Revelation 6:3-4 NCV When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take away peace (prosperity, rest) from the earth and to make people kill each other (butcher, slaughter, to maim violently, in streets), and he was given a big sword (assassins sword, terrorist, loud, mighty, sore afraid).
The murder rates in the United States are rising, with at lest 30 cities reporting violence on the rise.
Three cities, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Baltimore, are showing an increase of over 50% in the number of murders with Milwaukee leading the list with a 76% increase.
One woman had to flee Milwaukee after two of her five children were killed in shootings in a six month span. Her 20-year-old daughter was shot and killed during a robbery at a birthday party being held at a Days Inn. Then six months later her only son was shot and killed while sitting in a car.
She persuaded her family to flee the city but her remaining teen daughters only left after the 17-year-old daughter was shot while riding in a car.
“The violence was nothing like this before,” Holmes, 38, who grew up in Milwaukee, told the New York Times. “What’s changed is the streets and the laws and the parents. It’s become a mess and a struggle.”
The BBC said that some senior police officials say with media outlets and activist groups watching every move police make they are withdrawing more from situations and leaving criminals feeling they have more space to commit violent acts.
New Orleans police superintendent Michael Harrison told the New York Times that much of the increase is coming not from gang violence but rather killings involving people who know each other.
“That is not a situation that can be solved by policing,” Superintendent Harrison said. “It speaks to a culture of violence deeply ingrained into a community — a segment of the population where people are resolving their problems in a violent way.”
