(Not-So) Breaking News: Crime in Chicago

This year it seems like there has been one violent event after another, with the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the Boston marathon bombing. As horrible and sad as these events are, I would like to draw some attention to events that have happened this year very close to where I live. I took these photos in the second floor rotunda at my school, where there is a tribute to the teenagers who have been murdered in Chicago this year.

How can it be that such an alarming number of people have been murdered right here in Chicago, and yet until this tribute at school, I have almost never heard anyone talk about it? While doing some research for this post, I came across this blog; http://crimeinchicago.blogspot.com/ , which records every shooting that has happened in Chicago this year. On the sidebar, you can see how many crimes each neighborhood has. The neighborhood with the most crimes this year is Englewood, with 277 crimes from January to May. Englewood happens to be one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Chicago, with a poverty rate of 44%, and 97% of the population is African-American. On the other hand, the town Newton, Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was, is an upper-middle class neighborhood where 95% of the population is white. I honestly find the difference in the amount of media coverage between the two situations disturbing. I also think that this contrast in news regarding the events stems from this notion that we have talked about in class, the idea that some lives mean more than others. After having seen the sheer number of teens that have been murdered this year, Ifind it very eye opening--due to what the media chose what and what not to cover, I was oblivious to the violence occuring so close to my own home.