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| Two stories, a week apart. Violence is a Black Family Tradition in Chicago |
That's why we've dubbed it "Manifest Destruction."
Two recent stories in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune detail the pervasive (perverse) violence in the black community in Chicagoland, which is the unspoken legacy of the "Great Migration"; though wanton violence might be - thankfully- only in the black community, the increasingly true stereotype of black people being criminal keeps outside investment and gentrification away from these communities (sic).
Just take a look at this story from the Tribune [ Family friend: Man is 4th sibling killed by gunfire, Chicago Tribune, 1-26-13]:
A man slain on the West Side early this morning had two brothers and a sister who also were fatally gunned down in the city, according to a close family friend.
"He was the last one," said Laverne Smith, 30, who said his mother no longer has any children. "I know she's hurting."
Smith said it's unthinkable this could have happened again to the family.
"It's ridiculous," Smith said. "We need to get the guns off the street and build a good life for our babies. We need to really get together and stop fighting."
Smith heard loud gunfire about 2 a.m. and ran outside in the 1100 block of South Mozart Street to find her close friend Ronnie Chambers shot in the head. He died in her arms.
"All his siblings passed a long time ago," Smith said. "It was a hysterical thing."
Smith said she also knew Ronnie Chamber's sister, LaToya Chambers, and had grown up with them in the Cabrini Green neighborhood on the Near North Side. LaToya was a classmate of hers, about two years ahead, at the Edward Jenner school.
LaToya was killed at age 15 on April 26, 2000. Her brothers Carlos and Jerome also were gunshot victims, Carlos at age 18 shortly after Thanksgiving in 1995 and Jerome at age 23 on July 26, 2000.
Ronnie Chambers was the last of Shirley Chambers' four children, and Shirley told the Tribune's Dawn Turner Trice in 2000 that "From the beginning, I worked so hard to make them somebody. You put so much hard work into it, and somebody comes along and snatches it away in a matter of seconds. It's not fair."
According to that 2000 story, Ronnie has these tattos on his forearms toe remind him of his dead siblings: A crucifix with a ribbon draped across it commemorates Carlos; a tombstone with a crucifix and blood says R.I.P. for Jerome; and another tombstone with a cross is for LaToya.
Shirley Chambers also said this about Ronnie in that story: "When I see him I feel sadder for him than for me. He looks so lonely. I have one child left, and I'm afraid that [the killing] won't stop until he's gone too."
How much has the white taxpayer subsidized this "family" (sic) over the past thirty years? A tremendous Return on Investment, wouldn't you say?
Not to be outdone, how about another powerful story of the type of roots black people put down in Chicagoland, descendants of those who took part in the "Great Migration" [Family heartbreak: 3rd cousin slain in 10 years, Chicago Sun-Times, 1-19-13]:
One, two, three souls of a family gone at the flash of a gun.
Three cousins dead in 10 years. All victims of Chicago gunfire in separate shootings on the Southeast, Southwest and West sides.
On Friday, the Bady family dealt with the latest emotional blow — saying goodbye to 28-year-old Gregory Bady, Jr., a father of four “who wasn’t running the streets” killed in a robbery early Monday at an Austin gas station.
The family knows the drill.
“You all back at it again,” Rev. Ira Acree told family and friends as they walked into the wake.
They laid to rest 21-year-old Jamar Moore in 2010 after he was shot in South Chicago, and Maurice Brown, a John Marshall High School student, shot two doors from his Brighton Park home while getting ready for his 15th birthday party in 2003.
“No family — don’t matter what race, what your background is — no family should have to go through this in a civilized society today,” said Yancey Bady, who is Gregory Bady’s cousin. “It’s just we have to cope with the fact that so far the murderer has not been found for Maurice and the murderer hasn’t been found for Jamar and there are those of us that just have to deal and cope with it pretty much with no justice and no peace behind it.”
Inside the packed church, there were wails of cries from Gregory Bady’s family, including his sister and his fiancé.
But there were also cheers, support and words of defiance against Chicago’s endless gun problem. There were prayers for the young men in the neighborhood to ensure they wouldn’t be led to a life on the streets.
“There are a lot of angry people,” said Yancey Bady, also an associate pastor at the church. “People want vengeance but you want to try to tell them that’s not the way.”And there were words of strength from a woman who has gone through the mourning three times.
Penny Bady is the first mother in the large close-knit family to bury her son from gun violence. Maurice Brown was her youngest child. Jamar Moore was her nephew, and Gregory Bady her cousin.
She came to her cousin’s funeral to tell the family, they would eventually be fine.
“I’ve been where you at. About 10 years ago, my son Maurice was gunned down on his 15th birthday, Dec. 12, 2003,” she told hundreds in the church. “I’m here to let you know, you’re gonna have some good days and some bad days…I’m here to tell you, just look at me, even though it was a horrible thing that happened, I chose to fight my pain with power.”
Since her son’s death, Penny Bady, 47, has become an advocate for organ donation and for stricter gun laws. Her son’s organs saved the life of a mother of four who was dying of kidney failure.
She has been passing out petitions to pass a common sense gun legislation since last summer. Ushers at the funeral passed out petitions to pass House Bill 5831, which would create a more comprehensive system to promote gun owner accountability, including having Illinois gun owners register their handguns or to report a loss or theft to police.
Chicago does have tough gun laws; in fact, the city has some of the toughest gun laws in America.“We need some tougher gun laws,” she said. “You can’t just slap them on the wrists when they first get in trouble with guns.”
What do you even say to stories like this, published but a week apart in the two papers in Chicago, delineating the unacknowledged legacy of the "Great Migration" of black people northward in search of a Utopia to call home.
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| The Long-Term Consequences of the Great Migration to Chicago (Source: WND.com) |
And what is the true cost of that legacy? A city more dangerous then the war-zone of Afghanistan [Chicago murders top Afghanistan death toll: City where no handgun purchases allowed sets pace for violence, WND.com, 1-16-13]:
The death toll by murder in Chicago over the past decade is greater than the number of American forces who have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to a police analysis.
In addition, police reports in Chicago – where President Obama once worked as a community organizer and where his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now serves as mayor – show most of the city’s massive murder mayhem is black-on-black crime.
A WND review of the Chicago Police Department Murder Analysis reports from 2003 to 2011 provides a statistical breakdown of the demographics of both the victims and offenders in the 4,265 murders in Chicago over that time period.
Of the victims of murder in Chicago from 2003 to 2011, an average of 77 percent had a prior arrest history, with a high of 79 percent of the 436 murdered in Chicago in 2010 having arrest histories.
For the same 2003-2011 period, blacks were the victims of 75 percent of 4,265 murders. Blacks also were the offenders in 75 percent of the murders.
According to 2010 U.S. Census information, Chicago has a population of 2,695,598 people. The city is 33 percent black, 32 percent white (not Hispanic), and 30 percent Hispanic or Latino in origin.
For the 2003-2011 period, whites were nearly 6 percent of the victims and accused of carrying out 4 percent of the murders.
For the 2003-2011 period, Hispanics or Latinos were 19 percent of the victims and 20 percent of the offenders.
Between 2003 and 2011, 4,265 people were murdered in the city of Chicago. In 2012 alone, 512 people were murdered in the city.
Operation Enduring Freedom, the name for the war in Afghanistan, which started Oct. 7, 2001, has seen a total of 2,166 killed. The war has been ongoing for 11 years, 3 months and one week.
Operation Iraqi Freedom, the name for the war in Iraq, which started March 20, 2003, and ended Dec. 15, 2011, saw a total of 4,422 killed.
In a city with some of the toughest gun control laws in America, where a handgun cannot be purchased, Fox News reported that Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy “acknowledged aiming at assault weapons misses the mark when dealing with Chicago’s gang violence.”
“The weapon used is generally a handgun, and rarely is it purchased through legal channels,” he said.
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