We Threw a Mass Shooting, and Nobody Noticed
The worst mass shooting in the history of the world took place, and largely no one noticed. Prior to this year, the worst mass shooting had been on April 3, 2015, occurring at the Garissa University College in Kenya. Individuals were asked their religious affiliation, Christian or Muslim. The former were killed, the latter spared. A total of 148 people were killed by the Somali Islamist group al Shabab.
Prior to that, the record had been held by the Taliban in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 141 people, the majority children who were students at the nearby Army School. That attack occurred on December 14, 2014.
The new record-holder is gun violence that took place across the USA the Fourth of July weekend, 2021. According to CBS News, more than 180 died and 516 were injured in gun violence, which reigned from sea to shining sea. Other sources report other numbers. Reporting gun deaths and injuries to a central database is not mandatory in the U.S., and often as few as 7,500 jurisdictions will report, out of a total of about 18,000.
In Chicago, there were 769 gun murders in 2020, up 56% from 495 in 2019. Shootings totaled 4,033, up 55% from 2019’s total of 2,598. In New York, there were 462 gun murders, up 44% from 319 in 2020, and shootings increased 97% from 777 in 2019 to 1,531in 2020. In Portland, Oregon, there were 595 shootings, up 82% from 2019’s 327, while gun homicides rose to 41 from 2019’s 26, up 57%. 2021 is already running as much as 30% ahead of 2020 in these cities.
This is all history. The level of violence in our large cities is unsustainable if we are to survive as a nation. The “Defund the Police” movement among leftists, in the name of protecting minorities, isn’t supported by those minorities, who constitute an overwhelming majority of the victims of gun violence. In city after city, we learn that a majority of black and brown residents want more police, not fewer. We also find that anti-black racism in police forces is largely a myth, as is the innocent-unarmed-black-male- police story. In 2019, about a dozen unarmed black males were killed by police in the US, approximately the same number as are killed each year by vending machines. Defund The Vending Machines just doesn’t resonate.
Black Lives Matter is a sentiment with which nearly every American agree. Black Lives Matter, the organization, is little more than a marketing agency selling hatred and division. Its founders are admitted Marxists, more than thirty years after the humiliating collapse of Marxism everywhere else in the world. It is raising tens of millions of dollars from corporate America and individuals.
The solutions tried so far have been defunding police departments, reducing the number of police on the street, doing away with cash bail, refusing to prosecute arrested felons, stripping police of limited sovereign immunity (available to all other unionized government employees), and abolishing gun control units. For some reason, none of these measures worked. Specific police actions, such as pursuing running suspects at a run, were prohibited. In Atlanta, a police officer, who was in pursuit of a man who was fleeing arrest and fired at the officer, was arrested for shooting back, resulting in the man’s death.
Every incident in which an African-American was killed by a police officer resulted in nationwide coverage. In Columbus, Ohio, a police officer responded to a call for help and witnessed one black woman trying to kill another black woman. He called on the aggressor to drop her weapon, but he was repeatedly ignored. Finally, he shot her. Reporters showed up quickly and the immediate narrative was that a white police officer had murdered a black suspect. It took months to calm that down.
Kenosha, Wisconsin, was worse. Jacob Blake had an outstanding warrant for sexual assault; the victim in that case called police when Blake showed up at her house. Police responded and attempted to arrest Mr. Blake. Twice they attempted to taser him. He resisted and attempted to get into his vehicle where there was a knife. The police shot him seven times in the back. The city exploded in fire.
By the time things were over, two people were dead, Blake was paralyzed below the waist, and the media reported every night that the protests were mostly peaceful. Explanations have included COVID, in Chicago’s case only racism and sexism, and in other cities, white supremacists or – no surprise – former President Trump. No Mayor of an affected city will admit that the problems might have been caused by their own policies.
I sure wish there was a way to acknowledge this besides a heart. "180 died and 516 were injured." I have not seen this presented this way and it is a shock. Did you add them all? There isn't a central report, is there? I think when you most a comment at another substack the title of your shows up. This needs a wider audience. Does no one but you total the carnage?