Saturday, August 10, 2013

I stopped into a convenient store in downtown Chicago yesterday to get a Gatorade and interrupted a conversation between two African American clerks, one of which was saying "There was a kid popping off rounds, and this old guy comes out of his house to tell them to stop, and he got shot.  You need to stay in your house, old man, because you don't know what these kids are going to do these days.  These kids are crazy!"

I agreed with her, as she rang up my Gatorade, and she went on to say "Come on, old man.  You gotta get it together."

"Too late." I said.  "He's dead."  They both laughed, but I didn't really mean it to be funny.  This old guy doesn't need to stop doing what he is doing; these young men need to stop shooting each other.  The murders in my city are out of control, and the fact that there are every day, casual, light-hearted conversations about killing going on all across town is a really bad sign.

9 comments:

Gorilla Bananas said...

There's actually a wikipedia page called 'Crime in Chicago'. The homicide rate is double that of New York but only half of what it was in 1992. The number of homicides increased from 436 to 506 from 2011 to 2012, so the trend isn't looking good.

David Oliver said...

I dropped by from Gorilla's site.

Many people are fascinated by murder. I don't understand it. I don't want to see it or hear about it. When I saw the headline on Yahoo the other day about the guy who killed his wife and then posted the picture on Facebook, I didn't look it. And I think things like that should be ignored, not celebrated.

Vapid Vixen said...

I couldn't agree with you more.

Also...HOLY SHIT!

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

Gorilla: And what's even more sad is that NY city is way, way bigger and more populated than Chicago and we still crush them in murders.

David: Thanks for coming by. I will return the favor. I agree with what you're saying. The worst was putting that Boston Marathon bomber on the cover of Rolling Stone looking like a damn rock star. Should have been a pic of him bleeding out of his ass in that guy's boat. Then I might buy the issue.

VV: Holy shit is absolutely right. We need more people giving a shit and saying holy shit about this murder situation.

Cocaine Princess said...

I totally agree with your last sentence and with your comment about the Boston bomber.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

Coke: Glad we are in a agreement. Murderers are no good.

Elliot MacLeod-Michael said...

It's nuts the number of murders there but we actually have a higher murder rate in Baton Rouge. One of the reasons I now live in a small town on the outskirts.

Mr. Shife said...

Sad, sad state of affairs. Sorry Dr. Ken. Hopefully things improve in Chicago. Take care of yourself buddy.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

Elliot: Yeah, I think I see that city on the First 48 sometimes. Looks like nothin' nice.

Shife: I'm to pretty to get shot, Shife. Come on!