The reaction to the Independence Day parade shooting in suburban Chicago and the police shooting last month of a black man in Ohio highlight the hypocrisy and intense dishonesty of leftist claims of valuing black lives.
Upon hearing about the madman murdering a half dozen and wounding many fellow Americans celebrating the nation’s birthday, President Joe Biden said, “Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.”
“We’ve got a lot more work to do. We’ve got to get this under control,” he added.
Almost on cue, Illinois Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker noted, “I’m furious because it does not have to be this way.”
Just 25 miles south of Highland Park, police were ambushed, at least 10 were killed, and over 60 were wounded during the same holiday weekend in Chicago proper. Data shows the Windy City is now approaching 1,300 shootings and 320 deaths in 2022.
Statistics showing black Americans make up three quarters of the victims seem irrelevant to Biden, Pritzker, and others who audaciously claim to speak for the black community.
Just like last year, when over 100 were shot in Chicago the same weekend, neither Biden nor anyone from the corrupt BLM movement has uttered a damn word on behalf of these victims.
Has the president offered the “full support of the federal government” to Chicago in the wake of this violence? Is the corpulent billionaire governor “furious”? If you gauged the importance of lives lost by the public reaction of the president, governor, and legacy media coverage, you’d conclude that these lives are insignificant.
While little has been said about the 240 blacks murdered in Chicago this year, thousands rushed to the streets of Akron over the shooting of Jayland Walker. Although the protests began peacefully, Mayor Dan Horrigan was forced to issue a state of emergency and a curfew when they predictably turned violent.
The shooting has drawn national attention given that an “unarmed black man” was shot dozens of times by police. However, most news outlets initially — and perhaps purposely — failed to mention that, as the police tried to pull him over for a traffic violation, video shows Walker fired a gun shot from his car before running off. The gun and ammunition was found in Walker’s car after the shooting.
Again, try to find a Democrat, a race huckster, or anti-gun activist noting these facts.
An investigation — not a preachy Netflix or ESPN documentary — will determine the facts, but in the meantime, the Akron riots and media malfeasance as compared to the lack of attention given to blacks murdered in Chicago is noteworthy.
It remains clear the anti-gun progressives — politicians, celebrities, academics, athletes, and most media — only care about certain lives.
“It didn’t stop the news cycle. Is that because it’s expected perhaps?” National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke asked regarding those killed in Chicago. “It didn’t engender ‘this was carnage, no one is safe’ talk. It’s just there as constant background. It matters, not just because those are people too, but because those sorts of killings are probably easier to solve or reduce.”
The best way to quell gun violence in Chicago or any dangerous urban locale is a greater police presence. Full stop.
But it also requires an admission by the left — not farcical memes that Republicans “choose killers over kids” as one execrable congressman tweeted — that police are the last line of defense for black lives in communities around the country.
But that does not fit the narrative of the White House and today’s left, so anarchy and disinformation thrive.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
