"The second city" is second to no one in murders.

"I keep hearing about people dying and the violence that's going on. I feel like it's my responsibility, and our responsibility, to the city," ~Common~


Good for Common, but he is a rapper, not a policy maker in the city of Chicago.


It is not his job to try and stop the violence that's plaguing that city. Twenty five to thirty shootings in a weekend is typical. This past weekend forty (yes forty) people were shot (including an 11 year old girl)and there seems to be no end in sight. The place makes Killadelphia look like Mayberry R.F.D. for crying out loud!


I appreciate that Common is going to drop an album that speaks to the problem, but again, where are the leaders of that city?


Rahm Emanuel and his minions should be making cutting down on gun violence in their city the number one priority, and they should be focusing on it like a laser. Nothing should take priority over this scourge that is engulfing a once proud city.


Emanuel claims that he is working on the problem, and that they have done all the usual things: Assign more police officers in the summer months, create more alternative programs for young people to get involved with, and asking community and church leaders to get involved. Good luck with all of that.


These kids still won't have jobs, most of them will still be coming from broken and dysfunctional homes, and they will still think that being strapped is the best status symbol that they can have.


The more I think about it, maybe Common is better suited to try and fix the problem than the same old same old from the usual suspects.


I see that Eric Holder and the Justice Department is getting involved. (Sorry Rahm, what you are doing isn't working.)

“The Department of Justice will continue to do everything in its power to help the city of Chicago combat gun violence,” Holder said in a statement announcing the deployment of the agents. “These new agents are a sign of the federal government’s ongoing commitment to helping local leaders ensure Chicago’s streets are safe.”

“These new agents are a sign of the federal government’s ongoing commitment to helping local leaders ensure Chicago’s streets are safe.”

Attorney General Eric Holder Despite an overall dip in crime from last year, bloodshed in many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods continues to be relentless. While murders are down 6% from last year, shootings are up 5%, concentrated in just a handful of communities mostly on the city’s west and south sides, according to police.  Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has said that getting control of shooting incidents is critical to the department’s efforts. McCarthy told msnbc earlier this year that a new surge of officers in the most gun-weary neighborhoods and bolstered intelligence and community relations were showing signs of success in the department’s efforts to slow the bloodletting." [Source]

Mr. McCarthy, forty people shot does not seem like such a great "success" to me.

"Lyrics are like liquor for the fallen soldiers
From the bounce to the ounce, its all our culture
Everyday we hustling, tryna get them custom rims
Law we ain't trusting them, thick broads we lust in them
Sick and tired of bunchin it, I look on the bus at them
When I see them struggling, I think how I'm touching them
The People"

Common, I sure hope that you can "touch them, because right now, no one else is even coming close.