Hadiya Pendleton is the latest Chicago honor roll student to be struck down by gang violence before she realized her full potential.
Pendleton was gunned down in a city park, just blocks away from the President Obama’s affluent Hyde Park neighborhood.
Everything about the crime has the city on edge. Here’s why: If a person is in a gang, associates with a gang, lives in a gang-dominated community or challenges a gang, gang violence is expected to infiltrate his or her world.
Gang crimes are never expected to leave the confines of the gang culture.
Random violence reminds parents, school administrators, and city officials that the established safety controls (i.e., longer school days, after-school activities, parental involvement, etc.), do not shield youths from gang violence.
Thus, when an honor roll student without gang ties is gunned down, the community is outraged.
