It was a gruesome Independence Day weekend for kids whose lives apparently don't matter all that much. In Chicago alone, at least 67 people were shot over the Independence Day weekend – at least 17 of whom, including two children, died.

The victims include a seven-year-old girl who was fatally shot in the head on Saturday evening while standing on the corner near her grandmother's house. A 14-year-old boy died when two men opened fire on a large gathering in the street just before midnight on Saturday night.

Chicago's Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot took to Twitter in response to the deaths of the children: “As a city, we must wrap our arms around our youth so they understand there’s a future for them that isn’t wrapped up in gun violence.”

Just more stupid talk as kids die.

Last weekend, a 20-month-old boy was shot and killed while riding in his mother's car in Chicago. A 10-year-old girl was shot and killed by a stray bullet that entered her family's apartment.

Dozens of people were shot in the inner cities of New York and Baltimore over the weekend. In Detroit, four boys – ages 15, 12, and 9 – were injured by gunfire. The weekend was also violent in Greenville, South Carolina as well as in Memphis and Philadelphia. An unidentified child was critically injured when shot in St. Louis. An eight-year-old girl was shot in the arm while riding in a vehicle in Cleveland.

Perhaps the most notable shooting death of the weekend was that of eight-year-old Secoriea Turner in Atlanta, who was killed while riding in a car with her mother near the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed by police several weeks ago. The mother had reportedly attempted to drive through an area that was illegally barricaded by protesters associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Fox News reports the girl's heartbroken father Secoriya Williamson spoke with reporters.

"They say Black Lives Matter. You killed your own," he said. "They killed my baby because she crossed a barrier and made a U-turn? You killed a child. She didn't do nothing to nobody. Black Lives Matter? You killing your own. You killed an eight-year-old child. She ain't did nothing to no one of y'all. She just wanted to get home to see her cousin. That's all she wanted to do."

Atlanta's Democrat Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms fought back tears while addressing the shooting during a Saturday night news conference.

"If you want people to take us seriously, and you don't want us to lose this movement, then we can't lose each other. It has to stop," she said. "You can't blame this on police officers. It's about people who shot a baby in a car. We're doing each other more harm than any officer on this force."

Mayor Bottoms has decided now to clean out the area where Black Lives Matter activists gather. But just like in Seattle, it took unnecessary bloodshed for it to happen. Bottoms has the blood of a child on her hands because she could have prevented the shooting by not appeasing the protesters or attempting to politicize the radical movement.

Lightfoot's Chicago is a disgrace. But no one is quite ready yet to rally for the black kids who are being butchered there.

Someday someone will decide that Black lives – ALL lives – truly do matter, and that will include the innocent kids whose lives are being wasted. Until that happens, I remain convinced that this entire thing is just a crock of political crapola.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

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