Chicago Gun Deaths Rise to 500, 13 Lives Lost Over Labor Day Weekend
Over the Labor Day weekend Chicago saw their 500th homicide of the year.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told the press the crippling gun violence isn’t a police issue per se.
“It’s a society issue,” he said commenting on the 13 fatalities and 65 gunshot wounds the city saw over the recent three-day weekend. “Impoverished neighborhoods, people without hope do these kinds of things. You show me a man that doesn’t have hope, I’ll show you one that’s willing to pick up a gun and do anything with it.”
He added, “Those are the issues that’s driving this violence. CPD is doing its job.”
Johnson also stressed he has never seen this amount mistrust for the police during his career, noting incidents like the police-involved shooting of Laquan McDonald play a role in that. But he pointed out it also has an impact on the police, too.
“Of course, they’re human. They’re people,” Johnson said. “So of course, nobody wants to be the next viral video. These officers have families to take care of too.“
Viral video like the one of Windy City police who were high-fiving one another over the dead body of unarmed Black teen Paul O’Neal? Human like that?
You Go, Boy! Amid National Pushback, Colin Kaepernick Jerseys Soar to No. 1 On The 49ers Website
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick may be facing a number of opponents who are upset because he’s refused to stand during the national anthem, but it’s clear that plenty of folks, including U.S. veterans and even POTUS, have his back.
If you needed more proof, it’s being reported that his sports jersey has soared to number one on the team’s website and number five of the entire league on NFL’s website, the New York Daily News wrote. Clearly, this spike in sales comes a week after the media reported that the 28-year-old refused to stand for the national anthem to protest police brutality and the treatment of “black people and people of color” in the country.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ9TKsVDdds/?taken-by=teamcolinkaepernick
“To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” he told NFL.com last week.
“This is not something that I am going to run by anybody,” Kaepernick added. “I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. … If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”
Carry on, Colin!
Poll: Support For Black Lives Matter Growing Among Young White Adults
A recent poll has found that support for the Black Lives Matter movement has increased among young White adults.
According to the Associated Press, 51 percent of White adults between the ages of 18 and 30 said in a GenForward poll they now strongly or somewhat support Black Lives Matter. This is up 10 percent since June. Meanwhile, pollsters also found that 42 percent said they do not support the movement.
Before we celebrate, these findings are still complicated, and at times even contradictory. Sixty-six percent of Whites were still under the impression that Black Lives Matter encourages violence against police, a notion that BLM leaders have strongly rejected. (Only 19 percent of Blacks believe that). Also, White respondents felt the killings against police, like the incident in Dallas, were more serious than those of Black people and Latinos.
Among people of color, 85 percent of African-American young adults support the protesters, along with 67 percent of Asian and 62 percent of Latinos.
What’s behind the rise in support? One can’t know for sure, but we suspect the high-profile deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile played a role.
