity can create also here. It is not a city I would recommend strangers wandering around in without knowledge of its neighborhoods.
I came here from a little SE Arkansas town and have been here for 45 yrs with a couple of exceptions. It has contributed immensely to my life and I do not regret any of it. But there is no denying it is not a town for those with weak hearts and nothing is more infuriating than its politicians. It is a perfect example of a One Party political system and its problems.
Most of the gangbangers are from fatherless families and demonstrate the pathology of that subgroup. FBI statistics show that 80% of those in prison for serious crimes are born out of wedlock with no father present in the home. This fact needs to be hammered into the social consciousness over and over until the serious nature of the destruction of the Black family structure is understood.
In the past gang members were not necessarily OOW but were drawn from the orphaned and homeless children who fell in the cracks due to family destruction by death and alcoholism. The pathology is not inherent to any ethnic or racial group and IS exacerbated by the welfare system.