Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - A child murder epidemic - City must expand safe zones for kids

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - A child murder epidemic - City must expand safe zones for kids
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
September 10, 2007


Following a school year in which 24 Chicago Public School kids were killed -- most of them simply caught in gun crossfire -- Chicagoans approached the opening of the new school year leery of yet more loss. Perhaps, there'd be more public outrage if the victims hadn't been all minorities.

"If 24 kids were killed in the Winnetka school system, I don't think people would stand for it," schools chief Arne Duncan told the Sun-Times Editorial Board Thursday.

Last year, nine more CPS kids lost their lives to gunfire than in the previous school year. More students, like Fenger's Patrice Brown, were killed over summer break. None was shot in school or on school grounds. So what's the common denominator outside of attending public school?

Guns. Gangs. Race.

School started Tuesday. Violence didn't take a break. A Harlan High School ninth-grader was shot about two miles from school. The police department said this kid was one of the bad ones -- a gangbanger. In fact, when police tally gun deaths of teenagers up to age 19, the toll rises to 48 deaths so far this year. Of those, 30 were gang-affiliated, police records show.

"A lot of them, honestly, are not students, they're gang members," says Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department.

Still, there's no shortage of innocent victims. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time shouldn't be an excuse for the premature snuffing of young potential. When a new Chicago police superintendent is named, his first task should be developing a blueprint to staunch this epidemic of child murders.

School, if you can get there, would seem to be the safest place to be. CPS spends $55 million a year on security, including campus cameras and guards -- both gun-free security personnel and off-duty police who do carry guns. Now the city needs to expand safe zones for children, preferably ones that extend to the front porch. Tracking and cracking down on young would-be killers is a good place to start.

"As a society we value guns more than we value children," Duncan said. "And I don't think we value children of color."

Good luck outlawing guns and racism. Kids with illegal guns (and adults, too) obtain them through subterfuge, and they will even if guns are outlawed nationwide.

The neighbors have marched. The preachers have preached. But still in Chicago, where you can't legally buy a handgun, the bullets fly.

A kid should be able to sit in her living room or on the front stoop without taking a bullet. He should be able to ride a CTA bus. The passage of youth in the city of Chicago shouldn't include attending a classmate's funeral.