It’s almost impossible to try and relate to people what it’s like for a cop who has to remain calm while processing the scene of a  violent death of a child. I will tell you that an overwhelming feeling of grief sets in, it’s something that never gets erased no matter how many times you’re exposed to it. The dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them, but to those of us who are confronted with the carnage of dealing with the violent death of children, it remains a haunting recurring nightmare. Look at the faces of these boys below. For the rest of their lives, they will be haunted by their friend’s death at 9 years old.

Almost immediately after the initial grief comes raging anger.  Yesterday Dajore Wilson just 8 years old became Chicago’s 43rd juvenile under 13 to be murdered by gang violence. She joins the long list of names that without question will be forgotten in a few weeks. Life on Chicago’s streets indeed is a fragile bargain, rescindable at almost anytime. Only wicked people who lack a complete sense of decency and who are afflicted with “EMPATHY DEFICIT DISORDER” kill children with absolutely no sense of compassion.  The gang mentality so coldly put to me one day some years back by the Notorious Street Gang leader and founder of the  GANGSTER DISCIPLES Larry Hoover,  “YOU WIT A GANGSTER! YOU ARE GANG.”

None of those 43 innocent children will appear on a famous athletes helmet, there will be no outrage or memorial plaques, their names will fade from memory and only their loved ones and friends will remember and shed tears and share nightmares long after they are gone.

As for the other 541 victims of Chicago’s gang violence THIS YEAR, it cannot be said that today’s shooters will be tomorrow’s victims. The killing of innocence continues, all the talk and pompous speeches have not stopped the slaughter. “CHICAGO’S CHILDREN  SOMEHOW HAVE RESURRECTED THE WORDS OF THOMAS HOBBES THE GREAT ENGLISH PHILOSOPHER WHOSE WORDS IN 1651 ARE HAUNTING.  “NO ARTS, NO LETTERS; AND WHICH IS WORST OF ALL, CONTINUAL FEAR OF VIOLENT DEATH; AND THE LIFE OF A CHILD, SOLITARY, POOR, NASTY, BRUTISH AND SHORT.”

Dr. Martin Luther King,  Jr. once said,  “In the end, it’s not the words of our enemy we will remember but the silence of our friends.” It seems that far too many political leaders in Chicago have blanched in the face of the ongoing slaughter in their City. Day after day, hour after hour the mayhem continues and now it has reached the age of innocence, silencing children forever. City leaders breathing their own exhaust not knowing that delusion is contagious. The Gangs in Chicago are emboldened and they are more of a power than they have ever been. It’s wise to believe that power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did and it never will.  The question is WHO AND WHEN WILL THAT DEMAND BECOME A REALITY?

The silence by the leadership in Chicago is exactly what Dr. King meant.  The constant shootings and killings by the gangs tell us who the enemy is, and the SILENCE by political Leaders speaks volumes. Too much power permits the powerful to skate responsibility. There are no morals in politics, there is only expediency. By being silent and passive only a blind person cannot see the problem is rapidly expanding.  A politician’s tears dry quickly when it’s shed for others. Hunter Thompson once said, “TOMORROW WE HAVE TO GET SERIOUS.”  HOW MANY MORE OF CHICAGO’S CHILDREN HAVE TO DIE BEFORE THE SOUND OF SILENCE GOES BACK TO BEING A SONG?