The population of Chicago is 2.179 million people. Of that 2.179 million approximately 33% are black. As of this writing, Sept. 26, 2016, 3,218 people have been shot and 556 murdered in Chicago.

Of those shot and killed approximately 95% are people of color. The vast majority are black.

In contrast, DuPage County is the second most populated and the richest county in Illinois and lies directly west of Cook County and the City of Chicago. The population of Dupage is approximately 932,126. Chicago’s population—just Chicago not Cook County—is roughly 2 ½ times that of DuPage County.

So what?

Well, the U.S. 2015 Crime Stats came out the day of the first presidential debate and revealed that murders were up 10.8%, the biggest percentage increase since 1971. Murders in some cities rose almost 20%, according to the FBI report.

The Guardian, a UK publication that leans liberal, wrote an interesting article about this rise in violent crime. And they did what I have find many do when reporting the rise in violent crime: They downplay the significance by comparing it to the worst time for violent crime in U.S. history, the early 1990s.

It was a time when the use, manufacturing, and trafficking of crack cocaine was at epidemic proportions. I was on the street then and I remember it clearly. The associated crime was out of control. Yet: “Murder and violent crime are still dramatically lower than they were at the peak of the violent crime wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The national murder rate last year was about half what it was in 1991.”

The Guardian’s reporters go on to assure those who may mistakenly think that the rise of murders is something to be concerned about: “Even as murders rose, the country’s overall crime rates did not increase as substantially. There was a 3.9% increase in the estimated number of violent crimes, but a 2.6% decrease in the estimated number of property crimes.”

Well thank God the unlocked bikes are still safe.

What really struck me about The Guardian article was the following: “The rising violence was driven by an increase in the murders of black men, and by an increase in the number of gun murders. At least 900 more black men were killed in 2015 than in 2014, according to FBI data.”

900 more black men were murdered. Got that? Yet it appears almost as an aside in the article. No outrage (this from a newspaper that is no stranger to outrage). No screaming for a fix. No wondering, Why? Carnage, to which their response is: move along.

Then there is their interesting and confusing choice of a word: driven. “The rising violence was driven by an increase in the murders of black men.”

The murder of 900 more men was what drove the violent crime rate up? Talk about confusing cause for effect! 900 dead is the result of violent crime, not the driving factor.

So what was the cause of this shocking uptick?

Emboldened Criminals

For the past several years the police have been demonized, called racists, and handcuffed (figuratively) when it comes to programs like stop-and-frisk (which is still incredibly misunderstood by the media and even politicians with law degrees) in violent crime areas.

Again, confusing cause with effect, the police are vilified for trying to alleviate crime in high-crime areas. As this occurs, the legitimacy of police and their morale naturally erode. As violent crime patterns are likewise ignored or played down, many officers do what you might expect: They shut down. They cease to perform the sort work that prevents crime from happening, because proactive work can only get an officer in trouble. Crime continues. Cops take calls, sure, but they often look the other way on patrol.

Some call it the “Ferguson Effect,” but the police have been openly talking about this for at least a year preceding that event in the small Missouri town.

When this happens criminals are no longer afraid of the police and are protected—literally protected—by the media, politicians, and elitist Ph.Ds. Criminals are portrayed as the victims of a biased and corrupt criminal justice system. The result? You see it now: A rise in violent crime.

Institutions with vested political stakes refuse to describe this simple causal relationship. For proof look no further than The Guardian article: “Crime trend experts said they expected politicians to overplay the significance of the new numbers and to react with ‘hysteria.’

“Advocates for criminal justice reform said they worried the one-year uptick would fuel calls for a return to damaging, tough-on-crime policies. The U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, and both violent crime and mass incarceration disproportionately affect black Americans.”

You know what else disproportionately affects black Americans? Rampant bloodshed. You can look at the numbers and talk to people who think like you and say that there’s no story here. But remember this: We’re not talking about numbers. We’re talking about dead Americans. They deserve, at least, objectivity.

Violent crime took perhaps the most drastic downturn in American history between 1990 and 2000. Why? Politicians and community members were fed up. People talked about massive drug treatment programs, but that never materialized. Instead cops got tough on crime: stop-and-frisk, task forces, predictive crime analytics, and a sense of seriousness when it came to the costs of crime. In short, criminals were apprehended and convicted.

And the prison population has risen exponentially. Some will have you believe—and they have been very effective in selling this—that the resulting prison population was mostly “nonviolent drug offenders.” But state prison systems are about 60% violent criminals. That is, people who injure and kill others.

Then, as now, most of the victims were black Americans.

Now Imagine this Scenario

Back to DuPage County, Ill. It’s approximately 80% white.

Now imagine—just imagine—if, as of Sept. 26, 2016, DuPage County found itself looking at 300 murdered young white men. What would be the result?

The National Guard would be the result.

A national media in an uproar would be the result. CNN, FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC would have their vans and talking heads in the parking lots of the county buildings breathlessly reporting every minute of every day.

But 550-plus dead black men in the first nine months of the year in Chicago? It’s not silence. But compared to the coverage of police shootings recently, it it really isn’t much. Some, like the Huffington Post, are openly saying it’s not a big deal.

900 more murdered black men than the year before? A statistical anomaly? No big deal?

Conclusion

There are children sleeping on the floor in Chicago in order to avoid errant shots from gang-bangers. We have teenage boys who have avoided crime, from stable homes, working part-time jobs while earning good grades, playing sports and winning college scholarships being gunned down for refusing to join gangs and participating in the violent subculture of certain neighborhoods.

The Guardian’s perspective?

“In 2015, black men were about nine times more likely to be murdered than white men, and black women were three times more likely to be murdered than white women, according to the analysis.”

Then,

“Black men and women face much less violence today than they did in the early 1990s, belying Donald Trump’s claim last week that ‘our African American communities are in the worst shape they’ve ever been … ever. Ever. Ever.’”

Trump was wrong. But what does that have to do with anything? Apparently, in this election year, 900 more murdered African-American males is no big deal.

Unless you happen to love one of those 900.