(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
But the UN will hardly intervene. We are talking about the United States, and this is not the result of law and order breaking down, but instead being upheld. It is an effect of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms.
Another Day in the Death of America draws a macabre image of today's United States, and is clearly one of the most influential books on weapons and violence in the country. It has been translated into several languages, has appeared in several editions since it was published in 2016 and is still highly relevant.
His mother could only relax when he was in prison, because only there he was safe.
Today there are 89 weapons per 100 Americans. In Chicago, there are more dead and wounded each year than there are among the Marines in Afghanistan. The inhabitants are so used to the sound of gunshots that even the dogs have stopped barking. The pictures on Facebook from the city are not like the US; they are more like Mexico, El Salvador. Dollars and rifles. As in the pictures of Tyshon Anderson – 18 years old.
Today we read about his death, but yesterday we might as well have read about one of his dead victims. 18-year-old Anderson lived off burglary and selling drugs, like so many others. He had already been shot when he was on his way home from the hospital. His mother only relaxed when he was in prison, because he was safe in the prison. And yet he is remembered by his friends as someone who fell in battle. With honor. As if he died at work while doing his duty.
No motive. No investigation.
Gary Young is a correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian and decided to settle in Chicago. One day he was in a meeting at the school of one of the children. The meeting was about orienting oneself and how one can teach their children to avoid getting lost when out on their own. But it was also about avoiding panic if your child should end up in a crossfire. Here it is so normal, he says, that the problem is not crossfire; it is the panic that the pyrexia creates.
His book is a macabre portrait of today's United States that makes you speechless. It is portrayed by a random day – November 23, 2013 – and the ten people killed that day. All were minors.
This is not a result of law and order having broken down, but of law and order maintained.
On average, 96 people are killed in the United States every day. It's so normal that every new case gets just a note in the local newspaper, like the few lines in the Dallas Morning News about the killing of Samuel Brightmon – just 16 years old – who was hit by a bullet while out with a friend. No one is charged. No one is suspected. No motive. No investigation.
“You play with your X-box. A minute later you're dead, "says a friend," for no reason whatsoever. "It's so normal for the psychologist to help the classmates get over the trauma, mixing up their names. Families are left to themselves, not just after the tragedy is a fact, but first and foremost before the events take place.
The portrait of the living American is, if possible, even more outrageous than the portrait of the dead American. It is a portrait of a country where the fathers do not remember how many children they have – like the father of 18-year-old Gustin Hinnant – nor where they are buried because there was no money for a proper burial – such as when the 18-year-old Pedro Cortez was to be buried.
A relentless story
The United States is a country where killings can be triggered by phone bill disputes. That's what happened when Jaiden Dixon, just nine years old, was killed by the father of one of his siblings. The man had weapons, despite a long criminal scroll. The United States is a country where many – too many – families live on the brink, just above the hunger threshold. Without a safety net. No welfare. And as a result of a car accident or a broken knee that keeps you away from work for six weeks – as happened to Samuel Brightmon's mother – you are thrown out of your home and forced to change neighborhoods. Change your life. And ends up where you can be shot for no reason.
The portrait of the living American is, if possible, even more outrageous than the portrait of the dead.
But when we talk about Chicago, we're not really talking about all of Chicago. We mainly talk about the city's east and west sides. And someone like Gary Younge is informed about the violence through the media, as if it were another city, another world. A world where you can be stopped on the street for no reason, if you are colored or Latino. Sentenced for no reason. As one cop says: It's about numbers. "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince."
This book is a relentless account of today's United States. About the US that presents itself as the country with equal opportunities for everyone, but where it is your skin color – and often the place you come from – that determines your destiny. This US that is so close to us Europeans, so familiar – and yet, as we read Younge's astonishing story, the country suddenly becomes completely foreign to us.
