75 of 91 homicides Black lives

With three homicides taking place during the month of November, two of them being teen Black males, as of early Dec. 1, there have been 91 total homicides in Allegheny County thus far this year. Unfortunately, with one more month still left in 2014, the county has already reached last year’s homicide total of 91, 65 of them being Black lives. There is no doubt that 2014 will be a more deadly year than 2013.
And while there have been 91 homicides, that number doesn’t even reflect the countless number of shootings that take place day after day, where someone has not died, but has been seriously injured.
Many across the nation, especially in Pittsburgh, have been protesting against the decision to not charge officer Darren Wilson in the tragic shooting of unarmed Black Missouri teen Michael Brown. And although this incident and ones like it are disheartening, senseless and far too common, we in the Black community, have to ask ourselves how serious others are taking our fight against unjust killings of our young Black males by police when we continue to let our own Black males take the lives of other Black males.
Now, in no way does the issue of Black-on-Black violence justify the unsubstantiated killings of Blacks by those who are sworn to protect and serve them. But with just as much effort and passion to change as we have put towards the one issue we have to put towards the other.