Sunday, January 22, 2017

Trib Editorial Board's violent crime surge solution: "Can't we all just get along?"

Every couple of weeks the Tribune Editorial Board trots out another meaningless editorial on the Chicago crime problem, devoid of any sensitivity, substance or solutions. The January 17 version 'What's behind Chicago's surge in violence' follows that tired script. Almost the entire editorial simply cites a University of Chicago Crime Lab study knocking down the usual suspects such as increased gun availability, warmer weather, drastic decline in police 'street stops', growing teenage gang members, release of police shooting unarmed citizen videos, and comparison showing Chicago little different from other high crime cities.
The editorial than comforts its privileged, middle class readership by reminding them much of the bloodbath is occurring in five poverty stricken neighborhoods their readership will likely never encounter. That precisely symbolizes how out of touch the Trib is to the festering shame of America: throwaway people and throwaway communities left to rot in a land where all the wealth rises to the top. Never does the Trib call for a reversal of trillions for perpetual war around the world to rebuild that shame which leaves generation after generation of disaffected youth with no avenue out except crime. Never does the Trib call for a concerted effort to curtail the gun lobby so effective controls can minimize the shooting gallery those poverty areas have become. Never has the Trib called for financial reforms that have expanded the redistribution of wealth to the very rich never before experienced in our 241 years.
But the Trib Pundits in The Tower have a solution. Better relations between the beleaguered police and the law abiding folks locked into the shame of America will foster "better cooperation and less conflict". The Trib does allude to unnamed 'other' changes but those pesky 'better relations' are Priority One. The entire editorial could have been accomplished by quoting LA police beating victim Rodney King: "Can't we all just get along?"

Walt Zlotow
Glen Ellyn

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