Gun violence kills 160 as holiday weekend exposes tale of 'two Americas'...

[posty 2,296]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/07/gun-violence-shootings-fourth-of-july-weekend-racism-segregation

A six-year-old in Philadelphia, a seven-year-old in Chicago, an eight-year-old in Atlanta, a 15-year-old in New York, all shot. Community cries of “enough is enough”.

Neighborhoods in some of the largest US cities erupted in gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend, killing an estimated 160 people and leaving more than 500 wounded from Friday night to Sunday.

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, declared a state of emergency on Monday after 31 people were shot and five killed over the weekend in Atlanta. He authorized 1,000 national guard troops to “protect state property and patrol our streets”.

But Chicago saw the worst violence in one of the bloodiest holiday weekends in recent memory, ending with 17 people fatally shot including a seven-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy and 63 more wounded, an increase of five shootings on the high figures that had marred the holiday weekend the previous year.

Despite an effort that included an additional 1,200 officers on the streets and pleas from the city’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, for residents not to reverse limited progress that had been made against the epidemic of gun violence, Lightfoot lamented the children whose “hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun”.

The city’s south and west sides have seen worse weekends this year, however, and a one-year-old and a three-year-old were killed during recent shootings. The rising violence prompted Donald Trump to write to Lightfoot and the Illinois governor, JB Priztker, both Democrats, accusing them of receiving more than $1bn in special federal funding for anti-crime measures and coronavirus relief that was “not being turned into results”.

“Your lack of leadership … continues to fail the people you have sworn to protect,” the letter said.

Lightfoot dismissed Trump’s letter as “all talk, little action”.

The shooting death of an eight-year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, in Atlanta, prompted the mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to call for justice while noting the shadow such street violence casts over the huge and largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests against racism and police brutality.

“Enough is enough,” Bottoms said. “If you want people to take us seriously and you don’t want us to lose this movement, we can’t lose each other.”

The shooting happened near the Wendy’s restaurant where a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by a white police officer in June.

“She was only eight years old,” Charmaine Turner said of her daughter Secoriea. “Right now, she would have been on TikTok, dancing on her phone.”

Atlanta police said two other people were killed and more than 20 injured in gunfire during the holiday weekend.

In New York, a series of shootings on Saturday and Sunday claimed at least nine lives and wounded 41 others in a rise in incidents in some neighborhoods. A 15-year-old boy was wounded in the Bronx.

And in Philadelphia, a six-year-old boy died of a gunshot wound amid five fatal shootings in about five hours on Sunday afternoon, police said.

The Trace, a non-profit news website covering gun violence in the US, which tallied the weekend toll of shootings in the US, reported that preliminary research from the University of California, Davis, has found a potential link between the rise in violence and a surge in gun-buying during the coronavirus pandemic, of more than 2.1 million more guns than usual between March and May.

The Rev Gregory Livingston, a pastor and civil rights leader who moved to New York last summer after many years running an anti-violence community organization in his native Chicago, spoke of Chicago “going through absolute madness”.

But he warned that nationwide systemic racism that is not being addressed, and the “violent history” of America that has not been reckoned with were dividing people and causing some communities to break down.

“Chicago is, woefully, a tale of two cities, and across the country it’s a tale of two Americas. Chicago is a very segregated city, and that legacy is part of what’s fueling this horrific violence,” Livingston told the Guardian.

He condemned “corruption and racism” and said the pandemic and economic fallout had exacerbated inequality. The pandemic has been disproportionately hard on Black Americans already suffering economic and healthcare deprivations.

Livingston campaigned strongly to vote out the previous Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel. Lightfoot has been in the position since May 2019, and has just appointed a new police chief.

Lightfoot agreed with Livingston’s point that a long history of segregation in Chicago and under-investment were “at the root” of the “explosion” of violence.

“You have to give a sense of hope. You have to reach out to those young men on the corners who are the shooters, but it can’t just be on the police and the city government. It’s all hands on deck,” Lightfoot said.

She said of Trump: “We are leading. He needs to take our lead and follow it.”

Livingston called on Lightfoot to tackle racism and policing problems “head on”.

“There is an individual responsibility [among those shooting], but there are also conditions that create a climate of violence,” he said.

He accused the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, of being “scared” of confronting racism in the New York police department. “There is no courage in city hall,” he said.

And he warned mayors across the US that Chicago was the “control” for what would happen elsewhere this summer if inequality and the demands of protesters coast to coast since George Floyd, an African American, was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer did not spur change.

The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, declared herself dismayed that she was not asked about the weekend shootings at her briefing on Monday, despite citing “a doubling of shootings in New York City for the third straight week”.

Journalists at the briefing responded that she had ended the 22-minute briefing and departed while many were still waiting, hands raised, to ask questions.

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Why does an eight-year-old have a phone and on TikTok anyway?  Nice parenting...  Plus dancing on your phone would break it...

[Djgb13 2,338]

$100 says they instead blame the gun and not the BLM as well as try to ban guns 

[drobeski 3,061]

Thanks democrats.  I guess black lives don't really matter. 

 

[TimmySmith 2,782]

BLM is ONLY about black lives in very certain circumstances, and these ain't 160 of them.  Just ask Don Lemon.  

[Cdub100 3,369]

Definitly two americas.

On one side you have civilized people working and taking care of their family and community. We take care of our property and believe in the social contract.

The other side: burn, loot, steal and murder. They don't believe in the social contract. They don't take care of their property and prefer to use drugs and alcohol in excess.

Oh and one of these sides are racist bigots.

[Hardcore troubadour 12,593]

It’s only the beginning. They have no way of stopping what’s coming. You break that thing you bought it. The last time crime was out of control in this country the Democratic Party was somewhat normal.  Now Clinton and Biden get called out for a crime bill that got a hold of crime in this country. 1990- 2245 murders in NYC. 2019- 311. Fact. This time there is no plan to stop it. How can we when the majority party has built their platform on systematic racism? Effective Enforcement of the law produces a perceived racist outcome. Maybe the social workers can head down to the corner and talk to the scumbags shooting the place up. 

[Utilit99 4,099]

And all the woke white liberals throw their money at these democratic state level campaigns. Around the corner from me there is a long block of homes that are valued anywhere from $1-4M per home. I don't see any conservative messages on their lawns. I see plenty of Biden 2020, BYE DON, Black Lives Matter signs lined in their front yards. It makes me sick how stupid these people are. 

The only rational conclusion I can come to is that they want more of what the left has been giving them all this time.

[FlyinHeadlock 459]

It's how the districts are drawn. Mine is upper middle and wealthy. Less than 10 mi away though one drawn of entirely of blacks and poor hispanics. They elect toxic race baiting leaders and their district gets worse. We elect people who improve our district. Happens all over the country.

Packing them altogether was suppose to give them more of a voice. It did but it's the wrong message with horrible results.

 

[supermike80 1,285]

33 minutes ago, Djgb13 said:

$100 says they instead blame the gun and not the BLM as well as try to ban guns 

No..they are blaming white people..Because you see we are racists..and our racism has destroyed their lives, so they go out and kill each other, and children, because white people are racist

[jerryskids 5,172]

Quote

1. The shooting death of an eight-year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, in Atlanta, prompted the mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to call for justice while noting the shadow such street violence casts over the huge and largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests against racism and police brutality.

2. The Trace, a non-profit news website covering gun violence in the US, which tallied the weekend toll of shootings in the US, reported that preliminary research from the University of California, Davis, has found a potential link between the rise in violence and a surge in gun-buying during the coronavirus pandemic, of more than 2.1 million more guns than usual between March and May.

1.  Always gotta work in some variant of "largely peaceful."  I wonder if these writers have some type of quota for these things.

2.  Perfect example of correlation not equaling causation.  

[lod001 1,235]

160 less Biden votes.

[posty 2,296]

14 minutes ago, lod001 said:

160 less Biden votes.

Or 480 more...

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

12 hours ago, lod001 said:

160 less Biden votes.

Hell, the dead ones are more likely to vote than the live ones. 

[Utilit99 4,099]

43 minutes ago, titans&bucs&bearsohmy! said:

Hell, the dead ones are more likely to vote than the live ones. 

 Especially with the liberal voting methods.