Utter Madness

Memorial Day weekend is a time to honor those who have died, not to get shot. Yet this past weekend in New York City, gun violence claimed the lives of three, and wounded nine others. Eight of the wounded got that way during a shooting spree in Harlem that sounds like the Wild West of old. The three deaths and one critical injury all happened in the Bronx, and aren't getting nearly as much coverage as the Harlem shootings.

In Harlem, police are speculating a person who got jumped earlier in the day Monday sought to take revenge. All eight of the victims are expected to live. Police hadn't arrested anyone by early Tuesday. In the Bronx, the shootings were separate, but again, there have been no arrests. Here's hoping they find the person or persons who did this in both cases. Gun violence is the scourge of the city. Not just New York, but cities across America. 

In these cases, the victims were as young as 13, and all are black males. At some point, we have to stop and ask ourselves, is this really what we want for our kids? Is settling a beef worth peoples' lives and futures? Somehow, the pipeline of guns to our communities must be stopped. Or are we just prepared to sit back, roll our eyes, and move on? The victims of these type of crimes are too often young people who should be finishing a school year, or raising a family. 

We rightly got upset about the verdict in the Sean Bell case. Will these shootings, and those to come, upset us as much?

I don't think so.