The weather was awesome in the upper Midwest last weekend and that can only mean two things: white people mowing their yards, riding bikes and working in the garden and of course bullets flying in our vibrantly diverse urban neighborhoods:
46 shot — 4 fatally — in Chicago weekend shootings
A less than 10% fatality rate. I guess their aim didn’t improve during the winter. I keep refreshing the page and the number keeps going up but as of around 7:15 AM on Monday morning, that is the latest tally of shootings. I especially liked this one:
Someone in a gray, four-door sedan fired shots at a “large gathering” about 3:35 a.m. Sunday on 13th Street, according to police. All five victims were hit in their legs. A 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man were taken to Stroger Hospital in fair condition. Two other men, 18 and 19, were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, also in fair condition, police said.
A “large gathering”? I thought we were supposed to avoid those and practice social distancing? On an unrelated note, why do blacks seem to be disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus? It is a puzzle wrapped in a conundrum. Also, the obligatory question: what is a 15 year old doing hanging around on the streets of Chicago at 3:35 AM?
For those keeping score at home, five people shot in a single incident qualifies as yet another diverse urban mass shooting but you won’t hear the national media talking about it.
Chicago is morbidly fascinating to me. It is like a bad accident you can’t look away from but it keeps happening year after year. While most of Chicago is peaceful and often affluent, certain segments that also happen to be the most “diverse” continue to look like warzones. Whether the shootings stem from gang violence or simple disputes that escalate into gunfire, the black and to a lesser extent the mestizo populations in America keep committing crime and especially violent crime at extraordinarily disproportionate rates. While most of the first generation migrant mestizo population is not criminal, other than many being here illegally, you don’t have to look very hard at the countries they fled from like Mexico and El Salvador to see what the future holds in a country with a rapidly expanding mestizo population.
The weather is just going to keep getting nicer and that means we are heading into the shooting season in our vibrant neighborhoods. You would be well advised to stay well away.