Chicago gun violence: Where's the outrage?
By Gerald D. Skoning
July 10, 2009
The long 4th of July weekend featured glorious fireworks along the lakefront and deadly gunfire in inner-city neighborhoods. Chicago tallied 63 shootings, one stabbing and 11 fatal shootings.

That's just the latest carnage. The city logged 202 homicide victims in the first six months of 2009: 88 percent were male, 78 percent were black, 44 percent were between the ages of 20 and 30, and 84 percent were shot to death.During the same time, we lost 101 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and 99 in Afghanistan.



By any measure, it seems we aren't winning any of the wars.

Chicagoans face urban violence and death on a daily basis with very little notice. Many of the victims of the Chicago carnage are our children, innocents caught in the crossfire of gang warfare. Call it "sectarian violence" fomented by gang and drug traffickers fighting over turf.



Community leaders rail about the root causes of this urban slaughter -- poverty, unemployment, drug trafficking. Mayor Richard Daley screams about gangbangers and the shocking availability of handguns. The veins in his neck bulge as he argues for stricter gun-control laws.

Meanwhile, national leaders who are fearful of offending vital constituencies pander to the right-to-bear-arms advocates and refuse to address the most urgent issue in urban America.

What about the rest of us? Where is our outrage? Where is our indignation over the slaughter of Chicago children?

Why aren't the residents of Barrington, Winnetka, Wheaton and Lincoln Park linking arms with residents in Englewood, South Austin and Lawndale to mount a massive protest against the outrage in our midst? Have we thrown up our hands in defeat?



To be sure, the challenge is enormous, but there are solutions. As we begin to draw down troop levels in Iraq, a brigade or two could be redeployed to Chicago neighborhoods. Their mission would be not unlike the one they pursued in Iraq, to clear and secure neighborhoods, to protect the local population and to help Chicago Police Department forces curtail

the tidal wave of urban violence.

The tragic loss of brave soldiers killed overseas grabs media headlines and fuels the raging fires of political debate. Meanwhile, in another war right here in our own backyard, the killings continue, almost ignored.

This urban nightmare brings to mind the sage words of 17th Century poet John Donne: "No man is an island, entire of itself . . . any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

The bell is tolling mournfully, for all of us.

Gerald D. Skoning is a Chicago attorney.