The American population’s attention is being diverted from some of the most serious problems that we currently face as a nation. Everyone knows about the Islamic State and the destruction being caused across the Middle East and northern Africa, but somehow addressing the devastation in our own cities is not a priority. There are rarely headlines reminding Americans that in some of the country’s major cities, there lies a great threat. Violence in notorious cities such as Chicago, Illinois has increased from years past. We have war zones in the many cities in our United States where one cannot walk down the street safely, where teenagers can provide a list of friends that they have lost due to violence, and where there are no successful actions are being taken to combat the massive loss of life.
According to heyjackass.com, a website devoted to keeping real time statistics on crime in Chicago, there have been 616 total murders so far this year. Although the name of the site is a bit off putting, the data and statistics are quality and far from made up. Gunshot wounds account for 540 of those murders, a relatively low number when compared to the 3,557 total shootings that have plagued the city this year alone. Of the 616 murders, only 111 of the murders were linked back to the murderer. That means that 79.3 percent of the murders in Chicago this year are unsolved, and the guilty individual is still on the street. The website also provides a graph comparing the data from years prior to this year’s murder numbers. There are at least 150 more murders to date than any other year on the graph, spanning from 2009 to 2016.
The tough and apathetic personality that results from such an environment has been distributed across the country through music. Artists coming out of neighborhoods in Chicago that have been devastated by the violence often include references in their work to what they have seen on the street. Numerous artists have been discovered through Chicago’s “drill music,” a style of music that became popular after 2012, another year when the city experienced a similarly large surge in crime. The lyrics of the music are littered with reference to murders, drugs and guns. The words used are often appalling to listeners who do not understand where the artist came from, or what an average day in their hometown entails. The upsetting part is that crime in these cities have become a way of life.
The police officers located in high crime areas are the on the front line of an ongoing war on the streets. Drugs are rampant, gangs are ubiquitous, and those individuals distributing the drugs are often also involved in these murders. As a nation, we need to rally behind those who risk their lives to keep the streets safe--our police officers. Making these individuals question their power will only make situations worse, because more power and freedom is being given to the criminals who are killing others daily.
Police officers need to be able to act without concern that their actions will end up on the news rather than the unreal crime numbers that frankly should make up the headlines. Crime across the country needs to be addressed, because it has already spiraled completely out of control.
