The 1994 crime bill was an answer to the shit mainly happening in Chicago in the 90’s and if you were not here then you wont get it but I pray y’all don’t over talk my lived experience because the gang and gun violence altered my life for the worst. Im still recovering.

Growing up in Chicago during the late 90’s was an equivalent of a war zone. No city in this country was seeing thousands of gun deaths each summer like we were and at the time, community solutions were failing and dead babies were getting picked up off side walks bleeding out.

I don’t expect folks who haven’t lived in cities like Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit, or New York to get what my childhood was like all that I ask is thar you listen to my lived experience.

The 1994 crime bill was sponsored largely in part by the case of Simeon Basketball super star Ben Wilson who was viciously gunned down in 1984 right before he was set to get drafted his murderer still believes there was no crime committed https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/ben-wilsons-killer-i-dont-consider-myself-criminal

His killer is walking free while Ben Wilson lay resting in a grave. Don’t ever tell me “prison” is on equal standing because somewhere down the line, you might get your life back. The person killed will not.

Ben Wilsons death sparked outrage in the Black community and folks wanted something done. Black boys were being recruited to gangs as young as 9 years old and by the time the crime bill came, Chicagos gangs had pivoted from street protection to organized drug syndicates.

Then the Mexican cartel forms an aliance here and boom you have literal street wars happening over drug money in a city so highly segregated that whole blocks could be targeted because they were predominantly Black or Hispanic.

Chicago sees mass murders every summer and just like in 2020 the yt folks in the 90’s blamed the “n***ers” for not being able to control their kids (sound familiar single black moms out there?) yes Black motherhood was being attacked by the Democrats AND Republicans.

Just like how you all are attacking Sen. Kamala Harris for shit she had no control over Black mothers were being attacked in the 90’s and they pleaded with the federal government for assistance in neighborhoods already starved of resources.

There were serial killers targeting Black women in sex work in Chicago. I grew up with stories on the news of unidentified Black Women’s bodies being found in dumpsters in Roseland. Folks would shoot the emergency room doors of Roseland hospital up. Thousands died.

In the 90’s it wasn’t uncommon to hear stories of Black elders being shot in their heads while sitting on their porches because the gangs would do drive bys in elderly neighborhoods because of their grand kids gang activity.

My cousin’s ex fiance was shot in the back of his head due to mistaken gang affiliation by a Cartel affiliated Latin King. Ive been shot at walking from the hair salon. My homie was shot 3 times in his arm sitting on a friends porch in 2012. Ive been shot at on the expressway.

Ive had assault rifle lasers pointed at my car from folks shooting cars on the expressway over passes. Every time I drive on i57 through the 100’s I stay vigilant because I could be shot through my window.

My cousin had to carry her fiancé’s limp body to the local emergency room when he was shot, had she shown up even 5 mins later he would’ve died. (That Sagittarius demon still cheated cause knee-grows aint shit but thats off topic )

My point with this thread is that a lot of yall have lived very nice lives free of the plague of mass gun violence and mass poverty. Chicago has been a hot bed of racist tension since 1919 and it continues to be 101 years later. You literally have no idea what this is like.

Ive buried more friends from drug over doses and gun violence than I would ever want to. Its part of the reason why im so jaded. If you’ve never had to consider your own mortality all I ask is empathy and understanding.

The 1994 crime bill was far from perfect. But a lot of Black men in particular chose corruption and murder over peace and a lot of Black children in my city died over turf wars that would be completely yt and gentrified in the very next decade. We were being exterminated.