Increased gun violence results in increased black deaths. We are killing us.
Today, for many people of color, normal is wondering if the phone will ring late tonight with a story involving a loved one being killed. Murdered at the hands of a person that simply didn’t give a damn about your loved one.
Was the killer a Police Officer?
A Department of Justice article titled, “Victimology”, say that in about 80 – 90 percent of the cases the loved one killed was NOT killed by a Policer Officer.
Your loved one was killed by someone that looks just like them, another black person. Now, 52% (more than half) of the time the person killed knew their killer. Will there be a march or a parade to reduce violence through the city?
What happens to the shooter? If arrested, how could the killer be given a bond? More importantly, the victim, who were they? How will a world, moving so fast, slow down enough to hear about your loved one a month from now when on average, over one hundred people are shot during a summer weekend in Chicago IL?
There are numbers that are always highlighted on the Sunday evening news like lottery ticket numbers for the three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). These numbers give a cumulative total for the weekend that’s triple digits for those shot and double digits for those murdered.
Gun violence show no signs of stopping, victim numbers of both wounded or worse, people killed are continuing to increase. If the shooters can make bail, what can be done? Right now, in the cycle in play of the normalization of these murders and mayhem, nothing can be done! This is highlighted by displays at the podium, in front of cameras, by Mayor after Mayor. Police Superintendent after Police Superintendent make appeals for people to come forward. The Police Superintendent looks helpless many times as they explain they can’t investigate without witnesses to talk to.
The narrative remains the same, and so do the results. This should prompt individuals to pay close attention to the situation. Is there a yearn for self-reflection? Is there a yearn for the eradication of an adverse behavior system that has been normalized when it comes to black lives?
The one unique component in this after hearing the pain from a mother that just lost her only son in a senseless shooting and a father grappling with the fact his best friend wasn’t coming home that night, is that it is enough pain to generate the empathy needed to be a catalyst for systemic change. But nothing changes.
After the funeral there won’t be a March against senseless killings or a gathering on the block by any city officials or administrators calling for peace, there will be no such calls for unified justice.
Initiatives would be in place if other groups were faced with the similar genocidal challenges however, when 80-90 percent of the shooters look like you and there is a 52% chance the shooter knows the victim, change must come from within.
