While protesters in Chicago were self righteously but unpeacefully blocking traffic and holding signs proclaiming they believed that Black Lives Matter and I Can't Breathe, this headline summed up the reality a few miles from their temper tantrum that made a mockery of their muddled protest.  

3 dead, 32 wounded in weekend shootings

Three people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed and at least 30 others were wounded in shootings over the weekend.

All of the dead were black people, whose lives certainly must have mattered, as were a large majority of the seriously wounded who are now having trouble breathing, even though their alleged black killers didn't think so.  But the protesters and the Al Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons ignored these incidents and similar ones all across the country in their ignorance.

The 15-year-old boy in the Chicago incident, a few days shy of his 16^th birthday, was walking with his identical twin brother to a school basketball game when they were confronted by other black male teens with a gun.  When informed of her son's fate, the grief-stricken boys' mother collapsed at the scene of the crime; the boy's twin is understandably deeply shaken.  The funeral will take place on what would have been the victim's birthday; the surviving twin will pass his birthday at his brother's funeral.  

Commenting on the crime, the black principal of the twins' school said that "the latest killing showed the need for something to be done to keep children safe on the streets."

"I know I speak for every educator who continuously deals with this type of tragedy in saying we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. The apologies are not enough, and after all the fanfare is over, someone still has to put their baby in the ground," Thomas-McDavid said in the statement.

She called for increased levels of security so people do not have to live with the "constant threat of being killed."

Thomas-McDavid said as educators, she and others are in the field to provide a "brighter future" and not to deal with children being "victimized over and over again."

"I believe I speak for every mother who lives on the South Side of this city in saying we don’t mind if it takes (martial) law to get this in order. Demario did not deserve to die three days from his 16th birthday," she said.

"Increased levels of security"?  "Martial law"?  But...but New York eliminated stop and frisk because it was deployed only in high-crime areas (mainly black and Hispanic) and thus was racist, even though crime dropped in those areas.  Crime has remained relatively low in the year after the absence of stop and frisk, although shootings have increased.

Meanwhile, in cities and towns across the country, black lives that matter are being snuffed out.  And not by white police personnel.  Where are the protesters when they are needed?  Don't black lives matter?