32nd Chicago Public Schools student slain

[Indy Lurker]

Tenth-grader Marquell Blake was headed for a dice game Wednesday when an man shot the teenager in the chest, killing him on the street just a few blocks from his family home, relatives said.

Family members said Blake had agreed to shoot dice before a man shot him in a robbery attempt. He was carrying a large amount of cash, and his attacker knew it, a source said.

Krista Baxter said her nephew had four younger siblings, his parents were separated and he lived with his mother, who worked multiple jobs to support the family. She said Blake had lived in the area since 2003.

The shooting wasn't his first brush with street violence—about six months ago he was stabbed, his relatives said.


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Chicago has an epidemic of violence, with no end in sight.

[Schema Thing]

1. this year? n/t

[Indy Lurker]

2. This school year

Since September.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. And this ties to the public schools how?

I find the title misleading at best. It makes it sound like it was the 23rd slaying at school or at a school related function

[Indy Lurker]

7. They are simply students who attend school

This is the way the city has chosen to to measure murders of young people for the last couple of years. I do not believe any of the murders have occurred in school, and I believe the number do not include drop-outs.

32 students enrolled in the Chicago public school system have been murdered since the beginning of the school year.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. That is an odd and somewhat useless metric, but given the mayor's

anti gun, hysterics...

[DailyGrind51]

11. Daley blames gun ownership when the real problem is gangs.

Daley began early in his administration by treating gang leaders like statesmen, actually hosting a "gang summit" at the Chicago Hilton Hotel in the hope of ending drive-by shootings. He even appointed a former gang-banger to coordinate his corrupt and now defunct "Hired Truck" program. They repaid his indulgence with continued lawlessness. Daley has now abandoned any concern for neighborhoods in favor of his "Gold Coast" money boys.

[MedleyMisty]

4. Have you read Gang Leader for a Day?

I found it very interesting.

I don't think that humans would be perfect angels if it weren't for capitalism (if so, then how did perfect angel pre-capitalism humans come up with capitalism in the first place? It's certainly not the brainchild of a group of perfect angels.) but it's certainly true that growing up in such an unequal society fucks people up. And actually not only people - I'm reading an article about how watching their habitats disappear and watching family members get gunned down and growing up without their normal social network have fucked up elephants to the point where young male elephants are raping and killing rhinos.

I guess my point is that if you want to stop the violence, you're going to have to massively change human society - and not just here, but globally. Good luck with that.

[doctor jazz]

5. Chicago also seems to have an epidemic of teenage gangsta gamblers.

...

[jmg257]

6. 90% of homicide offenders in Chi have criminal histories. Think they MIGHT figure out whats wrong?

[DailyGrind51]

8. But, we can afford to host the Olympics?

Daley can't keep Chicago kids safe, can't keep our schools funded or our public transit from going bust every few months, can't plow side-streets or fix pot holes, but he manages to find money for aldermen's 6.2% raises, airport expansion that the airlines say is unnecessary, and the 2016 Olympics! We already pay the highest sales tax in the nation 10.5%.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. ...10th grader one his way to a dice game with a bag of cash?

Sorry he was killed.