Another weekend in Chicago, another weekend of bloody carnage. As the Fourth of July weekend drew to close, the tally was in: a total of 79 people had been shot, 15 of whom were killed — including a 7-year-old girl visiting her grandmother, and a 14-year-old boy.
As reported by the Fox News affiliate in Chicago, the holiday weekend was the third weekend in a row a child under 10 has been fatally shot.
Last weekend, Sincere A. Gaston, 1, was killed while riding in his mother’s car and the weekend before, Mekhi James, 3, was fatally shot while riding in his stepfather’s SUV.
A rash of shootings in Chicago and Atlanta marred the Fourth of July weekend and left the families of three children grieving over their deaths. https://t.co/tIBD1jKcOx
— ABC News (@ABC) July 5, 2020
Embattled Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was asked by a reporter to explain not only the bloody weekend, but also the out-of-control increase in city homicides over the the same time last year.
Compared to last year, shootings up 40 percent, homicides up more than 30 percent, so just point-blank, what is happening right now?
The mayor’s answer was staggering.
All of these forces are coming together at the same time in making it very difficult. The ecosystem of public safety that isn’t just law enforcement, but is local, community-based, and they too, have really been hit hard by COVID, and are now just kinda coming back alive, and getting their footing.
Not that it matters that the reporter questioning Lightfoot was black, but either he didn’t ask a follow-up question to her ridiculous excuse for weekend after weekend of record carnage on the streets of her city, or an editor at the local news outlet decided to edit the clip at the precise point where the mayor’s answer ended.
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) blames “Covid” for the city’s spiking murder rate pic.twitter.com/xJMX2mUD92
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 6, 2020
Where does one begin to analyze that?
One of the lesser-known side effects from COVID: gunshot wounds https://t.co/r0YZZrvygb
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 6, 2020
Mayor Lightfoot updates #COVID symptoms to include 3 year olds murdered in gun violence that has plagued the city years before Coronavirus was a thing… https://t.co/6nWJxAaShK
— Kevin Dalton (@NextLAMayor) July 6, 2020
Seriously?! Covid-19 symptoms may include: coughing, runny nose, fever, and uncontrollable desire to kill people? https://t.co/GDyBm0xFan
— ben guinan (@Ben_G_IA23) July 6, 2020
And the final tally for yet another bloody weekend?
87 shooting victims, 13 were young people… #Chicago
— Tia A. Ewing (@TIA_EWING) July 6, 2020
Setting aside the latest unconscionable excuse from Mayor Lightfoot, this is the same Democrat mayor who went after President Trump after he posted a series of tweets condemning the violence in Minneapolis in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
He wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders, to throw red meat to his base. His goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government and inflame racist urges. We can absolutely not let him prevail. And I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words. It begins with F and it ends with U.
If Trump’s goal is to “destabilize local governments and inflame racist urges,” Mayor Lightfoot, what is your goal? What have you done to stem the record rate of black-on-black murder in your city?
Let’s recap a couple of recent weekends, shall we, mayor?
Over the May 30-31 weekend, 85 people were shot, 25 of whom were killed, marking Chicago’s deadliest weekend of 2020.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, 79 were shot, 15 of them killed — including a 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.
And you have the audacity to bring up COVID-19 as part of the discussion? With a straight face?
A 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were among those fatally shot Saturday night as Chicago erupted in gun violence on Independence Day. How many Confederate generals were spotted leaving the scenes of the crimes?https://t.co/6fr4sYuqFR#WeveGotACountryToSave
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) July 6, 2020
Was COVID-19 to blame for the death of those two innocent children, mayor? Did the virus pull the trigger on either of those guns?
You can say to Donald Trump whatever you want, mayor, but your own city saw 49 shot and 10 killed over the very same weekend you got all over Trump, about. And your streets have only gotten bloodier, since. And the best you can come up with is COVID-19?
If I were you, Mayor Lightfoot, I’d sit this one out. That, or knock off the excuses and put a stop to the out-of-control carnage.
