Chicago Trauma: Counting Broken Bodies, But Not Broken Spirits

 

by Trymaine Lee 

SOUTH SIDE, CHICAGO — We do a great job of counting the dead in places like this.

After long, bloody weekends, the media tallies up the carnage and prints it in headlines and streams it across the nightly news. The police fill out paperwork and criminologists turn statistics into trends.

We note the age and manner of death. It's gunfire mostly. Sometimes a stabbing or a beating. But almost always gunfire.

We mark the location of the dead on color coded maps and watch the kaleidoscope grow with each shooting until we're dizzy.

We keep a tally of the murdered and maimed like a box score in the most inhumane spectator sport.

We note the time and location. The shootings spike in summer or when it's unseasonably warm. Winter's chill sometimes cools the violence.

And the later the hour the more violent, though many have died before noon. 

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Source: NBCBLK