Here is a sample of what is fed to the masses.
The Chicago SUN-TIMES
May 9, 2002
What a difference 911 delay makes
Editorial
http://www.suntimes.com/output/commentary/cst-edt-edits09.html
It is against the law to own a handgun in Chicago, except for those registered before 1982. It is against the law to sell a handgun, or buy one or, except for security guards, police and such, to carry one around.
This, we believe, is a good thing, in the main. Handguns are dangerous, and unless you are a person who can reasonably expect to be attacked--such as a police officer--the risk they pose to yourself and your loved ones greatly outweighs the security they bring.
But even good things can have dire consequences. Banning handguns means that women who are being stalked, as Ronyale White was before her death Friday, cannot legally arm themselves against those who would harm them. We demand that they take out court orders to protect themselves. They rely on the police to help them if the people they fear come calling, as White's husband, Louis Drexel, apparently did.
That's a high standard for the police and the city, and one they must try harder to meet. If Chicago is going to forbid its Ronyale Whites to arm themselves, then law enforcement had better be there, quick, when someone calls 911 to say they need help.
Seventeen minutes is not quick enough. Many things had to go wrong to cause that delay--the police department's internal affairs division is still investigating. We imagine they will point out how calm White seemed in her first call. How big a city this is. How police perhaps were busy doing something else.
That's all well and good. But we tell people not to be vigilantes. We tell them to rely on the courts and the police to protect them. Ronyale White phoned three times--she expected the police to save her, but they never came, not until it was too late.
Seventeen minutes is too long. One woman murdered--killed as she pleaded in vain for help--is too many. The city, in disarming its citizens, made a promise to them, and as difficult, perhaps as impossible as it is, the city has to try harder to deliver.