In the evening on Mother’s Day, I turned on my TV to watch the 10 o’clock news. I was stunned. I’m still reeling from what I heard. Nine people were dead and 42 were wounded in shootings over the 24-hour period. The news anchor reported that there were no arrests and the police had no suspects. I asked myself: What is wrong with this picture?
During the ensuing week, the response from community activists seemed unusually muted. There was no great outcry of outrage proportional to the magnitude of the carnage. Even the Black Lives Matter movement seemed to overlook Chicago’s Mother’s Day massacre. They did not take their protests to the streets and parks of our city where the shooting took place. It seems as if we all have become satiated with the sensationalism of violence and accept 50 shooting victims as an ordinary occurrence.
So what’s wrong with this picture? What is wrong is that after 50 shootings, there are no arrests and the police have no suspects. What is wrong is that our law enforcement agencies are permeated with bigotry. What is wrong is that our justice system is flawed. What is wrong is that white policemen are stereotyped as a murderers. What is wrong is that law enforcement is perceived as oppression. What is wrong is the belief that routine use of deadly force is acceptable in enforcing the law. What is really wrong is that there are too many wrongs and there are no quick solutions.
In articles that previously have appeared in this publication, I have written about various ills plaguing our communities. I explored the destructiveness of poverty and immorality. I discussed that there is definitely something wrong with the morals of a population that chooses mortal combat as a primary means of resolving differences of opinion. I suggested that community leaders, government agencies and investors ought to address jointly the challenges of bigoted economic oppression that is suffocating the underprivileged.
My previous writings, however, focused primarily on the misfortunes of the indigent. I alluded to the culpability of the majority only lightly. The middle class and upwardly mobile are preoccupied with securing their comforts for themselves. They are virtually oblivious to the plight of the poor. They abhor the lifestyle of those in squalor, and discount the human value of the less fortunate. Tranquility of the comfortable is disrupted only when crime and violence spill over to their side of the street. Conflict results in anger, resentment and prejudice.
In Chicago, the new police commissioner has proposed rebuilding a trusting relationship between the community and the police. Such a relationship is essential. Without trust, cooperation is not possible. Without cooperation with the police, a community cannot purge itself of criminals.
Tension between the communities and the police cannot be alleviated unilaterally by either side. In the equation of cultural tensions, both sides are equally culpable. Hatred in response to bigotry is just as destructive as bigotry itself. Therefore, community activists and spiritual leaders must intercede and become intermediaries in negotiations to reduce tensions and cultural conflict.
A multitude of fatal shootings are perpetrated by juveniles. With the growing trend of children killing children, I challenge parents, teachers and preachers to reverse that pattern. While indoctrinating infants to the concept of God, reveal to them that God issued a commandment: “Thou shall not kill.” Explain that human life has value. Explain to them that by taking a human life, they murder their own humanness and relinquish their right to call themselves human.
Fred Natkevi is a longtime resident of Oak Park.