Listen Live
Stone Soul Vendor Graphics
99.3-105.7 Kiss FM
CLOSE

 

The stark reality when it comes to gun violence is that it is going up, dramatically in some of America’s major cities.

Homicide rates have spiked.

In DC, Metropolitan police report 87 homicides so far this year as opposed to 69 at this time last year.

Baltimore police report a whopping 179 homicides this year as compared to 115 a year ago.

Chicago is sadly near the top of the list with police there reporting an astonishing 252 homicides this year- 209 at this point last year.

According to the FBI, due in large part to its homicide rate, Detroit is the most dangerous city in America for the second year in a row.

Number two is Oakland.

Three is Memphis.

St. Louis is number four.

Cleveland is five.

Baltimore, six.

Seven, Milwaukee.

Birmingham, eight.

Nine, Newark.

Ten is Kansas City, Missouri.

Even smaller cities like Hartford, Connecticut aren’t immune.

According to Time Magazine Harford has already seen more murders this year- 25 -than it did all of last year, and it’s only August.

The problem is so bad that police chiefs from major cities are meeting in Washington, DC to discuss increases in violent crimes, gun violence and rising homicide rates.

DC’s police chief Cathy Lanier tells CNN there needs to be more accountability for violent and repeat offenders.

“Our top fifty gun offenders account for 847 arrests.  I mean that’s a staggering number we’re hearing in city after city after city. And then when you hear that small number of people with that extremely high number of gun offenses, the percentage of those people who actually spend time in jail hovering between 2 and 6 percent.  So clearly there is a disconnect when you have that small number accounting for such a large number of violent crimes for such a small percentage going to spend time in jail there’s a problem.”

Lanier and Chicago police commissioner Garry McCarthy both agree there needs to be more accountability at the federal level beginning with fixing gun control laws similar to what Senator Chuck Schumer and his cousin actress and comedienne Amy Schumer are proposing; like stricter background checks.

Amy Schumer is speaking out after two people were shot to death while attending her movie in a Lafayette, Louisiana theater.

“Unless something is done and done soon, dangerous people will continue to get their hands on guns. We know what can happen when they do. I was heartbroken when I heard about Columbine and Sandy Hook and Aurora, and so many names of other places seared into our memories, and I was heartbroken when I heard about Lafayette and I still am.”

We were all heartbroken about those terrible events.

It’s time we do something about them and the terrible individual killings of people, mostly from gun violence, on the streets each and every day.

Don Lemon: What’s Behind The Spike In Gun Violence and Murders?  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com