The cost to society of the never-ending shootings in our country, especially in our major cities, is astronomical. Not only the cost of the loss of life, but the time and effort spent by people trying to do something about it.
Per Everytown Research and Policy, our federal, state, and local governments are spending a combined average of $34.8 million each day to deal with the aftermath of gun violence across the country. The total annual bill for taxpayers, survivors, families, employers, and communities is $280 billion. The price associated with collective inaction to prevent gun violence is not just a loss of human life, but the loss of the potential to invest in vital public services that directly correlate to a stronger economy and greater quality of life for Americans. Put simply, America cannot afford gun violence
Here are excerpts from the Detroit News Editorial and from the NY Times giving an indication of the great efforts and great lengths Detroit and Chicago are doing to try to reduce the shootings.
Excerpts from The Detroit News Editorial.
Detroit has to do something. The efforts taken so far must be joined by an all-fronts push to get illegal guns off the streets.
- On Saturday night a DoorDash employee was killed after getting caught in crossfire on Bagley St. in Detroit.
- Cadillac Square was the scene of another shootout between two groups of people at 3:30 a.m.
- In early June, an 11-year-old girl was shot in Detroit while at a sleepover with five other children.
- In May, Princess Dobbs, a 36-year-old mother of two, including a two-year-old, was shot while sitting at her kitchen table in a drive-by shooting.
DPD is doing some things right against enormous outside pressures and forces that have made people angry and violent. But senseless violence still racks the city, even areas that have been relatively safer in recent years. The department has introduced community policing initiatives it hopes will curb even the worst violence. “The high priority is community in everything that we do,” Rudy Harper, Second Deputy Chief for media relations, told the News.
Getting tougher on gun crimes is a must. Earlier this summer the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Project Safe Summer Streets. The crackdown will focus on high-crime spots and ensure that anyone in those areas charged with gun crimes are charged in federal courts, where they would face potentially stricter penalties.
“We are focusing on the drivers of violence, the most violent offenders, the most violent places, and the most violent groups,” said U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison.
Judicial leniency may be a factor. In May a 20-year-old defendant connected with at least one drive-by shooting was put on bond and given a tether. He violated terms of his bond but was still released from the tether. He again violated terms of his bond by brandishing weapons online and threatening to harm others. He was again arrested. It points to a system that has deadly loopholes, and those paying the price are Detroit residents.
A package of bills in the state House would expand penalties statewide for anyone who fires a gun into a house or building, whether or not it has people inside, to 10 years in prison. If a child inside is shot and injured, it’s 30 years in prison. If a child inside is shot and seriously impaired, it means 40 years. They also dictate life in prison without parole if a child is killed. Stiffening penalties is an age-old reaction to spikes in violence. Whether it works is debatable.
From the NY Times today:
| Since a gunman killed seven people at a Chicago suburb’s July 4 parade, more than 160 people have died from other gun homicides across the country. In Chicago alone, at least 10 people were killed in multiple shootings during the holiday weekend. These everyday killings received far less attention than the mass murder at the parade. But they are the standard for American gun violence: More than 95 percent of gun homicides this year have been shootings with one to three victims. Today, we want to help you understand where and why most everyday gun violence happens. One crucial point is that violence tends to be highly concentrated: A small sliver of blocks — just 4 percent in Chicago, for example — can account for a majority of shootings in a city or a county. This concentration is not exclusive to Chicago. Across the U.S., neighborhoods that contained just 1.5 percent of the population accounted for 26 percent of gun homicides, a 2017 analysis by The Guardian found. There are several factors behind the concentration of violence. A major one is poverty. Experts have long debated why violence and poverty are linked. Is it something specific to poverty, such as insufficient housing or jobs? Is it the environment that poverty fosters, in which people are stressed and desperate — and more likely to act out? When society’s institutions have unraveled, people feel that they are on their own. They are then less likely to watch over one another or come together to address common interests By reducing social trust, concentrated poverty hurts communities’ ability to enforce norms against violent behavior. And when people are left unchecked and feel they have nothing to lose, they are more likely to take extreme measures, such as violence, to solve their problems. The past few years may help you understand this dynamic even if you’re not poor. Many Americans felt a hit to their own collective efficacy because of the Covid pandemic, George Floyd’s murder and its aftermath, and the polarized political atmosphere. Sure enough, murders and other violent crimes increased during this period. It is difficult to talk about gun violence without talking about race, because Black Americans are most likely to be the victims of shootings. Poverty explains part of the disparity, since Black people are more likely to be poor. But individual poverty is not the full explanation. Black Americans are also less likely to live in communities with strong institutional support. Exclusionary housing policies and discrimination have pushed Black Americans into segregated neighborhoods. Both governments and the private sector then neglected these neighborhoods, leaving people without good schools, banks, grocery stores and institutions. This kind of economic neglect, which experts refer to as disinvestment, fosters violence. The relationship also goes the other way. Violence can perpetuate disinvestment. Business owners do not want their shops, restaurants and warehouses in violent neighborhoods. People do not want to live in places where gunshots are fired daily. And governments shift resources away from places that officials deem lost causes. It is a vicious cycle. A greater understanding of this spiral in recent years has driven activists and policymakers to address not just violence itself but its root causes, too. The Chicago mayor’s office told us it had adopted a broader approach to combating violence, focused on boosting businesses, local clubs, mental health care and other social supports, on top of traditional policing work. As this newsletter has explained before, most experts support an all-of-the-above strategy to crime, involving both the police and alternative approaches. But this work is difficult and, even if it succeeds, takes money and time — years or decades to rebuild long-neglected communities. Until then, the people in these neighborhoods will likely suffer the worst of American gun violence. | |
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Elections Matter. Pray for peace and tolerance. What are you doing to stop the violence and mass killings?
Orchid of the Day: Detroit Tigers and their 5-game winning streak.
Onion of the Day: The forty-one-year-old, who assassinated Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan
Quote of the Day: The violence in this country is outrageous. The assaults against police officers is outrageous…… And regardless of where you stand, on what side of the political aisle you’re on…. it’s entirely too much gun violence in the city, too much gun violence in this country.” Detroit Police Chief James White.
Question of the Day: Are pockets of our major cities caught in a never ending cycle of poverty and violence?
Video/Image of the Day: In case you missed it. An 8 to 5 triple play against the White Sox on July 4.