Teen performer at inaugural events fatally shot in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) — A 15-year-old girl who had performed in President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities is the latest face on the ever-increasing homicide toll in the president's hometown, killed in a Chicago park as she talked with friends by a gunman who apparently was not even aiming at her.

Chicago police said Hadiya Pendleton was in a park about a mile from Obama's home in a South Side neighborhood Tuesday afternoon when a man opened fire on the group. Hadiya was shot in the back as she tried to escape.

The city's 42nd slaying is part of Chicago's bloodiest January in more than a decade, following on the heels of 2012, which ended with more than 500 homicides for the first time since 2008. It also comes at a time when Obama, spurred by the Connecticut elementary school massacre in December, is actively pushing for tougher gun laws.

Hadiya's father, Nathaniel Pendleton, spoke Wednesday at a Chicago police news conference, which was held in the same park where his daughter died.

"He took the light of my life," Pendleton said. He then spoke directly to the killer: "Look at yourself, just know that you took a bright person, an innocent person, a nonviolent person." Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy consoled him, the girl's mother and 10-year-old brother.

Hadiya was a bright kid who was killed just as she was "wondering about which lofty goal she wanted to achieve," her godfather, Damon Stewart, told The Associated Press. Hadiya had been a majorette with the King College Prep band.

"She was a very active kid, doing dance, cheerleading, who felt like she could accomplish just about anything, a very good student who had big dreams about what she wanted to be, a doctor, an attorney," said Stewart, a Chicago police officer and attorney. "She was constantly getting good grades."

Obama was asked about Hadiya's death in an interview with Telemundo, which led to a discussion about gun control. Also Wednesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that the president and the first lady's "thoughts and prayers are with" the teen's family, adding: "And as the president has said, we will never be able to eradicate every act of evil in this country, but if we can save any one child's life, we have an obligation to try when it comes to the scourge of gun violence."

In Chicago, gangs routinely and often indiscriminately open fire. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy are pushing for tougher local, state and national gun laws and longer prison sentences for offenders.

About three blocks from Hadiya's school, she and a group of 10-12 young people, including members of her volleyball team, had taken refuge under a canopy at a park to avoid the rain Tuesday afternoon. A man climbed a fence behind the park, ran at the group and started shooting, and then jumped back over the fence and into a white Nissan. The group scattered, but Hadiya was shot once in the back and a teenage boy was shot in the leg.

Police said Hadiya had no arrest record and there was no indication she was a member of a gang or was the gunman's target. In fact, McCarthy said there are no indications that anyone in the group was gang-affiliated. He said the police suspect that the gunman may be a member of a gang that considers the park its turf and that he mistook somebody in the group as someone from an encroaching rival gang.

McCarthy vowed to put a police officer at the park "24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year" if that is what it takes to show the gang that the park belongs to no one but the community.

Comments by both Stewart and the girl's father echo the message that city officials have long said: Gun violence is not confined to street corners in dangerous neighborhoods. Obama's neighborhood, Kenwood, is just north of the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry.

"Her parents had done everything right and she was doing everything right," he said. Stewart, who was 12 when his own brother was shot and killed, said his family and Pendleton's family were so close that his own children saw the 15-year-old as an older sister.

"The worst thing in the world was when yesterday I had to sit there and tell my children that their sister is gone," he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/teen-performer...135859960.html

Ban high-capacity parks.

South Side Chicago is outta control.

I wonder why Chitown can't get control of its gang problem.

That's unfortunate.

Problem (ala NRA): Quite obviously not enough guns in Chicago.
Solution: remove all gun restrictions and flood Chicago with even more guns.
Result: peace and tranquility.

Originally Posted by Rhumb

Problem (ala NRA): Quite obviously not enough guns in Chicago.
Solution: remove all gun restrictions and flood Chicago with even more guns.
Result: peace and tranquility.

You clown... Chicago has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. And look where it has gotten them.

In the 80's DC was the gun crime capital of the nation... and they were one of the few places in the nation that banned ALL firearms.

How can people be dumb enough to believe that criminals will abide stricter gun laws

Originally Posted by 2000_328CI

You clown... Chicago has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. And look where it has gotten them.

In the 80's DC was the gun crime capital of the nation... and they were one of the few places in the nation that banned ALL firearms.

How can people be dumb enough to believe that criminals will abide stricter gun laws

Removing barriers to gun ownership in Chicago would do nothing to thwart the violence. Chicago acts as a hub in the United States. The South and West sides of Chicago are massive and home to millions. There are not enough police to patrol those streets. Residents keep quiet out of fear of retaliation. The people who do the shooting assume the person they're shooting is already armed because it's predominantly gang related.

You keep going back to Chicago. Funny how you don't even mention the other top 9 murder capitals of this country and their respective gun legislation.

Originally Posted by casino is no lie

Removing barriers to gun ownership in Chicago would do nothing to thwart the violence. Chicago acts as a hub in the United States. The South and West sides of Chicago are massive and home to millions. There are not enough police to patrol those streets. Residents keep quiet out of fear of retaliation. The people who do the shooting assume the person they're shooting is already armed because it's predominantly gang related.

You keep going back to Chicago. Funny how you don't even mention the other top 9 murder capitals of this country and their respective gun legislation.

What other gun capitals are you referring to? Baltimore? LA? Detroit? I can point to one thing they ALL have in common but you're not going to like the response.... disproportionate numbers of poor, uneducated, inner city children born out of wedlock to single mothers who can not afford to provide them with the time, money, attention, and love they need to grow up as productive contributors to society.

Yes there have been mass shootings by suburban white kids from middle class families... but they are NOT your typical perp in gun crimes in this country.

You want to end violence? Remove the ability for the government to support and foster poor women from birthing 10 children with 5 different men... and we both know which culture perpetuates and spreads this lifestyle. It has nothing to do with color but it damn well has to do with "thug society".

Originally Posted by 2000_328CI

What other gun capitals are you referring to? Baltimore? LA? Detroit? I can point to one thing they ALL have in common but you're not going to like the response.... disproportionate numbers of poor, uneducated, inner city children born out of wedlock to single mothers who can not afford to provide them with the time, money, attention, and love they need to grow up as productive contributors to society.

Yes there have been mass shootings by suburban white kids from middle class families... but they are NOT your typical perp in gun crimes in this country.

You want to end violence? Remove the ability for the government to support and foster poor women from birthing 10 children with 5 different men... and we both know which culture perpetuates and spreads this lifestyle. It has nothing to do with color but it damn well has to do with "thug society".

When challenged with an argument that one does not want to have, change the argument.

Originally Posted by 2000_328CI

You clown... Chicago has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. And look where it has gotten them.

In the 80's DC was the gun crime capital of the nation... and they were one of the few places in the nation that banned ALL firearms.

How can people be dumb enough to believe that criminals will abide stricter gun laws

Chicago, as with DC, were but small islands surrounded by seas of easy gun access basically making their strict laws moot and ineffective. Hence the need to address guns more broadly/nationally to have any real impact on mitigating gun related violence.

Do note, I am in no way arguing that stricter gun laws are THE answer to our levels of societal violence nor that other serious deep thinking, whether legislatively or socially, needs to also take place.

However, these two threads are not mutually exclusive, either/or approaches either and I think all should be on the table to create a more cohesive and effective approach to our high levels of societal violence.

I certainly don't expect criminals to abide by any gun laws, they are criminals after all (though this argument can get rather circular too). However, national-level gun control could make it far more difficult, over time, for criminals to acquire and eventually use guns. Yes, they may then resort to knives and fists, but those are far less effective and deadly so would represent at least a real-world mitigation of the problem, not some Utopian solution.

Originally Posted by Rhumb

Chicago, as with DC, were but small islands surrounded by seas of easy gun access basically making their strict laws moot and ineffective. Hence the need to address guns more broadly/nationally to have any real impact on mitigating gun related violence.

Have you been to Illinois? Chicago is basically the only thing in that state outside of corn fields, soybean fields and highway 55. They are not surrounded by a sea of easy gun access, lol.

Originally Posted by evolved

Have you been to Illinois? Chicago is basically the only thing in that state outside of corn fields, soybean fields and highway 55. They are not surrounded by a sea of easy gun access, lol.

Chicago itself is roughly 3 million people when going by city lines. It's surrounded by another 7-10 million people depending how far you watch to draw the "metropolitan" line.

Originally Posted by evolved

Have you been to Illinois? Chicago is basically the only thing in that state outside of corn fields, soybean fields and highway 55. They are not surrounded by a sea of easy gun access, lol.

Yes. Sea I was referring to was the greater U.S. of A.

Originally Posted by 2000_328CI

You clown... Chicago has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. And look where it has gotten them.

In the 80's DC was the gun crime capital of the nation... and they were one of the few places in the nation that banned ALL firearms.

How can people be dumb enough to believe that criminals will abide stricter gun laws

For the most part, I'm against the new gun legislation coming down from the idiot.

But no one can deny what NYC's gun law did. You carry a gun in the boroughs, you get 2 years at Rikers. Numbers don't lie.

Originally Posted by Carskibum

For the most part, I'm against the new gun legislation coming down from the idiot.

But no one can deny what NYC's gun law did. You carry a gun in the boroughs, you get 2 years at Rikers. Numbers don't lie.

its still #1 for gun violence iirc

Originally Posted by Act of God

its still #1 for gun violence iirc

State or City?

Originally Posted by Carskibum

For the most part, I'm against the new gun legislation coming down from the idiot.

But no one can deny what NYC's gun law did. You carry a gun in the boroughs, you get 2 years at Rikers. Numbers don't lie.

OK.... where are the numbers?
What did it do?

Originally Posted by JonJon

OK.... where are the numbers?
What did it do?

In 1990, NYPD began an aggressive campaign of "stop and frisk". (Terry Stops) This coupled with their 1 year mandatory minimum for carrying a loaded firearm without a permit lead to an insane drop in gun murders and gun related crime. With these two tactics combined, criminals were fearful of carrying their guns with them. This lead to altercations with fists and knives instead of guns. Murder rate went down and had direct impact on the numbers of crimes in NYC.

Yes, crime dropped after the 80's across the nation, but by no means at the rate the city did.

Page 12, Figure 1:

http://johnjayresearch.org/wp-conten...7/rec20122.pdf

conspiracy by Obama and the liberal jew media with their corporate fatcats with all their money. Also Glenn Beck is my hero and Bill O'reilly is a genious.

From my impression gun violence in Chicago is isolated to a certain area that happens to be a bad neighborhood. Also, most of the shootings are gang related, right? If that's the case, gun laws aren't going to change anything. It's similar to St. Louis.....we have pro-gun laws including Castle law statutes that extend to your vehicle, no CCW required if the gun is in your car, history of courts siding with homeowner in defense situations, no waiting period, etc., etc. and we still have a lot of gun violence. The thing is is that it's concentrated in the bad part of town where most of the killings are drug/gang related, so saying CHicago's gun violence is solely a reflection of it's anti-gun laws is only part of the picture.