Roy Exum: 5 Dreadful Stories

  • Wednesday, December 28, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

Over the Christmas weekend in Chicago, from Friday at 6 p.m. through Sunday, more than 52 Americans were shot within the city limits. To me that is incomprehensible. Twelve of those shot died, and, with three more days left in December, during this month alone 48 have been killed and another 206 have been shot in the streets. We’ve still got New Year’s Eve to go and the gunslingers have reached the point where exactly every two hours somebody new is shot.

Last year there were 509 homicides in the Windy City. This year there have been 785 thus far in an overwhelming uptick of years past. More people have been killed in Chicago than our soldiers who died in Afghanistan. If 785 soldiers died during one year in Afghanistan, we would demote generals, demand Congressional hearings and maybe go as far as calling for a retreat. In Chicago they just send an ambulance.

Apparently the state of Illinois made sweeping cuts in an effort to cut gun violence two years ago. In the year 2000 there were 18 districts where crime was being eradicated but two years ago that number was cut to 14. Today there is one. If we can spend billions (with a ‘b’) in Afghanistan, isn’t it high time we as a nation descended on Chicago with a steel-toed boot?

In a press conference held Monday night, police experts said 90 percent of the shootings were gang-related and – believe this or not – were ‘pre-identified’ in a department algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim. This year’s dead include 597 blacks, 128 Hispanics and 38 whites. This whole thing is nuts and, with a president who comes from Chicago, the national response is totally unacceptable.

This year – and this will be a low number because it’s a cinch some people will have been shot in the time this article was written and appeared, 4,334 persons have been shot in Chicago. A murder happens every 11 hours, 3 seconds. That includes 11 police officers who have been killed in 2016 and another 14 officers wounded. Such carnage has an estimated cost of $2.5 billion (with a ‘b’) to America’s taxpayers.

Ready for some other reasons I want my country back?

* * *

TWO -- In San Francisco, there is now vivid evidence of what ultra-liberal policies have cost the City by the Bay. Property crime is at an all-time high, an online map tracks human feces on city streets, discarded syringes are a common sight and, according to a scathing Fox News story, public urination is so widespread it has damaged subway elevators, escalators, building’s walls and power poles.

According to the news story, Marc Joffe, director of research at the California Policy Center think tank, told Fox, “There’s a very tolerant attitude, you can very much do anything on the streets you want,” he said. “As members of a civilized society, there are things you should not accept. But we have ignored that … and there is nobody on the other side setting limits.”

Another data-collection source reports: “With a crime rate of 70 per one thousand residents, San Francisco has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes,” claimed Neighborhood Scout. “One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 14. Within California, more than 98% of the communities have a lower crime rate than San Francisco.”

* * *

THREE -- When firecrackers caused chaos at Chattanooga’s Hamilton Place Mall, we were hardly alone. A senseless wave of punks using social media struck malls in nine states in recent days and there is some belief the fights and related havoc are staged to allow shoplifting and related crimes.

Fighting broke out at two malls in Memphis and there were chilling incidents in Arizona, Connecticut, Colorado, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Color me dumb but how can any texts or tweets incite hundreds of people to go to a shopping center and cause trouble? Punish them each and every one to the fullest extent of the law. I want my country back.

* * *

FOUR -- Last Thursday police in Kernville, Pa., found Jason Chambers, 27, and his wife, Chelsea Cardaro, 19, dead after they overdosed on heroin. The coroner said they had been dead for almost a week and as officers checked the house, they found a five-month-old baby dead in her crib. Apparently the child died from dehydration and starvation some two days after her parents died.

Last month emergency responders saved Chambers with the anti-heroin drug, Narcan. Concerned neighbors reported the parents to Children and Youth Services. Officials there deemed the home appropriate for a child.

* * *

FIVE -- Officials in Cincinnati, which has been hit with 174 overdoses from heroin during five days in August, have tracked the culprit. It appears Clifford Reed, 27, went to Chicago to get some fentanyl to mix with his heroin sales to give it some extra kick.

Fentanil, believed to be 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, is the reason a record epidemic of heroin overdoses is plaguing the United States. Last week, for example there were 225-plus overdoses in just four states.

Clifford Reed wanted to up the ante so he scores some carfentanil in Chicago, which is about 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. This is the stuff they use to sedate an elephant. And even the dumbest dealers know it will kill people. Reed told an informant, “Man, you got to know how to cut it … they don’t die.”

Suffice it to say carfentanil is now on the loose. It has been reported in Chicago and is making its way to cities near you. Make no mistake, elephant tranquilizer will kill you.

Heroin will too.

royexum@aol.com

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