The astounding murder rate in Barack Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago has been something of a regular news item over the last few years. Labor Day weekend brought 13 more homicides, meaning Chicago’s total this year has now surpassed 500 — what USA Today calls “a grim milestone that puts the city on track to reach a murder rate it hasn’t seen since the drug wars of the 1990s.” USA Today also notes, “With murders up roughly 50% for the year, Chicago has tallied more homicides than the much larger cities of New York and Los Angeles combined.”

Naturally, the favored leftist term “gun violence” has been adopted even by many conservatives when discussing these murder statistics. But that is, if you’ll pardon the pun, a loaded term meant to put the focus on guns instead of the gangs, drugs and general cultural rot that is truly to blame. That’s especially true given the particularly onerous gun control measures in place in the Windy City.

“Impoverished neighborhoods, people without hope do these kinds of things,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. “You show me a man that doesn’t have hope, I’ll show you one that’s willing to pick up a gun and do anything with it.” It’s worth remembering a few things. Obama brought Hope ‘n’ Change™ in 2008, so why does anyone in his city lack hope? Well, that’s a rhetorical question. As is true in every one of the American cities with the highest per capita murder rates, Democrats have been in charge for half a century or more. In Chicago, Democrats have ruled for 85 years — almost as long as the Cubs have been without a World Series title. The latter may change this year. It’s way past time the former did too.

And by the way, if black lives really mattered to Black Lives Matter, they’d stop creating a climate that kills people.