Chicago 2016 in one picture

If Chicago were run by a Republican machine, and if President-Elect Trump had adopted it as his home town and political base, the media would constantly proclaim it a stain on our national honor, a killing field maintained for the purpose of killing young black men. There would be ceaseless reminders that an intolerable climate of violence has been fostered and tolerated by evil Republicans. There would have been demands for years that the (hypothetical Republican) mayor resign, that grand juries be convened to investigate civil rights violations (most murder victims are black). Of course, Chicago has been run by Democrats almost since dinosaurs roamed the earth, so nobody in the media much cares. Conservative websites may note the death toll and compare it to Kabul and Baghdad (Aleppo currently is in a class of its own), but as far is the media power structure is concerned, Chicago’s slaughter of young black males is a non-event. The awkward fact that draconian gun control laws have been less than useless in attenuating the carnage is a contributing factor in the near conspiracy of silence.

Of course, Chicagoans know. And not all of them live in fear of the Daley-Obama-Emanuel machine retaliating for indiscreet honesty. Among the courageous voices is cwbchicago.com (Crime in Wrigleyville +Boystown). Yesterday, it published a heartbreaking picture that sums up what the Second City has become. Here is the explanation: It was 2 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon. The day after Labor Day. 91-degrees as Chicago’s bloody summer began winding into what would be an equally bloody autumn. Eight shots rang out in Uptown. Pastor Jones ran from Uptown Baptist Church and stopped at the fallen man’s side. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a book of prayers. His right hand rose to the sky. Another man, practically jumping from his own skin, kneels at the pastor’s feet. Another man approached. He kneeled down and began administering CPR through the victim’s white tank top, freshly stained with five distinct red blotches that slowly grew. A police sergeant arrived. A couple of bystanders recorded the moment with their phones. And one of those pictures quickly made its way to us. We were immediately struck by the image. The nine complete strangers who were brought together by a moment that, terrible as it was, played out nearly 800 times this year in Chicago. Gregory Sims, 25, was Chicago's 522nd homicide of the year, according to the authoritative research of HeyJackass.com Like 81.6% of Chicago's murders, his killing remains unsolved. Chicago’s fate is spreading, in tandem with the anti-police rhetoric that the left has embraced. When our guardians are afraid to do their jobs, the rest of us suffer. Hat tip: Peter von Buol