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Subscribe to RSSCHICAGO - Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and relatives of victims of fatal shootings in Chicago urged President Barack Obama on Saturday to come back to his hometown and address the gun violence plaguing the city.
Before a march on the city's South Side, Jackson, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said America's third most populous city needed more help than Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police superintendent Garry McCarthy could offer.
"When the president shows up, it shows ultimate national seriousness," said Jackson, a Chicago resident. He also called for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help patrol the streets of Chicago.
Gun violence in Chicago has been in the national spotlight over the past year, with 506 murders in 2012, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year. As of Thursday, there were 42 homicides and 157 shootings so far this year, according to Chicago police.
The issue received new urgency with the killing this week of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, an honors student who performed with her high school band at Obama's inauguration on January 21.
News of her death near Obama's old home in the Kenwood neighborhood came before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on gun control on Wednesday. Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, has said the Obamas are praying for Pendleton's family.
President Obama will meet with law enforcement leaders in Minneapolis on Monday, where a gunman killed five people in a workplace shooting last September. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
Anita Crittenden, who lost a nephew to gun violence last year, said Obama, by coming to Chicago, would "get the leaders to think and step up and make some changes."
A petition posted on the White House's "We the People" website calls for Obama and his family to attend Pendleton's funeral on February 9. The petition must have at least 100,000 signatures to receive an official response from the White House.
Jackson led nearly 150 people on a march from Martin Luther King Jr. College Prep High School, where Pendleton was a student, to the park where she died a few blocks away.
"My greatest fear about the gun violence in Chicago is that we're adjusting to it," he said.
Police said Pendleton was shot to death on Tuesday as she and her friends were shielding themselves from rain under a canopy in the park. Police have called it a case of mistaken identity and are offering a $40,000 award for information leading to her killer.
Emanuel announced plans on Thursday to take 200 police officers now serving in administrative positions and deploy them on the streets.
"Hadiya wanted to make a difference in the world," said Shatira Wilks, a spokeswoman for the family, and cousin of Cleopatra Cowley, Pendleton's mother. "It's unfortunate that it would be like this, but we still hope that this can make a difference."
Not everyone participating in the march agreed that Obama should come home. Matthew McGill said the president should address the violence issue, but need not single out Chicago, "because what you see in Chicago happens in other cities as well."
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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This just in- A drive-by at the Chicago march against gun violence resulted in 2 killed and 8 wounded when marchers returned fire. Mayor Emanuel and President Obama have yet to comment.
Wonder what the travel brochures are going to say this year.
The federal government is not a band-aid, they don't have all the answers. We need to take some personal responsibility ourselves and quit blaming everything around us for all our problems.
@FruVegie...Most of us do take responsibility for what we do,the problem comes from the politicians blaming the responsible citizens for the irresponsible actions of other people.
John the federal government has not enforced their own ban on assault weapons. Nothing the federal government does will work its up to the people and the state government.
@FruVegge.
you are 100% correct
John I think your also right in that most people do or at least try to take their own responsibility and at times it can be tough living with what society has to offer. I think it goes two fold in that society has failed us and we have failed ourselves because of lost hope with society.
To me,anyway,the society of the present is in the death spirals of decay.
I can live with that,I worked all my life,raised my kids who are not criminals and paid my friggin taxes.So with that in mind I dont feel responsible for the decay of society.
What I have a problem with is some jacka$$es trying to hold me accountable for things I did not do,and trying to take away my means of defending myself and family from the savage,violent society that they have created.
I'm not going to accept that.
johninpa I don't see anything here getting approved by the Supreme Court. What ever steps are taken it will be taken to the Supreme Court.
Why do any of us who don't actually live in Chicago give a rat's behind what happens to a bunch of thugs and low-lifes? Does it REALLY hurt your feelings to know that the gangs are killing each other? When what we REALLY want is an all-out gang war that wipes them ALL out??? Social remedies started in the 1960's, right along with LBJ's "War on Poverty". Like many government programs, it has been WILDLY unsuccessful. After spending TRILLIONS sine the 60's, we now have just as many poor as we did then percentage-wise, and many more in actual numbers. We have unprecedented numbers of teen parents and single parent homes. THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT HAS FAILED<, PEOPLE! Time to try something different.
This is LBJ's Great Society..
aint it grand?
"A culture of entitlement without responsibility is not just a consequence of the welfare state, it is pretty much the objective of the welfare state." Perry De Haviland
Oh and super libby, here's the next paragraph from that article I sent earlier. Now please tell me where or how you can believe hillary didn't vote to go to war. You can't run from the truth super libby. Then when it became unpopular she tried to back peddle her way out of it:
To the disappointment of some antiwar liberals in her Democratic base, Clinton, the former first lady, voted in favor of the Iraq war resolution in October 2002.
"Obviously, I've thought about that a lot in the months since," she said. "No, I don't regret giving the president authority because at the time it was in the context of weapons of mass destruction, grave threats to the United States, and clearly, Saddam Hussein had been a real problem for the international community for more than a decade."
I have a hard time understanding the "progressive" logic on this issue. The population in the country is around 315 million, the left likes to state there is in excess of twice that number of firearms in the nation (of course there are none in Chicago, its against the law). All those numbers tell me is that if firearms are the problem there should be a much larger problem. Ok, then the problem is not the firearms themselves, so lets look at the who and what is the cause. In 99.9% of the cases it involves males under the age of 35, who do not have a legal registered firearm and with no training or history of responsible firearms handling ..... now you know where to focus efforts, controlling the illegal possession (not just legal ownership) of a firearm of any kind by males under the age of 35. Now how do you go about enacting a constructive law that addresses individuals who ignore laws in the first place? Of course that raises other Constitutional issues of confiscation, search and seizure, etc.. Until the real problem is addressed its just feel-good political grandstanding gestures to appease the mob mentality of the ignorant unwashed masses.
I have a hard time understanding the "progressive" logic on this issue.
You can't understand something that doesn't exist. They base all their opinions on feelings, not facts so they're constantly changing based on how their handlers are telling them to feel. They'll march lockstep to whatever liberal flavor of the month their handlers tell them to march to.
Oh and just one more for my "Bush took us to war" super libby friend on the off chance she hasn't signed off in humiliation. This is another CNN article and again you can't run from the truth. Hillary, Kerry, Dashle and many more of your heroes also voted for the war in Iraq.
So to those of you on the right please remember to throw this in their faces when they bring up the Bush is a war monger mantra because it's one of their favorites.
http://articles.cnn.com/2002-10-11/politics/iraq.us_1_biological-weapons-weapons-inspectors-iraq?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS
Senate approves Iraq war resolution
IRAQ
October 11, 2002
In a major victory for the White House, the Senate early Friday voted 77-23 to authorize President Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to give up weapons of mass destruction as required by U.N. resolutions.
Hours earlier, the House approved an identical resolution, 296-133.
Now THIS is the funniest story I have seen all day!! The marchers have to realize that the reason they have so much violence in their Chicago suburbs is because of the way that they raise their kids. Gang culture feeds off of young up-coming members and when there is no parenting or parental responsibility, then it mushrooms out of control. Instead of taking on tough issues, you ask Obama to fix the gun problem!?!?! LOL. Mr. baby daddy with 14 kids by 10 different women (and counting) is really at the heart of your problem. Then again, I guess there still is no cure for stupid. Sorry, but President Obama can't fix that for you....
Why ask him?? Gabby Giffords/Mark Kelly can do it all, can't they?!?!?!?
There has been a democratic president now going on two terms so by history our next president will probably be republican. That's just how the systems works if you look at history.
Hold a march. Have the President make a speech. The gang bangers really pay attention to these things.
Parental responsibility? Naaahhh.
Community step up to the plate, end the code of silence, and identify the thugs to the police? Naaahhh.
Start working to encourage 2 parent families? Naaahhh.
The government should fix it. Yep, that'll do it.
TNB. Nothing to see here.
I was wondering one thing with all these marchers that you see all the time, doesn't any of them have a job?
Yeah,marching.
What,thats not a job?
If people had JOBS they wouldn't be roaming the streets committing crimes.
If congress would get off it's rear end and help to create jobs, then we would have jobs. They are not.They would rather say "No" than do anything about the situation.
Kind of hard to get a job if you don't apply for one. Even harder to keep a job when you don't show up for work.
The real problem is that many of those people have never seen real working people---they just are used to living in government housing projects where few have jobs and it is common for kids to be out at all hours of the night. And no, drug-dealing or robbing someone is NOT considered a "job"!
And Huskergal, what kind of jobs could the Congress create? Even ONE job that some 16-19 year old gangbanger could do?
What's the matter, Huskergal? Is that type of info hard to find because it is hidden from you or because it flat-out doesn't exist??
AND WHAT ARE WE HEARING FROM FEISTY AND BEV ON ALL OF THIS? THEY ARE CONSPICULOUSLY ABSENT FROM THIS DISCUSSION!
See what happens here? Huskergal wants to blame Congress (read that as the GOP) but when asked an easy question, she can't even ATTEMPT an answer!
Too many "hit-and-runners" here. They make some kind of ridiculous claim, and when called on it, they somehow are nowhere to be found!
The majority of guns used in crimes in Chicago came from Indiana or TN. Where gun laws are lax. And Indiana is less than 1hr away.
Why is the NRA now AGAINST better background checks?
and you know these facts how? Obama's media roadmap?
Google it, little boy. Or did you only learn to shoot your mouth off!
So,why don't Indiana and Tennessee have anything to equal Chicago's social problems?
Couldn't be the people,could it,Einstein?
johninpa Probably because all the guns went to Chicago :)
Where is the proof?
Funny Herron how Indiana and Tn don't have near the same "gun problem" as Chicago. Why is that?
He is
Ol' Jesse is getting desperate to try and stay relevant. A whole 150 marchers? Including family members of victims? Last count 405 were killed in Chicago last year. Guess Chicago isn't worried about anything but more welfare money.
You are pathetic Jesse... of course you always have been.
42 killed in the first month of the year SOooo 150/1.35= HMMmm
It will take almost 4 months for the same amount of people in that HUGE
parade to perish.....
Not so fast Desoto Kim--I hear that Chi-town is going to go ahead and try to beat last year's murder rate. You KNOW so many more are committed in the summer anyways! They'll catch up!
I wish msnbc would quit blaming the NRA for all the problems with guns. All the shootings throughout history with an assault weapon or what ever the shooter was never a member of the NRA.
Why don't you understand that this is NOT MSNBC. The MS part is GONE. Now shoot your MS Windows PC, please!
Herron its still MSNBC on the teli and this web page belongs to them. How I want to refer to them is entirely up to me not you or anyone else.
Fru. This is NOT the teli, and if you look at the URL for this page, it is nbcnews and NOT msnbc!
Herron I am not going to arguing with you over a bloody name, IT DOESN'T MATTER what you call it it refers ro the same place either way.
Sambo had to paint a target on someone and the NRA is the focus of his
attack on the 2nd amendment. Google it but he told Sarah Brady in 2011
he was working on a project "Under the radar" to impose new gum regulations
herron msnbc msnbc msnbc msnbc msnbc msbc msnbc msnbc msnbc msnbc msnbc msbc.
Why don't they just pass very strict gun laws in Chicago / Illinois? They would have to work.
Not when Indiana is less than an hour away and that state has lax gun laws!
Indiana and Tennessee must have awful problems ,way worse than Chicago.
How come we dont hear about them?
They dont sell guns in Chicago.
But, they sure have a ton of them ?
It doesn't take a mental giant to figure this one out.
Forget the guns, focus on the violence. You've already banned guns. How's that working out for you? Idiots.
Chicago has had a high homicide rate through several Presidents. You can tell Obama to do things all you want, but if you are just going to turn your head when violence happens in your neighborhood. You are going to have several hundred more years of violence, no matter what the President or the mayor does, the change in the neighborhood starts with you.
Even the liberals are going to have a hard time convincing anyone that lax gun laws in other states are the primary reasons for what is happening in Chicago.
But yet again I ask, who really cares that a few hundred gang-bangers are getting shot? Isn't THAT exactly what we all secretly want---less gangs? And all the feel-good solutions being put forth by the liberals are destined to fail. You can not "social engineer" your way out of this problem--it has been tried for the last 50 years and the problems are only worse now, at a great cost to the taxpayers of this country.
Instead of those terrific gun buy-back programs, what we should have is free weapons for those who want them in Chicago. Let the war begin in earnest!
The only good part is they can blame the savage behavior in Chicago on Tennessee's and Indiana's gun laws,what a joke.
Per police stats, many of the guns used in crimes in Chicago came from Indiana or TN.
So the crimes are way worse than Chicago's in Tenn or Indiana,how come we don't hear about it?
Well gosh Herron, I am sure the stats for Indiana and Tennesse must be horrible. I mean with all those lax gun laws in those states, they MUST be the murder capitals of America, right?
Blaming lax laws in other states is like blaming Mexico for our drug problem. A whole lot of drugs come from Mexico, so it must be their fault we have addicts here, right? Couldn't POSSIBLY be the people using the drugs, now could it?
Black gang violence (or black violence in general) will never end in this country. Why? Because the black race is naturally inclined to violence, whether in the US or elsewhere. South Africa commits more violent crimes than any other nation (far more than any impoverished asian, latino or white nation), and over one out of three women have been raped in South Africa.
Controlling the black violence problem in this country would require massive and sweeping deportations.
You sad little bigoted moron.
I dont recall any caucasian country killing 500,000-1million in 3 months with machetes.
But I will entertain any rebuttals.
Or was it the NRA's fault?
Herron, Glenn2112 was referring to a lie from a Chicago police report.
A WND review of the Chicago Police Department Murder Analysis reports from 2003 to 2011 provides a statistical breakdown of the demographics of both the victims and offenders in the 4,265 murders in Chicago over that time period.
Of the victims of murder in Chicago from 2003 to 2011, an average of 77 percent had a prior arrest history, with a high of 79 percent of the 436 murdered in Chicago in 2010 having arrest histories.
For the same 2003-2011 period, blacks were the victims of 75 percent of 4,265 murders. Blacks also were the offenders in 75 percent of the murders.
Kim. WND = "We're Nutty Doooshbags!" They also claimed that McVeigh was innocent for years!
Why don't Rev. Jackson, Father Pfleiger, and the rest of the "leaders" stop posing for photo ops and go to the 'hood, to discuss the problem directly with the gang-bangers? I guess it's a rhetorical question because we all know that, if they did, they would get their a**es shot off and never return. Instead, they want to blame everything on inanimate objects (guns) who can't speak the truth. That truth is that it is criminals that are causing the problems and need to be removed from society, not the guns which are, by themselves, neither good nor evil.
And speaking of egotistical posers, let's get rid of that incompetent nitwit police chief, and the mayor. They've both proven themselves incompetent to handle the problem.
Send in the national guard.
What else would you reasonably do? Petitions aren't going to save lives. You station guards for a time in the most crime-infested areas and keep peace for a stated time. When it is time for them to leave - and if violence breaks out again - you station them again. And again, and again, and again.
Soldiers are not required to recite Miranda law. They can shoot to kill someone threatening the life of a United States citizen.
Understand?
That's the law in this land.
Not true. The use of the National Guard does not absolve them of protecting individual rights contained in our Constitution. At any rate, it is up to the Illinois governor as to if/when the NG is utilized, not Obama.
Interesting how in a time of crisis (Katrina, Sandy, etc...) we send in the Guard to secure the populous and property. Anyone else see a time of crisis happening in Chicago right now? Send in the Guard and secure the people! It's obvious they and their local government cannot.
"We" don't send in the guard. That is a decision made by a state governor.
My post was not directed at the POTUS.
Chicago marchers ask Obama for help over gun violence
LOL Thats a Slap for Chicago finest....