A little gun violence story from my neck of the woods.

I'll change everyone's names.

My friend Grace is seeing a guy (well call him Bill) who got into an argument at a social club. The argument got heated and the other guy pulled a gun and shot Bill. In a room full of people no one was able to identify the shooter when the police got there. This is the usual don't snitch ethos in the tight knit local black community.

Grace told me that he got shot, I said that no one would be able to identify the shooter. Grace rolled her eyes and shook her head in conformation. I asked if the anyone had gone after the shooter yet, Grace said "Not yet". I'm sure they will wait till the weekend to try and get this guy. It's pretty much set in stone that someone has to take revenge for Bill getting shot. The black community around here self polices.

I didn't know what was going on at the time, but last Wednesday another friend of mine, well call him Mike was in the bar. Mike was agitated, said his son's friend just got shot, no idea that it was Bill who had just been sitting at my bar Superbowl Sunday. Mike kicked his son out of the house, he knew that his son was going to be one of the guys trying to get revenge for Bill and Mike didn't want to get caught in the crossfire. He begged his son to step away but to no avail.

I'm guessing that another 1-5 people get shot at or shot in the neighborhood this next month. Fucked up thing is that all these guys are adults with life's to live, jobs to work, families who love them, they are all adults but they will play this deadly game foolish game where one argument leads to an ugly cycle of violence.