Over 1,500 people have been shot in Chicago, including 67 just over the Fourth of July weekend. Almost 900 shootings have taken place in Philadelphia and over 500 in New York City so far in 2020. All statistics up significantly from the same time last year (1,018 in Chicago, 701 in Philadelphia and 355 in New York).
The victims of this extreme level of violence have almost predominantly been people of color.
In New York City, the number of shooting victims more than doubled in June 2020 compared with the same month last year. The vast majority of victims – 97% – were minorities. Every person who has been shot so far this month in NYC – nearly 100 people – have been minorities, according to the NYPD.
In Chicago, shootings have increased an astounding 76% over the same time last year. Nearly all of the violence has been concentrated in the city’s predominantly minority communities of the South and West Sides.
There has been little, if any, mention of this substantial level of violence from the organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement. And when other African-Americans challenge BLM supporters on the movement’s silence for violence against African-Americans that are not prepretated by whites, they’re often accused of missing the point of the BLM movement.
We reported on one such puzzling exchange between CNN’s Don Lemon and actor Terry Crews just yesterday.