When homicide becomes a hereditary disease

It's not uncommon to have more than one person in the same family suffer from some type of potentially deadly hereditary disease. In most black families, you can more than likely find diabetes,  high blood pressure and/or glaucoma.  Unfortunately for the Chambers' family, you can also find homicide:

Click image to enlarge.

With over 40 homicides and more than 150 shootings in Chicago, the country’s third most populous city reached a grim death toll in January. Among them Ronnie Chambers, 33, who was the fourth of Shirley Chambers’ children to die from gun violence in Chicago.

Chambers gave her last respects to her son Monday in a church on the near North Side of Chicago where there was standing room only. Friends and family who gave remarks remembered Ronnie Chambers, whose nickname was “Scooby,” as someone who was “always networking” and “pointing kids in the right direction.”

In a sanctuary filled with more than 400 people, one friend remarked, “Scooby was like everybody’s hero.” As people shared fond memories of Ronnie Chambers, his mother sat, sometimes weeping, sometimes smiling, remembering her son in her own way.

Chambers knows the feeling all too well. She lost her 18-year-old son Carlos to gun violence in 1995. In 2000, Chambers’ 23-year-old son Jerome and 15-year-old daughter LaToya were both shot to death outside of a Cabrini-Green housing facility just months apart.

Chicago’s residents are crying out for a remedy to the city’s violence issue. In 2012, the city shamefully topped 500 murders for the first time in four years.

Civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson led about 150 people in a march Saturday highlighting the gun violence issue and asked President Barack Obama to come to Chicago to address the epidemic.

Read entire article here.

Where you been for the last twenty years?

Carol Moseley Braun is in trouble for publicly busting out the kind of insult that Rahm Emanuel only uses in private.

During Sunday afternoon's debate at Trinity United Church of Christ -- Jeremiah Wright's old congregation -- Moseley Braun told Patricia Watkins, "the reason you didn't know where I was for the last 20 years, 'cause you were strung out on crack."

The crowd hooted. Soon after, Moseley Braun left the sanctuary, fleeing in her SUV.

Emanuel has called liberals "[bleeping] retards." He told a male staffer to "pull your [bleeping] tampons out." He once invited the entire Republican Party to "go [bleep]" itself. But he didn't utter any one these vulgarities in front of a TV camera. We only have printed accounts, which make far less of an impression than Moseley Braun screeching and pointing at Patricia Watkins. Despite his reputation for flying off the handle, Emanuel is unfailingly somber and low-key in public. Emanuel's insults are a strategy to intimidate opponents and underlings, not the result of emotional outbursts. He has the discipline Moseley Braun lacks.

Another reason Moseley Braun's outburst came off so badly was that it echoed media stereotypes of catfighting women.

Moseley Braun brought street language to the mayoral race, the kiss of death for a black candidate trying to win over white voters. But Moseley Braun unleashed her high-handed combination of entitlement and resentment at a fellow black woman who refused to step aside for the community's consensus candidate.

But Moseley Braun's outburst will really help Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel's latest radio ad features President Obama praising his performance as chief of staff. Blacks who abandon Moseley Braun will probably vote for Emanuel. All because he's smart enough to keep his mouth shut in front of a TV camera. -NBCChicago-

Chicago police lieutenant disciplined for blogging about his superiors

Sounds like it's past time for the President of the Illinois NAACP to head to Chicago and give them a pass to save their City...

Police Lieutenant Blasts Department Superiors

A Chicago police Lieutenant is under fire for an Internet post that blasts the department’s leadership and the mayor.

“We are tired of a leaderless department. We are angry at an unsupportive mayor,” Lt. John Andrews wrote in a fiery critique of the department.

The post is titled, A City at War with Itself: Chicago - Fast Tracking to Anarchy.

Andrews argues that staff shortages, corruption and a leader he says the rank and file doesn't respect have all made the job of policing the streets of Chicago almost impossible.

"This is the very worst that I’ve seen this department.” Andrews said Tuesday in an interview with NBC Chicago. “We don’t have the capability of maintaining the social order in some of the Chicago neighborhoods. It’s taken its toll. Our people are tired, beat up, they’re undermanned, outgunned. It’s dangerous.”

Department brass didn't take too kindly to the post and hit Andrews with disciplinary action, claiming he "brought discredit to the Chicago police department."

"I don’t think leaders should sit and throw rocks at their respective agencies or at those who are actually trying to address those challenges," said Supt. Jody Weis

The president of the Chicago Police Lieutenants Association, however, is standing by Andrews.

"This is a constitutional issue infringing on his freedom of speech," said Bob Weisskopf in a written statement. "Just about every lieutenant believes in the spirit of what he wrote.”

Andrews began writing about a month ago, when Officer Michael Bailey became the third officer to be killed this summer. He claims morale in the almost 13,000-member force has hit an all-time low.

An internal affairs hearing scheduled for Friday will determine whether Andrews, a 26-year member of the force, will be able to keep his job. Source

Read Lt. John Andrews' entire post here.

1 out of 8 girls pregnant at Chicago high school

I came across this report about pregant teenagers last week, but I found it so astounding I just didn't want to touch it. However, I post it today after reading a post that the Peoria Anti-Pundit has about what schools need to do with pregnant girls (notice #5 on his Wish List). Can somebody please send Bristol down here to talk with these young ladies.

115 Pregnant Girls at Chicago High School

A total of 115 girls are pregnant at Chicago's Paul Robeson High School. The entire school only has about 800 girls, so that means that 1 out of every 8 girl is pregnant.

There is no specific reason why Robeson High is experiencing such a high rate of pregnancies amongst its students. Robeson principal Gerald Morrow cited the young girls' home environment as being a factor, "It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home, if you will."

There is work being done to improve the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood to Robeson High. Developers are working on turning a one-time crack house into a day-care center for student use.

Source

"Mothers" of the Chicago savages respond

What can you say when you are a mother confronted with images of your child behaving like a savage and brutally murdering another person? I don't have anything good or constructive to say about these people (the parents or the savages that they brought into this world).

This Derrion Albert beating situation angers me to no end - and make no mistake people - these are the same thugs that are now taking over Peoria. They are like rabid dogs, showing their arses, running the street. Okay - sure, some of these people may just be in a bad situation and just need a way out; but there are some that are sheer predators and they NEED TO BE TAKEN DOWN. The good kids don't stand a chance against these savages.

From the Chicago Tribune...
Now the mothers of two of the four boys charged with Derrion Albert's murder are speaking out and one can't bear to watch the video.

"That's Gene. That's my son," said Eugene Riley's mother, Sherry Smith, to the Chicago Tribune. "I'm not going to lie about that." Smith offered her condolences to Albert's family.

Desiyan Bacon, Riley's aunt, attended Monday's vigil at the school and said her nephew didn't have anything to do with the beating and was a friend of the victim. "They need to stop the crime, but when they do it, they need to get the right person," Bacon said.

Riley, 18, has been charged with first-degree murder with three other teens: Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eric Carson, 16, and Eugene Bailey, 18.

Silvonus Shannon's mother, Tamaray Shannon, told the Chicago Tribune she could not bear to watch the video, which purportedly shows her son stomping on Albert's head. "Silvonus is not a bad kid," she told the paper. "He was protecting himself. Silvonus is not what they are making him out to be."

I refuse to post the video, but this is a blow by blow…

Albert was knocked unconscious when Carson struck him in the head with a board and the second person punched him in the face. Albert regained consciousness and was trying to get up when he was attacked a second time by five people and was struck in the head with a board by Riley and stomped in the head by Shannon.

Derrion Albert beating video: A gang recruitment tool?

The video showing Derrion Albert (Chicago) getting stomped and beat with wooden planks has troubled me for days, I refuse to post it. Derrion was a high-achieving, honor roll student, who attended Christian Fenger Academy High School. He was walking to a bus stop when he got caught up in the clash.

After being hit on the head with a wooden plank Derrion falls and was then attacked by five people who stomped and beat him to death.

The violence stemmed from a shooting last Thursday involving two groups of students from different neighborhoods. When school ended, members of the groups began fighting near the Agape Community Center.

Derrion, who was a bystander and not part of either gang had refused to join a gang. Do you think Derrion would be alive today if he had a gang to protect him?

The killing has ramped up pressure on officials to crack down on chronic violence involving young people in the city. More than 30 students died violently in Chicago during the past school year.

Senseless and random violence - the crabs in a bucket mentality is in full effect. I have heard that a lot of the clowns killing and reeking havoc here in Peoria are from Chicago. Something about the projects up there pushing people out and they are coming to Peoria. Below is an example of senseless and random violence in the Uptown neighborhood in Chicago...

What a riot! from Joe Gray on Vimeo.

The times are ripe for poets

Poetry is an integral part of the black experience. Every youngster in our community should know something about Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Niki Giovanni or Gil Scott Heron, just to name a few. These poets have chronicled the life and times of the black experience.

Coming out of the Midwest, we have promising poets like Common (from Chicago, shown above), Lyfe Jennings (Toledo) and Kanye (Chicago) who are telling our youth to keep ya head up, things are going to get better. And let's not forget about the neo-soul ladies who also have so much to say, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu or India.Arie.

The times we currently live in bears many fruit for street poets, hopefully they will find the inspiration and nourishment and share it positively.

November 5, 2008, I have a new Super Hero...
but first let us pay allegience to those who came before.

The Crimson Avenger - She, possessing the power of teleportation and intangibility, is an African-American woman who might be called Jill Carlyle. In a flashback sequence, she studied law but apparently lost a case in which the defendant was clearly guilty. She obtains a pair of Colt pistols originally owned by the first Crimson Avenger and uses them to exact vengeance upon the unknown criminal. These guns are cursed such that, if the possessor uses them out of revenge, he or she will be cursed to track and kill those who have taken innocent life. As part of the curse, an ever-bleeding bullet hole appears on her chest.

Pulsar - Monica Rambeau was a lieutenant in the New Orleans police force. A friend of the family, had been forced to create a device which would harness other-dimensional energies. In the process of helping to destroy that device, she was bombarded with those energies and found that she could, as a result, transmute her body to energy and back again at will. As a full fledged member of the Avengers she inherited the moniker Captain Marvel from the press. Eventually, she gave up the name out of respect to its former owner and changed her name, first to Photon, and finally to Pulsar. One of the most underrated characters in the Marvel Universe, she is one of its most powerful, as seen during the World War Hulk storyline

Patrolwoman Misty Knight, who graduated from NYC's police academy with top honors, rescued Colleen Wing from a gun battle, and the two became close friends. During a bank robbery, Knight discovered a bomb but could not dispose of it in time and lost her arm in the process. It was replaced with a cybernetic arm. In spite of her new strength and ability, she was forced to end her active duty with the police force and resigned. Colleen encouraged Misty to be resiliant, and the two formed a private investigation firm. Together they became the Heroes for Hire, employing a few other vigilante heroes and working as bail bondswomen for super villains.

Introducing a new black, female, Super Hero,

First Lady of the United States... Michelle Obama!

Michelle LaVaughn Obama is a lawyer and the wife of Barack Obama, the President-elect of the United States. She was born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. After completing her formal education, she returned to Chicago and accepted a position with the law firm Sidley Austin, and subsequently worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Hospitals. Michelle met Barack when he joined Sidley Austin and today they have two beautiful daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama. When Barack Obama was elected to the Senate, the Obama family chose to live on Chicago's South Side rather than Washington, D.C.

Michelle's greatest Super Hero feat to date - she has met the challenge of mastering the balancing act of being a strong black woman, while raising a family and being married to a strong black man. Hmm, hmmm, we owe Michelle, she has helped make it possible for Barack Huessin Obama to ascend to the office of President of the United States. She is one of those sistas you can bring along to compliment (or make) the deal. She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States! Michelle Obama - a true American Super Hero!