“Some 72.5% of black children today are born out of wedlock.”
By Pete Papaherakles
Chicago is experiencing an incredible surge in gangster violence that has experts wondering what exactly is going on. Gang violence is up 30% since last year, and the murder rate has skyrocketed by 37% since this time in 2011.
Not surprisingly, the majority of violence is being committed by black gang members, who are running wild in the Windy City, and so far there has been little the police can do.
Over the Independence Day weekend, 15 people were shot, some of whom were children. Previous weekends were much worse. On the weekend of June 16-17, 35 people were wounded, and seven killed. The previous weekend 40 Chicagoans were shot, and eight died. On Memorial Day weekend, 40 people were shot, and 10 died. By far the worst violence occurred on the weekend of March 17-18, when 49 people were shot and 10 people killed, including a six-year-old girl. So far this year, a whopping 279 people have been killed in Chicago, largely due to gang turf wars.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s answer to the problem has been to close down corner liquor stores and tear down abandoned buildings where gang members hang out.
“You will not find shelter in the city of Chicago,” Emanuel proclaimed in a press conference that sounded more like political demagoguery than real, practical solutions.
In a recent TV interview Emanuel appeared to be talking like Al Pacino from the movie The Godfather. “You got two gangbangers,” he said. “One is standing next to a kid. Get away from that kid! Take your stuff to the alley. Don’t touch the children of Chicago.”
A major part of the problem is a shortage of police officers on the streets.“We’re in a manpower crunch,” said Fraternal Order of Police president Michael Shields.
A reason for this shortage of officers is that 1,000 retired officers were replaced by only 150 new ones. There are only 200 officers in Chicago’s gang enforcement unit to go up against an estimated 100K gang members in the city. Some 625 gangs are involved in 223 ongoing turf wars and vendettas.
Neither Emmanuel nor the police addressed why there are 100K gangsters in Chicago in the first place.
On the July 16 O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly pointed out that this is all black crime. His guest, Fox News contributor Bernie Goldberg, put the whole problem in perspective: “In the entire recorded history of the planet, there has never been a greater voluntary child abandonment by their fathers than in black America today,” said Goldberg. “Some 72.5% of black children today are born out of wedlock. Blacks like to blame this on ‘racism.’ That is simply not true. In 1940, when America was much more ‘racist,’ the out-of-wedlock black birthrate was only 19%. In 1965, with the civil rights movement, it rose to 25%. This coincided with the ‘Great Society,’ the welfare state. Since then the numbers have gone up geometrically. So, that’s what happened: The government became the father.”
Goldberg added that black politicians will not talk about this, blaming the problem on racism. White politicians also won’t touch the subject.
“Democrats will never speak honestly to black people, because white liberal guilt gets in the way, and Republicans don’t have the courage because they don’t want to be accused of being racists,” said Goldberg. “Nothing will change in black America if you have 72.5% of children born out of wedlock.”
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Peter Papaherakles, a U.S. citizen since 1986, was born in Greece. He is AFP’s outreach director. If you would like to see AFP speakers at your rally, contact Pete at 202-544-5977.