Come See the Blood in the Streets

By George Joyce

Chicago’s vitriolic West Side Catholic leader and one time Obama spiritual mentor Father Michael Pfleger is known by some as the “white” Jeremiah Wright. Pfleger, who has called Louis Farrakhan a “great man” and Rev. Wright “one of the greatest Biblical scholars this nation has,” earlier this year thundered about the hypocrisy of fighting a war in Iraq “when we have innocent children dying on the streets right here at home.”

At home, meaning Chicago.

In 2008 for example, America lost 314 fighting men and women in Iraq while 509 unfortunate citizens were murdered in Chicago. The case this year of nine year old Chastity Turner is illustrative of a city in serious trouble. According to reporter Monica Land:

“In June, Chastity was visiting her grandmother on the city's South Side. While washing the family's dog outside with her father, a van pulled up and at least twenty shots rang out. Chastity was shot in the back while running for cover. She was only nine years old. Two men, aged 17 and 19, have since been charged with her murder and police are searching for a third suspect.”

Land also reports that many of Chicago’s children are having nightmares about the recent carnage:

“Many Chicago parents have kept their children inside this summer for fear they will be killed playing on the street, particularly in Englewood, which is statistically Chicago's most dangerous neighborhood. Children have nightmares about being killed or beaten coming from school. Sadly, for many of them balloons and stuffed animals have come to symbolize death, not joy and celebration.”

Barely a week after the young honor student Derrion Albert was beaten to death in Englewood, a 14 year old high school boy was chased down a few days ago and beaten by three assailants in the North Side Edgewater area of Chicago. The boy suffered a fractured skull and barely survived the vicious attack. According to one witness:

“He was covered in blood. Blood was all over the street.”

On the day after last year’s presidential election AT editor Thomas Lifson received a disturbing communication from a Chicago waitress named “Tina” who was working the late night shift at an area bar on election night. The bar’s patrons included a table of six African-Americans who, instead of leaving Tina a tip, graced her with the following note:

“Tip 4 the Day – Blacks Run the New Black House Bitch!!!!”

We’ll probably never hear about the real reason the International Olympic Committee dumped Chicago from the shortlist of host cities in 2016, but it would be naïve to omit the committee’s concerns about the safety of thousands of foreign tourists. Many of those tourists would have been sampling the Chicago bar scene too.

Writing about the brutality during the Spanish Civil War the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda distilled the essence of his experiences into the following lines:

Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
The blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood
In the streets!

Many of Chicago’s kids are having nightmares about being killed, yet Chicago’s most notable son skipped town for a Copenhagen adventure. Maybe this disturbed someone at the IOC too.