INCLUDING NYKEA ALDRIDGE: Chicago approaching 90 homicides for August

Chicago – Murder City USA – is fast approaching 90 homicides for August.

That includes 439 people shot…  and probably not a one of those shooters was a legal gun owner.

Among the latest crop of dead bodies was the cousin of someone famous, which has stirred up more talk of “we must do something”.

CHICAGO (WLS) — Nykea Aldridge, mother of four and cousin of Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade, was shot and killed by crossfire Friday afternoon in Chicago’s Parkway Gardens neighborhood.

Welcome to America’s largest open-air shooting range!

…Police said Aldridge had just left the Dulles School of Excellence around 3:30 p.m. in the 6300-block of South Calumet when two men approached another man in the vicinity and opened fire. Deputy Chief James Jones said the altercation between the men had nothing to do with her.

If you guessed the young thugs popping off shots at one another were not students at the Dulles School of Excellence, you would be right.  If you thought they were not law-abiding gun owners with Firearms Owners ID cards and Concealed Carry Licenses, you would be right again.  And if you suspected the suspects might also be gang bangers with extensive criminal history?  You just won the trifecta prize.

NBC Chicago has more:

…Aldridge, a mother of four and the cousin of Bulls star Dwyane Wade, was fatally shot while pushing a stroller on the city’s South Side Friday afternoon.

Police identified the brothers as Derren Sorrells, 22, and Darwin Sorrells, 26. It wasn’t immediately clear if they had an attorney.

Derren Sorrells, of the 6000 block of South Indiana Ave, is a documented gang member and was on parole for motor vehicle theft and for escaping custody, police said.

He had a total of six felony arrests in his background and was on his daily break from an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of Friday’s shooting, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said during a news conference Sunday.

Darwin Sorrells, of the 7500 block of South Wentworth Ave, was a co-conspirator in the crime, police said, and was also on parole for a gun charge. He was sentenced to six years in prison in January 2013 and released early in February 2016, according to police.

J. Kb at Gun Free Zone has a nice summary of why Nykea got killed.   He says it wasn’t “for no reason”.  (Emphasis added.)

This is a man in mourning, so I don’t want to be overly critical, but his cousin was not killed for “NO REASON.”  True, she was not targeted in any way, and her death is tragic and senseless, but there is a reason that she was killed.

A cultural rot at the heart of Chicago’s predominantly poor and black south side.   This interactive map gives you an idea of the danger zones in Chicago.

So what cultural rot am I talking about?  The two men that shot Nykea Aldridge were known gang members.  Both had previous felony conviction, one was on parole and the other had been wearing an ankle monitor at the time of the shooting.  It should be crystal clear, that these men where both prohibited persons and could not lawfully possess guns or have been issued FOIDs.

Chicago has some of the worst gang culture and gang violence in the country.  This is in part fueled by a black unemployment rate that is one of the worst in the country for metropolitan areas, with a staggering 47% of young black males neither working or in school.  Illinois’ welfare policy encourages single mothers not to work perpetuating a cycle of unemployment and poverty.

The animosity between this community and police is both horrifying and protects criminals.  Young men harass the police who try to solve these murders  and treat black cops as race traitors.

(I can talk all day about the abuses of the Chicago PD, but if a community won’t even let the police try to solve the murders in their area, all hope is lost)

Stop Snitchin’ (available on YouTube) may have gained national notoriety in Baltimore, but believe me, as a former resident of the area, it alive and well (and heavily enforced) in Chicago.

The Chicago political machine is more than complicit in these murders and the deterioration of the City as city elected officials and politicians rely on gangs to “get out the vote” to keep them elected.

All of this leads to deadly spiral of calamity and is the root cause of why Nykea Aldridge was killed.

Will politicians in Chicago join with community leaders in calling for meaningful solutions or will they just keep beating that “We need more gun control” drum?  Time will tell, but I’m betting they are all out at Home Depot right now buying five-gallon pails and wooden lathe to make more drum sets.