Send your social workers. Send all your social workers.
This is what they call a “developing story”. The numbers may keep going higher by the time you’re reading this. But they’re bad enough already.
Eleven people were killed and at least 59 others were wounded in citywide shootings over Father’s Day weekend, marking the second-worst weekend for gun violence this year.
The toll of the Father’s Day weekend shootings included… children.
A toddler and three teenagers were among those shot to death between Friday evening and Sunday night, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times. Five other juveniles were also struck by gunfire.
The spate of shootings came just three weeks after 24 people were killed and at least 61 others were shot during Chicago’s most violent weekend in modern history. That historic surge in shootings happened amid the unrest that gripped the city when a downtown protest over the officer-involved killing of George Floyd devolved into chaos and led to days of looting.
If only there were an organization of armed men dedicated to stopping gang members from opening fire. But don’t worry, the Defund the Police movement sends its thoughts and prayers.
This weekend’s youngest victim, 3-year-old Mekay James, was shot Saturday evening when someone opened fire at his father as they drove through the 600 block of North Central in Austin, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Mekay’s father rushed him to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
During a news conference Sunday, Police Supt. David Brown mourned the boy’s death and also reflected on the killing of 13-year-old Amaria Jones, who was shot hours after Mekay when a stray bullet tore through her apartment in the same neighborhood and pierced her neck as she watched television.
This is what defunding the police really means.
The cops stop answering calls or, at the very least, shut down proactive measures. And the people in crime-ridden neighborhoods get the worst of it. And those people don’t have a lot of white privilege.
To paraphrase Obama, if you like your Ferguson Effect, you can keep your Ferguson Effect.
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