News & Comment
Murder in Chicago: Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing?

News

Chicago is currently the murder capital of the U.S., and the Chicago Tribune reported on the 10th of October 2016, that “five people were killed and at least 35 others were wounded in weekend shootings in Chicago, bringing the total number of people shot so far this year to at least 3,366”.

Comment

In fact, since the beginning of the year, 590 people have been murdered in Chicago, and if their names were listed in print they would fill 3 complete sheets of paper, and if they had died fighting a war, their names would make an impressive monument carved in stone; but they were the victims of crime and were killed by fellow Americans on American soil. Their names and their stories are kept on a non-governmental data base called Homicide Watch Chicago, which is full of stories of sorrow.

In August, two 4 year-old children were killed in separate incidents. One of these children was Manuel Aguilar, whose “malnourished, partially burned body was found by firefighters covered in a charred, blue blanket inside the vacant home where Garcia, her 17-year-old lover and his older brother were seen entering moments before with a container of lighter fluid” according to Homicide Watch Chicago, which added even more tragically that “Manuel was so tiny, investigators first mistook him for a 9-month-old baby”. He was a victim of neglect, and his mother is in police custody charged with murder. She said that she found her son dead, but tried to hide his death because she was afraid that she would lose custody of her other children.

The 4 year old children are not the youngest to perish this year. Two children under the age of 1 year are listed on the Homicide Watch. The list of the youngest are: Bryson Lee Micah Holman (aged 0), Baby Boy Welch (aged 0), Katana Symone Greenlee (aged 1), Manuel Aguilar (aged 4), Madison Watson (aged 4), Shaniya Staples (aged 7) and Alexis Cruz (aged 10). The oldest victim was Henry S. McCann Jr. (aged 84), who was killed by an explosion set of by burglars in his garage who had previously threatened to burn-down his garage after he disturbed them in a previous burglary attempt.

With the killings in Chicago, presidential candidate Donald Trump said in his debate with Hilary Clinton on the 9th of October: “Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing? And we have to stop the violence. We have to bring back law and order. In a place like Chicago, where thousands of people have been killed, thousands over the last number of years, in fact, almost 4,000 have been killed since Barack Obama became president”. Donald Trump is famous for inventing stories, but this time his figures are sadly correct. He promised that if elected, police would be “given authority” to stop and search black and Hispanic suspects. Such a policy would not have saved 4 year-old Manuel Aguilar, and will do nothing to correct the social and economic collapse of America’s inner cities.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Abdullah Robin