Treat Chicago gangs as terrorists

You know things in Chicago are bad when 70 murders in the first quarter can be seen as a good thing. But context is everything: Last year at this time there had been more than 120 murders, so I guess we should thank God for small favors.

It seems inconceivable that the city President Barack Obama calls home is also the city where his family may be least safe. Just this Monday a 15-year-old boy was found shot dead in a backyard only four blocks from the president’s house.

What’s responsible for the bloodshed? Gang violence, as usual. Police estimate that of the 532 murders in 2012 — nearly 1.5 a day — about 80 percent were gang related. And yet, despite that rather staggering statistic, the national outcry is muted at best — nothing, to say the least.

The murder numbers may be slightly better in Chicago, but they do not fully communicate the city’s state of siege. In February CNN reported that some children living in gang-ridden parts of the city carry guns because, to them, getting caught and serving time for possession of a gun is better than getting caught without one and dying.

And if the name attached to all of this violence were al-Qaeda instead of Gangster Disciples; or if instead of “gang violence” the bloodshed were called “terrorism;” or if instead of calling the people spreading fear and mayhem gangs we were to call them what they really are — terrorists — the nation would demand more be done.

Last week, millions watched as an entire city was shut down to look for one guy. Every major news station was covering the pursuit of one guy. We all know the face and relatives of this one guy. And it’s all because he is an alleged terrorist. But more American were murdered in the south and west sides of Chicago than there were U.S. servicemen killed in Afghanistan last year, and yet for some reason we don’t view those neighborhoods as terrorized.

I would love to see the FBI’s anti-terrorism resources used in that matter to stop would-be gang members from flooding the streets of the country’s third-largest city.

Read More: