When Mothers Pay the Price
The use of the term
“gun violence”
is an intentional effort to mischaracterize the problem of Black-on-Black violence and murder. It is an attempt to blame the gun and not the gunman. It is important for “activists,” politicians, and their friends in the media to distract attention away from the ethnicity of the gunman. The politically-correct use of the term “gun violence” by the media to describe these horrors is, in reality, frighteningly dishonest. It is also deceptive. The reason is that, in far too many cases, the gunman is a young African-American male. Equally disturbing is the fact that the victim is also African-American. Attention to the ethnicity of the gunman puts a spotlight on decades of disastrous “Progressive” social policies that have effectively annihilated the African-American family unit. Acknowledging the ethnicity of the gunman is in effect a tacit admission of the deplorable conditions that exist in Democrat-run major cities across the country.
Each life lost an unspeakable tragedy. However, nowhere is that impact felt more than in families run by African-American women. Today more than seventy (70) percent of African-American households are headed by mothers.
Acclaimed economist and commentator Walter Williams, writing in the DeSoto Times, states that
“The truth is that black female-headed households were just 18 percent of households in 1950, …”
Sadly, times have changed.
NewsOne reports that as of 2011,
“…72 percent of Black children are raised in a single parent household.”
Not surprisingly the vast majority of those households are headed by women.
When a mother who heads the household is lost to the mindless carnage seen almost every day, the result is the disintegration of the family itself. When the mother is lost to senseless violence the burden or raising, nurturing, protecting, and educating the surviving children to fall to relatives who themselves are struggling to make it day-to-day. When mothers are lost, their daughters are deprived of their maternal role model. In far too many instances daughters deprived of their mothers go in search of fillers and substitutes. The result is often lives marred by drug dependence and relational co-dependence. Surviving children sometimes find themselves subjected to the legal proceedings in order to determine custody. A warm and loving mother is gone. Into the void left by her death come court-appointed ad litem attorneys, social workers, Child Protective Services, and even private investigators. In some cases, whether its the home of a relative or a foster care provider, siblings who lost their mother are themselves separated from one another.
Regrettably, there are just too many cases to cover them all. IN LOVING MEMORY of the mothers lost in Black on Black violence and murder, I’ve chosen to provide a brief overview of four such tragedies.
Charmaine Wilson
On June 12, 2017, Charmaine Wilson, age 37, called Baltimore Police for help in a situation in which her young son was being bullied or accosted. Police officers arrived to investigate. They left briefly, traveling a short distance away, to follow up on the information they had received. When they left the scene a gunman brazenly returned and shot Wilson multiple times killing her. The killer executed Wilson in plain sight of her children. According to Wilson’s sister
“The police had left and he was not gone more than seven minutes, and two guys came from the side with masks on their face,”
She went to say that two masked gunmen
“…walked up to her and shot her two times. Gunned her down right in front of her children.”
The killer was soon listed by the Baltimore Police as
“Public Enemy No. 1”
Eighteen-year-old Darius Neal, upon learning of the arrest warrant, turned himself in to police for the murder of Charmaine Wilson.
FoxNews reports that Charmaine Wilson was
“…one of the city’s six overnight homicides.”
in the Baltimore area.
Charmaine Wilson was the mother of eight children and the grandmother of two.
Nykea Aldridge
On August 25, 2017, the Chicago Tribune carried the heartbreaking story of Nykea Aldridge, the cousin of NBA superstar and future Hall of Fame Inductee, Dwayne Wade was shot and killed as she pushed her newborn baby in a stroller. According to ABC News,
“Surveillance video captures the moment she was shot and fell to the ground while her young child remained in the stroller. “
She was accompanied by another man who appears to have been the actual target of the shooting. Miraculously, the baby was unharmed. Two men, namely Darwin Sorells Jr. and his brother Derren Sorrells have been arrested and charged in her death Nykea Aldridge.
“Derren Sorells admitted in a statement to police to shooting multiple times at [Nykea Aldridge’s male companion] the apparent target ….”
Nykea Aldridge was 32-years-old and the mother of four children.
Gabrielle Simmons
The night of Thursday, November 9, 2017, Gabrielle Simmons was just minutes away from completing her shift at the Dollar General store when a robber entered and demanded money. She complied fully with the robbers’ demands. He shot and killed her anyway. The murderer was located and arrested a short time later. He was only fifteen years of age.
Simmons was a native of Mississippi. NBC5 quoted Simmons’ sister-in-law saying that,
“Simmons and her family moved to North Texas from Mississippi last year for a better life and to give her kids more opportunity.”
Gabrielle Simmons was the mother of six children.
Chantel Mack
On July 9, 2017, Chantel Mack died when an assailant’s bullet struck her in the neck killing her instantly. Chantel was killed in a crowded park where local north Tulsa residents had gathered for a friendly softball game. Chantel Mack was not the intended target of the shooting. The actual target of the shooting, an alleged gang member, was also killed during the incident. Det. Dave Walker, Tulsa Police, informed Tulsa’s Channel 6 News that,
“… there were likely between six and twelve different shooters that day, just one reason the case is challenging. “
Chantel Mack was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In a statement provided to the TulsaWorld Samy Mack, Chantel’s cousin and former basketball coach stated,
“We’ve gotta get control of the gun laws and the gangs. It’s getting where it isn’t even safe to be outside,”
Coach Samy Mack went on to say,
“This is devastating for everybody involved,…”
NewsOn6.com – Tulsa, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports – KOTV.com |
Speaking to Tulsa’s NewsOn6, Chantel’s older sister Kentavya spoke on the motherly love of her sister saying,
“Her kids. Her kids, she loved her kids. She loved them dearly. She did anything in the world. She made it happen for them by any means,”
As is far too often the case in Black on Black killings, no witnesses have come forward. At the time of Chantel’s murder, there were hundreds of people in the park. If you have information, in this case, please call Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS. You are urged to contact Tulsa Police, Homicide Division directly at (918) 596-9135 or visit their website at:
Chantel was the mother of two small boys ages 2 years-old and 9-months old respectively.
