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Last Friday, on HBO’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher dared to go where other commenters don’t, lest they be called racist. He remarked that most of the homicides in Chicago involve black-on-black crime, and that it’s young black men who are killing each other. Not racist cops. Not white supremacists.
Joining Maher was Glenn Loury, professor of economics at Brown University, a native of Chicago, and also a black man. Loury agreed with Maher.
The exchange went like this:
Maher: Most of the shootings [in Chicago] are young black men killing other young black men. Is that not correct?
Loury: Yeah that’s correct.
Maher: Okay, much more than what the cops do. Why doesn’t anybody talk about that? Why aren’t there a hundred giant black celebrities who would have the respect of those people saying what are you doing to yourselves? Why are you killing each other?
Loury: It dishonors our community. Come on, we’re better than this.
Maher: Right. It’s never addressed.
On Monday night, News Nation’s Leland Vittert opened his program by addressing the comments by Bill Maher, as well as the scourge of lawbreaking in Chicago.
Yet despite the carnage and crime, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx rarely charges perpetrators other than those committing the most egregious of crimes. Sometimes not even then. Instead, she sees herself as a warrior for racial justice rather than the safety of Chicagoans.
When you hear about “mass killings,” what pops into your mind? The 2018 Parkland School shooting? The 2015 Charleston Church shooting, in which a white supremacist murdered nine black parishioners? The media want you to believe that these events are typical. While certainly horrifying, they’re rare.
But what is commonplace in places like Chicago is black-on-black crime, such as the shootings which happened over the weekend that Vittert described. Twenty people were shot, including a three-year-old boy who was struck in the face. Two hours later a six-year-old girl and another man were shot inside a home.
The Chicago crime data aggregate, Hey Jackass!, documents that as of April 1, 2023, there have been 51 shooting incidents in which two people were shot. On two other occasions, four were shot, and one event each involved five and six victims. A total of 22 died as a result of these shootings. But the year is still young, so expect more of the same, especially when summer starts.
So does media pay attention to these mass incidents? Not a chance. It doesn’t fit their progressive narrative.
In other stories of Chicago mayhem, last week a six-month-old baby died when two teens, ages 14 and 17, crashed a stolen Hyundai into a truck. The baby’s mother and older sisters suffered injuries, but little Cristian Uvidia perished from a skull fracture. And the teens? Police arrested them, but then the two were charged with … misdemeanors.
Credit: screenshot/conservativeroof.com.
And let’s not forget the “Teen Takeover” of the Chicago Loop shopping district earlier this month.
NEW: In response to the ‘Teen Takeover’ in Chicago over the weekend, Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson briefly condemned the violence before lashing out at those criticizing the criminals. "It is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in… pic.twitter.com/hW6uwFjZd2
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg_) April 19, 2023
Ironically, soon-to-be ex-mayor Lori Lightfoot recently told a group of her fellow black mayors that they need to get their act together about crime in their cities:
As Democrats, if we do not speak the truth about violent crime in our cities, we will be the worse for it.
Sorry, Lori. Too little, too late.
According to progressives and the media (but I repeat myself), black people are dying at the hands of racist cops on a regular basis. But that narrative is patently false.
Instead, as of April 1, 78% of homicide victims in Chicago have been black, with 19% Hispanic, and 2% white/other. As for assailants — most again are black, although the apprehension numbers here are negligible, since the homicide clearance rate is very low in the black community. As for cause of death — most are from gunshots, some 94%.
And how many have involved police? So far this year, Chicago police have killed only three people and wounded two. Last year police-involved shootings resulted in two dead and 21 wounded.
So while he is no Republican, and no conservative, Bill Maher was brave enough to say the quiet part out loud: that blacks are killing each other in places like Chicago. Not white supremacists, nor racist cops. And the victims? Poor people who don’t have the means to leave Chicago for safer communities.
Their lives matter, too. But how convenient for progressives and the media to ignore them, since their plight doesn’t fit the popular depiction of race and crime.
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Featured image: Sharon Graphics/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Hate_me says: I disagree wholeheartedly with most of Maher’s analyses of the underlying causes and potential solutions to the issues facing America, today. I could never accuse him of not caring about those issues.
It’s Jefferson v. Hamilton. Both gave a good god damn. One based his policy on theoretical principle, the other on the bottom line.
Maher, like Hamilton, is largely wrong in his approach but offers some real gems if one has the patience to wade through the partisan bullshit.
Taco Lizard says: We need the “Arm ‘Em to Hell And Back” program to stop the Chicago tragedy. Here’s how it works, When a murder occurs on a street, the government hands out a 9mm pistol and five hundred rounds of ammo to every non- felon over 21 in a four block radius. Yes it will be messy for a few weeks, but even drug dealers and gangsters will not attack armed citizens. Continue this program until the gangsters move to an easier part of town, and then when if new outbreak of murders follows, a new out break of armed citizens wil follow too.
SDN says: “And how many have involved police? So far this year, Chicago police have killed only three people and wounded two. Last year police-involved shootings resulted in two dead and 21 wounded.”
Heavily influenced by the new police motto: “Go Fetal”. If you only show up to take a report (maybe). you don’t have to risk a confrontation. And it’s way easier to arrest the victim who dares fight back against the thugs, but hasn’t fully acknowledged that the cops aren’t on their side.
370H55V I/me/mine says: Meanwhile, last Saturday there was a “500 Man March” in Chicago to protest this sort of thing:
Yeah. I can’t help but wonder how many of those “500 Men” voted for Brandon Johnson.
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