Why do children get beaten in the street?

Read this article if you'd like to know about a another boy beaten in a Chicago neighborhood last night. To be honest, I think this is only making the news because of the pending Olympic question. It happens here all the time.

Chicago's culture breaks people up into two categories -- criminals and victims. There is a culture that associates strength and accomplishment with victimizing others. It exists in some form everywhere, but here in Chicago it is dangerously wide-spread because of the other culture -- the apologists, the victims.

People here are taught that we are helpless, only the government (police) can protect us. It is illegal to carry and use the tools of self-defense in public. In school we are taught that if we are attacked we should never scream, struggle, or resist in any way as it may anger our assailant. Our children, by way of zero-tolerance laws (which punishes children who defend themselves from an attacker the same way they would be for an unprovoked assault), are taught that they are morally required to be victims. When a tragedy like the beating in Edgewater happens, people complain that the mayor didn't stop it (because mayors patrol the streets taking on thugs as part of their jobs).

People already too stupid to know that we have an (arguably unconstitutional) state-enforced curfew call for martial law (because only the government can protect us, civilians are not responsible).

They blame the need for parents to work. (I'm a working single mom and my son is not a criminal... if you bother to do it right, it works.)

Of course, our conservatives are as stupid as our liberals, so don't think I'm taking sides. I'm all for stopping welfare, as it has been a disaster for our society. However, people don't become criminals because they have single parents.

Have you any idea how many people stay with abusive spouses because they are sure their kids will be better off with both birth parents no matter what? Neither do I, but I can tell you it is more than I am comfortable with -- I heard that from many women I talked to during my divorce. Some couples raise criminals, some single parents raise criminals, and across the board, some people do a great job and raise responsible young people to become law-abiding adults.

Even people who seem to get that without the tools of self-defense in the hands of law-abiding citizens, this will not change, can't argue the point respectably because they are too stupid to know that you don't "repeal" a mayor (though you might be able to impeach one).

Of course, any internet site allowing comments will get some stupid.  I've chosen these specific comments to reflect what I hear over and over from nearly everyone I live and work around here in the Chicago area.

When I saw a man beaten (probably to death, though he was still hanging on when the ambulance finally arrived) on Michigan Avenue, I was told by first responders that I was one of only two to report the crime, despite the fact that literally dozens of people were standing around watching. No one tried to intervene to help him (I could not make it across the four lanes of Michigan avenue traffic). They just watched. I was the only person who stayed around to talk to the police and identify the assailants. According to the police, this behavior on my part was shocking, though the beating to death of a random person on Chicago's most touted shopping street was unremarkable.

Until parents must take responsibility for raising their children, people begin defending themselves (which usually requires the tools to do so), the police (who can't be everywhere) aren't our only line of defense, people who don't have an easy enough life aren't given a pass, and voters aren't clueless, nothing will change here.