Black Lives Matter, Lawlessness And Murder In Chicago And Elsewhere

                                                   In the early to mid 1990's, homicide rates in Chicago were significantly higher than they are now. Crack cocaine had hit the streets of Chicago, and gangs killed each other to establish and control territory. Controlling an area meant controlling the lucrative drug trade, which cheap and highly addictive crack cocaine greatly expanded. As the body count and death toll from the gang wars increased, the black racist and politically correct crowd remained typically uninvolved because in their narrow, selfish world there was nothing they could exploit or gain from black on black violence.
                                                    It was clear gangs, not the police, controlled the housing projects and high crime neighborhoods. Someone suggested bringing in the national guards to the Robert Taylor Homes, the site of vicious off and on gang wars, which at the time was the largest housing project in the United States, three times bigger than the better known Cabrini Green Housing Project. ( All of the large Chicago based housing projects have been torn down, which is one reason homicide rates are lower in Chicago now than they were back then). But the idea was shot down, allegedly because of the appearance it would give of occupation. Lawlessness was acceptable, but political incorrectness, real or not, was not. Had the national guard been brought in, there is no doubt children and teenagers would be alive today that were murdered then.
                                                   Fast forward to the present. Lawlessness and black on black crime continues to be ignored, and so the toll of those killed and crippled continues to climb. It is far too easy and convenient to ignore this massive elephant in the room and pretend that the only thing that exists are racist cops. In high crime, high levels of violence communities, the answer is not a cowed police department more concerned with political correctness than policing, but an engaged, actively patrolling and involved police department. Simplistic, distorted, even untrue narratives help ensure police departments do not reform and remain too often sanctuaries for the promotion, advancement and placement of cronies and clout heavy incompetents. Better policing also means that cops belong on the streets, not in unnecessary paperwork, administrative and do nothing positions. Medically able cops, including the brass, belong in the field. Passive, subdued, or uninvolved police contribute to higher, not lower, homicide rates
                                                   Irresponsible fathers of all races that have children they do not take care of should pay for their recklessness. This recklessness contributes to the violence and lawlessness.
                                                   Racism exists. But each individual case when police shoot must be examined on its own merits. Cops have thousands upon thousands of interactions daily with violent people. It is disingenuous to assume that when police do shoot, it is racism that is the driving motive.
                                                   For every police shooting, of which far more are justified than not, there are thousands of shootings by criminals, gang bangers and other violent people. Focusing only on the tiny number of police shootings that exist in proportion to the high number of black on black shootings, and justifying the complete disregard for the thousands upon thousands of black lives lost by black on black crime with the flimsy excuse that one is racist institutional murder and the other is not is plain nonsense and a cop out.
                                                    Lawlessness and violence that continues to be ignored, condoned, excused, and accepted, has taken untold numbers of lives and will continue to do so. The problem is that few have the guts to stand up against it. It is easier to find a softer, more politically correct target.