Posted on 05/27/2007 11:42:45 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
They came Saturday carrying photographs of their sons and daughters who were murdered with guns. Some wore the children's pictures on T-shirts or lapel buttons.
Rev. Jesse Jackson led them, almost 200 people in south suburban Riverdale, with rhetorical flourish.
"Futures not funerals!" Jackson exhorted the crowd. "Sons not guns!"
Chuck's Gun Shop, 14310 S. Indiana Ave., was the target of the protest. The protesters blamed Chuck's, which is just across the border from Chicago, for many of the guns on the city's streets.
Marching with Jackson were Tommie and Pamela Bosley, whose 18-year-old son, Terrell, was shot to death April 2006 in the parking lot of his Far South Side church before choir practice.
Next to Jackson stood Chicago Police Officer Ronald Holt and his wife, Annette Nance-Holt, a firefighter, the parents of Blair Holt. The 16-year-old honor student was shot to death May 10 when an alleged gang member boarded a bus and opened fire on a rival, police said. Michael Pace, 16, and Kevin Jones, 15, have been charged with murder.
"I feel sorry for the offenders. My heart goes out to them. They were children," Ronald Holt said.
Jackson and Revs. James Meeks and Michael Pfleger encouraged the crowd to push for stricter gun laws. They vowed that the rally was just the beginning and that civil disobedience was possible.
"We have a right to live without fear. We have the right to ride the bus without fear," Jackson said.
The Riverdale gun shop was prepared for the protest.
A semitrailer truck parked in front of the store blocked protesters' access. The store's front doors were locked.
About 30 counterprotesters stood outside the store. One man carried a sign that read, "Jesse -- How many armed guards do you have?"
jkimberly@tribune.com
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
What happened to the crime rate in Kennesaw , GA, after they passed a law REQUIRING home owners to keep loaded firearms in their houses ??
Right ! It sank to almost nothing there .
Riverdale/Dolton was my childhood hometown. It sounds like it’s not the town I knew. There weren’t any gangs riding on buses in the town that *was*. There’s Jesse blaming the legitimate gun shop. What a jerk.
I worked at Kaiser Aluminum at 142nd and Cottage back in ‘73.
I don’t know if you picked this up on local news but, they are speculating the reason the teller was shot was because the perps knew him, and thought perhaps he recognized them or their voice. Black on black crime, again. Why doesn’t Jesse do something about that?
Yikes, I thought this was about the bank teller that was shot. They said they were going to do this protest for that murder also. I guess I “jumped the gun”.
Hello neighbor!
Hello neighbor!
“Mrs Jomes, I regret to inform you your son has just been murdered in a crack house.”
OH MY GOD! Did they kill him with an assault rifle shooting teflon coated cop killer bullets from a 30 round magazine using hollow point Black Talon depleted Uranium ammo!
“Ah, no, They cut him to pieces with a chain saw.”
Well, thank God for that!
This is the best theatrics they could come up with? Oh how pathetic the left has become, no wonder the white libs in charge of the media have shifted to the race baiting latinos, at least they are fresh if not especially interesting.
Only after establishing the gun's identity and background, usually showing file footage of some scary automatic weapon, do they get around to the shooter.
The shooter being from a Democratic voting group in most cases.
15 and 16 year-old gang bangers who get on a bus and shoot their rivals and innocent bystanders are not children. Don't feel sorry for them, and don't blame inanimate objects or law-abiding businesses.
"Lame, lame, LAME!"
Pre-ban M1A?
No doubt Jesse and the gang would have a cow. But the intriguing question is: which cow?
So what Shakedown is essentially saying here is that Chicago’s urban people of color are not responsible enough to have guns.
All our base are belong to us?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.