His Name Was Amari Brown
Amari Brown was just standing outside in Chicago on the 4th of July. He wasn’t threatening anyone. He was just a kid outside, probably enjoying some fireworks. Then tragedy struck. Amari was slammed in the chest by a bullet that killed him. He was only seven years old.
Seven years old. He won’t grow up. He won’t go to college and get a job. He will never play in the park again. His life was cut short by an act of pure evil. A family lost a child. This is yet another case of Chicago’s gun problem, and yet another death ignored by the left.
According to police, Amari’s father, Antonio Brown, was the target of the shooting. Antonio is a known gang member with 45 arrests behind him, his most recent being in April of this year (for possession of an illegal firearm).
Amari was one of ten people killed over the weekend in Chicago. Fifty-two more were injured in what can only be described as a truly bloody Independence Day weekend. A time for celebration was turned into a time for mourning. Among the dead was Vonzell Banks, 17, a drum player and an honor roll student, cut down by gunfire that wasn’t even aimed at him. Another life cut short by Chicago’s seemingly endless string of homicides.
All this bloodshed over the weekend, yet there are no cries for justice from the left. No shouts about doing something to curb gun violence. President Obama hasn’t stated that Amari could have been his son. He hasn’t gone on national TV to state that he is tired of hearing about the constant string of deaths caused by firearms in Chicago. No one is burning down convenience stores in Chicago protesting the absolutely abhorrent conditions under which they live. Al Sharpton can’t be bothered to organize a march to Chicago to protest black youth being gunned down by black adults. The Black Panthers aren’t organizing “self defense” forces in Chicago to protect the black citizens from their worst enemy — each other. In 2014, 78% of all Chicago shooting victims were black, and almost 69% of all attackers were black. The “Black Lives Matter” theme only seems to matter if a white person — preferably a police officer — is the one who pulled the trigger.
This is just sickening.
We all remember Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and all the other people whose deaths (justified or not) have caused mass riots and calls for police to be disarmed or simply abolished. The left has made sure we remember them. They have been religious in making sure that the calls for justice are loud, and that everyone knows the police are to blame for this, regardless of the circumstances. We all remember the terrorist attack in Charleston and the calls for gun control after it was over. So why aren’t we hearing about justice for Amari? Where’s his hashtag on Twitter? Where are the calls to curb illegal handguns in Chicago?
Sure, most major media outlets will cover this story. It is a pretty slow news day. However, two days from now, no one will even remember the Chicago killings, except the victims’ families. Their lives have been forever changed by gun violence, but the left ignores them.
Why? It’s quite simple.
These victims don’t fit with the left’s narrative. Our liberal friends would prefer to live in a world where every white person is racist and the only homicides committed are committed by whites against blacks. They can’t accept the fact that adult black males are more likely to die from each other than they are from white cops. If there are no political points to be scored, then death no longer matters. How sad. How sickening.
Liberals can’t accept the fact that the city with the toughest gun laws in the nation is the homicide capital of America. They don’t understand that a gentle admonishment to gang members not to carry their chrome-plated .45s on a playground means absolutely nothing.
In 2014, a person was killed almost every 19 hours in Chicago for a total of 457 for the year. In 2015, there have been 216 homicides to date. Americans are being gunned down in their homes, in their streets, and at the playground, yet the left does nothing. They can’t be bothered to dust off their cardboard signs. It’s too much effort to create a hashtag for poor people gunned down in Chicago. After all, the South flies the Confederate battle flag! Ban that, and everything will be just fine.
If only it were that simple.
It’s time for liberal America to start being outraged at the things that deserve it. Stop trying to punish a couple farmers in east Texas because of the actions of one nut in Charleston. Focus on the real problems. Focus on where lawbreakers kill the innocent, not the politics of the crimes.
Perhaps if the left spent less time trying to make police look “less scary,” and more time studying Chicago’s rampant murder problem, America would be a better place. The police aren’t the ones killing all the people in Chicago. In 2014, police shot 45 people, 17 fatally. Out of 2619 total people shot that year, police count for a very small fraction of all shootings.
The solution to Chicago’s violence problem doesn’t lie with the government passing more legislation. Legislation is nothing more than a pile of fancy-sounding words that adds up to nothing but dead bodies on the streets. It’s time for a new direction.
Instead of restricting the ability of people to defend themselves, Chicago should be passing laws allowing law-abiding citizens to carry firearms legally. Chicago’s so called “leaders” need to crack down on the gangs, the drugs, and the flow of illegal guns. They need to fix a system so broken that it would allow a man with 45 arrests to continue to walk the streets.
President Obama and his administration need to give the Chicago PD the resources needed to combat this violence. Instead of worrying about his legacy, President Obama should focus on following through with his on-again, off-again anger about Americans getting killed. Surely the constant bloodshed in Chicago makes its way to his desk. Maybe his legacy could be that the people of Chicago can defend themselves from vicious criminals who don’t care who they kill. Maybe his legacy could be that he turned the murder capital of America back into a place where all people can live in peace.
It also comes down to the people of Chicago. They need to choose. Will they stand with the police who, despite popular myth, are trying to stop these murders? Will they stand by and bury their children?
His name was Amari Brown, and he was seven years old. He and others like him are dead. From the White House to the slums, the epidemic of inner-city gun violence deserves more than a shrug until a better political photo op comes along.
