Less than a week into August, at least 46 people have been shot across Chicago, six fatally. That’s an average of nearly eight shootings per day.
What’s most shocking (in the least surprising way) is how little attention these shootings garner in the mainstream press. It’s the same routine every year: Only in the aftermath of a mass shooting in the white suburbs does inner city gun violence make national headlines.
What does it say about American society that we only address the gun violence plaguing poor communities of color when white suburbanites are massacred?
As of July 25, the Chicago Tribune has recorded 1,240 shootings in Chicago so far this year, down 25 percent from the same time last year according to the Chicago Police Department. But the numbers are still overwhelming, especially since the shootings are almost entirely confined to poor neighborhoods of color. Last month alone, RedEye Chicago documented 51 homicides (88 percent of victims were black, the rest were hispanic) making July Chicago’s deadliest month so far in 2013.
Below I’ve documented 46 shootings that have taken place across Chicago since Thursday, August 1, based on local news reports. As you read through the list, keep in mind that the sound of bullets flying is a daily reality for people living in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods (fyi: the same neighborhoods whose schools are being shut down).
Thursday, 8/1:
3:13am—male, 26, shot in leg
10:15pm—male, 54, grazed by bullet
10:25pm—male, 36, shot in big toe
10:35pm—male, 20, shot once in chest and once in abdomen
Friday, 8/2:
12:30am—male, 40, shot in buttocks; male, 19, shot in buttocks
4:15am—male, 27, shot in shoulder
1:20pm—Kevin Williams, 27, shot in chest, pronounced dead at 5:05pm
2:00pm—male, 17
7:20pm—male, 16, shot in arm and leg; male, 18, graze wound to ankle
11:20pm—male, 17, shot in chest
11:30pm—boy, 6, graze wound to shoulder, West Side (6th child age 7 or younger shot in Chicago since June 30)
Saturday, 8/3:
12:30am—male, 17, shot in groin
12:45am—Willie Clark, 32, shot through side of torso, pronounced dead at 1:25am
1:50am—male, 22, shot in leg
2:00am—male, 33, shot in upper back
2:50am—female, 18, grazed in hand; female, 19, shot in arm
2:55am—male,18, shot in shoulder
3:30am—male, 27, shot in abdomen
8:15am—male, 17, shot in right arm
Sunday, 8/4:
12:05am—male, 20, shot in leg
1:00am—male, 24, shot in hand
2:15am—male, 23, shot in thigh
2:55am—male, 22, shot in arm
3:15am—male, 27, shot in foot
3:25am—male, 51, shot once in each thigh
6:21am—male; shot in left leg, right thigh and buttocks
9:50pm—male, 36, shot in foot, South Side
9:50pm—Clifton Balentine, 40, died from gunshot to chest, South Side
Monday, 8/5:
12:15am—male, 54, shot in ankle, South Side
12:55am—male, 53, shot in lower abdomen, South Side
3:00am—male, 31, shot in arm, North Side
1:40pm—male, 14, shot in upper left leg, South Side
4:20 pm—Jonathan Murray, 25, dead
male, 21, shot in groin, South Side
5:51pm—male, 18, shot in arm, South Side
8:00pm—male, 23, and female, 26, injured by gunshots, West Side
11:22pm—male, shot in torso and thigh
11:40pm—male, 38, shot in abdomen
11:45 pm—female, 36, shot twice in chest and once in arm, South Side
Tuesday, 8/6:
1:00 am—male, 34, shot in abdomen, South Side
3:40am– Brothers Demetrius Cooper, 35, and LeAndre Cooper, 38, were both shot in the head and pronounced dead at 5:15am (South Side)
This pandemic of intra-communal violence is heart-rending and horrific. In order to stop it, we must understand how the state, especially the CIA, its offshoots and other members of the invisible government– -has a deep-rooted responsibility for intra-communal violence. Drug trafficking, either directly thru turf wars or indirectly by shredding the social fabric of Black and Brown communities and perpetrating a predatory culture, is the cornerstone of intra-communal violence. Drug trafficking has been integral to the U.S. war machine. For details, read pages 15-16 of “Operation Ghetto Storm” which can be downloaded at http://mxgm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Operation-Ghetto-Storm.pdf OR http://www.operationghettostorm.org/uploads/1/9/1/1/19110795/operation_ghetto_storm.pdf