The city of Chicago faces a test. The tradition of police brutality, of gang warfare, of high murder rates is under a new microscope. The recent release of video showing the brutal murder of Laquan McDonald, which was kept from the public for more than a year and contradicted police reports, brought to the surface a schism in the Windy City. Now another video that shows the killing of a young black American man, at the hands of two police officers is being asked to be made public and the court has sealed it, for now. The mayor has apologized. The chief of police was fired. But what’s really going to change. Gangs in Chicago’s South Side are so brutal, murder so common, that a 9 year old, Tyshawn Lee, was recently lured into an ally and shot as a retaliation for gang activity of his father. No one is safe. The superintended of schools says at this point in time it’s not a matter of who’s in a gang, everyone is in a gang. Young children walk in the middle of the road, because it’s easier to duck down there then on the sidewalks, on their way home from school. This is America. This is our country. In these same areas the police provide no solice, no real protection, they are also perpetrators.
I like to think about how problems can be solved. This is a situation that needs help. Children living in this kind of danger experience anxiety and depression that cripples their future potential. Think about how to break this violence, and how people in poverty are treated differently than those with means.
