SUMMER OF 16: VIOLENCE PERVADES THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

Something seems very wrong.. Very very wrong..

Life of late has been filled with horrid headlines–things of a tragic nature. Hardcore drugs.. hardcore murders.. a lack of concern from some in the public and a turning inward of others..

Has the American culture finally come to its knees in fear? Have all the good people given up, locked their doors, and shielded their last remaining vestige of safety somewhere deep in a homemade bunker?

HEADLINE FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: US CITIES SEE UNEXPLAINED RISE IN VIOLENT CRIMES THIS YEAR

The meat of the story written by LISA MARIE PANE AND DON BABWIN..

Violent crimes – from homicides and rapes to robberies – have been on the rise in many major U.S. cities, yet experts can’t point to a single reason why and the jump isn’t enough to suggest there’s a trend.

“It’s being reported on at local levels, but in my view, it’s not getting the attention at the national level it deserves,” FBI Director James Comey said recently. “I don’t know what the answer is, but holy cow, do we have a problem.”

The problem is not completely national.. certain cities are not seeing a spike. Others are.. one of those cities: Chicago. The same weekend the world seemed concerned about the gorilla at the Ohio zoo gunned down, so many in Chicago were killed or injured by gunfire, Memorial Day weekend..

More on Chicago:

Perhaps more significant is the number of people who are being shot; well over 1,200 as of Tuesday, which far surpasses the 800 by this time last year.

All of it has left the city on edge.

“Our kids are afraid to go out of the house,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest and activist on the city’s South Side. “You have children asking teachers to pray for them before they go home.”

The AP expands more.. the story will surely be on front pages Monday morning in fishwrapper runs..

But what to make of it? A breakdown of society/ a pattern/ a fluke?

Drugs?
Gangs
….rage..

All the rage in a summer heat..

As so often happens, this reality reminds me of fiction, specifically Frank Miller’s BATMAN.. a scene where the Joker is running wild and the entire city of Gotham is ravaged by a crime wave and a heat wave at the same time. The heat wave finally breaks with a mighty crack of thunder before an eventual fight between Batman and Superman. But the cops in Gotham were waiting for that heat wave to break.. waiting for the crime wave to slow down, too..

In real life, we are waiting for something to break.. for the heat, or whatever is at the root of this issue, to calm down.. be fixed.

But who’s fixing it?

No one I can see..

Batman, sadly, does not exist.
ninetynine

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