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508 Chicago School Students Shot In 16 Months
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Race; Posted on: 2009-03-12 02:30:41 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
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Similar level of violence observed throughout Sub-Saharan Africa,
Haiti, Detroit, E. St Louis, Oakland, and in the more "diverse" areas of South America.
Twenty-five Chicago Public School students have been murdered this
year. As shocking as that number is, there is another figure that's
very disturbing as well: the number of students who have been shot in a
16-month period is enough to fill an elementary school - 508 students,
according to school officials. CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago's Chief
Correspondent Jay Levine asks why, and what is being done to stop it.
Think about it. By this time tomorrow, odds are at least one Chicago
Public School student will have been shot. By this time next week,
there'll be seven. It's a staggering, frightening, shameful statistic
that judging from the reaction we got, those who could do something
aren't anxious to talk about.
"No one really wants to address this but we need to call for a state of emergency," said Pastor Roosevelt Watkins.
[...]
But it's not only a police problem.
"There's a fear in the neighborhood because the people fear
retaliation," Pastor Watkins said. "We need to go back to the old
school way where we had neighbors knowing each other, building
neighborhood block clubs."
There's plenty of blame to go around - from neighbors' blind eyes to
broken families to schools without truant officers to police manpower.
Until everyone starts working together, joining forces instead of
pointing fingers, the shooting will undoubtedly continue.
Continue...
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News Source: wcbs.tv
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