"Our Boys are Killing One Another."
The words from of the Pastor of New York's Allen AME Church, the Rev. Floyd Flake.
The gun violence must stop.
What brought me to tears on TV, and thank God, the audience didn't see it, was the voice of a mother I have never met, Tiffany Orr. Her 13 year old son was recently gunned down in New York City. Orr appeared on the Mayor Michael Bloomberg's WOR radio show, and as expected was hysterical. We played it on the air. It can be seen here. That's what brought me to tears. The mother was crying and said the following:
"Too much violence is going on.
Too many Kids.
He was only 13. 13!!
That was my baby. That was my baby!!!
What do I do? What should I do now?"
If that's not enough, while the Mayor was dealing with that shooting, only about a mile away was the shooting near the Empire State Building.
As a society have we become immune to the violence? Groups like the NAACP have been speaking out.
On the same day I spoke with Rev. Flake, this story was in the NY Post, under the headline of
"Boy, 4, still asking for his mommy after witnessing her shooting in Brooklyn."
And at the same time of looking at that headline, in Old Bridge, New Jersey, one worker killed two employees and himself.
Even the President's Home in Chicago is not immune. Look at this NY Daily News headline.
"Amid Chicago crime wave, 17-year-old shot a block away from President Obama's house in the Kenwood area."
"Chicago has been hit with a recent surge in violent crime, that in recent weeks has included two shootings of young men within blocks of the Obama household."
As I said on the RNN-TV show that day, and a point I made all the time on NY1, folks we are ourselves doing the work of the Klan. Look at what was said on NPR almost 3 years ago.
"Young people in Chicago are dying violent deaths at an alarming rate.
So far this school year, at least 36 Chicago Public School students have been killed, most of them victims of gunshots. Scores of other Chicago children and teenagers have been wounded in shootings, and there are concerns that the gun violence could escalate when school is out for the summer in a few weeks.
While urban gun violence in Chicago and other cities is nothing new, there is a growing sense among community leaders that it's now at a crisis level.
"Honestly, I'll admit it, I'm afraid to come to school sometimes," says Clinet Jordan, 18, a senior at Chicago's Simeon Career Academy high school, on the city's South Side.
"Usually [gang members] don't try to pull that stuff until after school, but now they're trying to get kids coming to school in the morning. That's ridiculous. We shouldn't be scared to come somewhere — we should feel safe and have a safe learning environment. It don't play right; it's not right."