If you didn't already ask yourself the following question as you read the headline, ask it now: How bad does violent crime have to get in your city or neighborhood before you're reduced to appealing directly to those committing the crime to please stop — during daylight hours?

If you live in Rogers Park on the north side of Chicago, you've reached that point.

A Rogers Park community group called the Native Sons recently emailed a newsletter featuring a desperate plea — dubbed “The People’s Ordinance" — asking gang members not to fire guns or commit shootings between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., as first reported by CWB Chicago. 

A North Side group is calling on Chicagoans to refrain from firing guns between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. to reduce the danger for people "not involved in high-risk activities."

"Stop glorifying 'switches,' and stop wearing those ski masks everywhere."https://t.co/rQtYMGigPL

— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) August 14, 2023

Peak insanity, of course — not the group; the out-of-control violent crime.

Tatiana Atkins, co-founder of the Native Sons, told the outlet:

We have to start somewhere.  Our goal is to approach our city’s gun violence problem strategically and not all at once. Things didn’t become this way overnight, and change won’t happen overnight.

Under this ordinance, we ask that people stop associating with and glorifying "shooters," stop glorifying "switches," and stop wearing those ski masks everywhere, which perpetuates you as some "opp."

According to the outlet, "switches" refers to aftermarket devices that turn semi-automatic handguns into automatic weapons that can fire rapidly with just one pull of the trigger. I could be wrong, here, but I believe "opp" is street talk for "opposition," which I assume implies a rival gang member. 

So how bad have things become in the no-longer "My Kind of Town"? 

Atkins further explained: 

If people know that after a certain hour, the likelihood of them being shot by an unknown and unprovoked assailant are at a higher risk, they will be less likely to be out and about, and they may become more proactive with the supervision of their children. 

At the end of the day, five-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, 14-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, 78-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, pregnant women are being killed by gun violence, young boys with bright futures are being killed by gun violence, fathers are being killed by gun violence, and this shouldn’t be happening. 

We are not waiting for a bill or law to enforce what we feel needs to be done – this is a movement being carried along by social media and the media.

This is both abhorrent and inexcusable in one of America's formerly great cities. 

And of course, the commonality, from Chicago to New York City, Baltimore, Houston, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, et al., is that every damn one of them is "run" — I use that term loosely, in this case — by soft-on-crime Democrat mayors and Democrat city governments.  

Coincidental? Hell, no — it's not; it's the root cause.

The Bottom Line

When criminals — worst of all, repeat violent offenders — are routinely returned to the streets like clockwork, the odds continue to increase that sooner or later, despicable crimes are going to be committed.

The above scenario raises two troubling questions: 

First, what do revolving-door jail cells say to the criminals who continue to walk through those revolving doors? Second, what does it say to the law-abiding residents of cities or neighborhoods whose Democrat mayors and city officials place criminals' "rights" above theirs?

What it says to the Native Sons of Chicago's north side is that enough is enough. Sadly, the group's plea will fall on deaf ears.

(Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and every Democrat mayor in crime-riddled cities were unavailable for comment.)