There were not two, but three mass shootings last weekend. They occurred in El Paso and Dayton, of course, but also in Chicago. Yet media pay scant attention to those deaths because of the racism of low expectations in black neighborhoods.

While the government does not provide a standard definition for the term “mass shooting,” various groups have generally described it as three or four fatal injuries from gunfire, not including the shooter. Some media and think tank sources exclude crimes of domestic violence, robbery, or gang violence. The FBI, however, does not define “mass shooting.” That term, apparently, is the product of media and political pundits.

Yet last weekend in Chicago, beginning on Friday, 32 people were shot, and and eight people died, even though Chicago media can’t even decide the exact number of people shot. But that didn’t even begin to touch last year’s record of 61 wounded and 14 people killed over a weekend of nearly one year ago to the day.

Here’s a recording of what last Sunday sounded like during one of the shootings, as posted by the Chicago Police Department. It’s like a war zone, which it indeed is — gang warfare.

Below is the sound that Chicago needs to change its ways on how we handle gun offenders. Audio from the tragic shooting at 18th & Kildare yesterday shows that criminals have no deterrent to carrying illegal guns in our city and this is what residents and police are up against. pic.twitter.com/VwixZwR0Vb

— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) August 5, 2019

Last weekend’s shootings led a reporter from the Chicago Tribune to ask, “Why aren’t those called mass shootings too?”

One politically-driven respondent at the Tribune’s Facebook page gave this knee-jerk response:

“Because the available evidence suggests the shootings in Chicago were probably not planned as mass shootings. . . . That, and the fact the Chicago shooters were not politically motivated white nationalists who posted manifestos online and urged others to copy them.”

Never mind that people still died. And that mothers still mourn their dead sons. Nor that a father now mourns his son who was going to get married later this month. Black people dying en masse don’t count unless there is blatant racism on the part of whites, apparently.

What’s worse is that IL Gov. J.B. Pritzker crowed how “thankful” he was that there were supposedly no mass shootings in Illinois. As for the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Pritzker said this:

“Thank God that it hasn’t happened here.” 

He continued his sanctimonious blather:

“We cannot sit idly by as horrific acts of violence perpetuated by hate become a regular occurrence in our nation. In under 24 hours, we’ve seen mass shootings claim dozens of lives in El Paso and Dayton. It’s heartbreaking and unacceptable.”

He finished with this:

“Gun violence has become a public health epidemic, and it’s our duty to interrupt it. To keep weapons of war off our streets.” 

Then he pointed at “President Trump’s fomenting white supremacy.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker/Illinois Public Radio/flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Dear Lord, that man is tone deaf. Or is the racism of low expectations putting blinders on him? Pritzker, of course, is a Democrat. Chicago is a Democrat town. Therefore these pols don’t want anyone to see that their policies have destroyed the black community. That they expect nothing better from neighborhoods where nearly three-fourths of their children are born to single mothers. Where welfare checks have replaced fathers, and violent gangs of fatherless men form as a result.

The black economist Walter Williams called this “black self-sabotage,” and wrote:

“If we put ourselves into the shoes of racists who seek to sabotage black upward mobility, we couldn’t develop a more effective agenda than that followed by civil rights organizations, black politicians, academics, liberals and the news media.”

But as long as Democrats can get votes from dependent blacks, they prefer to overlook the gang violence in their cities. Gangs don’t commit mass shootings. That’s completely different. Look away, since that’s the neighborhood “culture” anyway.

The racism of low expectations falls at the feet of Democrats.

One gang member, now in prison, has contemplated the gun culture of Chicago. Gaston Tucker is back in the Cook County jail after having already served a ten-year sentence. Now he has returned after fleeing police with a loaded pistol in February. But after his most recent arrest, he told a friend this, as heard in a prison recording:

“Everything happens for a reason, man. Think about it, man. This summertime, what I was doing, where I was headed this summertime, man, I would have gotten caught shooting that mother——. … That would’ve been life in (prison).”

As for Chicago, Tucker said this:

“Boy, I quit. I ain’t carry no pole (gun) no more. I’m through. Only way I gotta do that is I gotta get out of Chicago. … I can’t be without it in Chicago, you know how that s— go.”

Has Gaston Tucker turned a corner here? Or will he return the gangsta life once he gets out of prison? It’s anybody’s guess, but one thing is certain: the racism of low expectations for black communities in big cities continues to lead men like him into violence, prison, and early deaths.

Featured image: Michael Lehet/flickr/cropped/CC BY-ND 2.0.