Highland Park Horror: “It Couldn’t have Happened Here”

BY ZOFEEN MAQSOOD
HIGHLAND PARK, IL- Highland Park in Illinois is an affluent, suburban, peaceful city with a population of 30,000.

Located just 25 miles north of Chicago, with its leafy streets, synagogues, quiet streets, low crime rate and good school system, it is just the place families in America would want to settle down at.

Many Indian Americans who have lived in Highland park, relate that they felt safest to be in this part of the city. It was not uncommon for the Highland Park community to encourage their friends and family in the city and to come and settle here to avoid the street brawls or violence of Chicago city. Home to a bustling downtown and Ravinia Festival, Highland Park is known for both its serenity and a comfortable suburban housing. Many Indians in Chicago made Highland Park their home when they first came to America, thanks to a number of affordable housing developed in this affluent neighborhood.

The city has a small town charm and it is not uncommon for locals to meet each other at the Sunset grocery while shopping for produce or for families from nearby cities to come down for a brunch of pancakes at Walker Brothers during weekends.

But all this changed on the fateful, July 4 morning, when excited families who lined up to watch the local parade instead witnessed blood on the streets. As the shooter unleashed his killer machine, families ran for shelter. Amongst other casualties, an elderly died on a wheel chair and a 2-year-old became an orphan.

While this was enough to send the hearts buckling with pain, locals still can’t believe that it happened in their city. What is also equally shocking for most Highland Park residents is that the culprit was a kid from their own neighborhood.

The rising sentiment in and around Chicago has been – “Is any place in America safe, any longer?”

Locals say, while they heard of gun violence in the South side, the northern suburbs felt almost immune to this mindless killing spree.

Author and socio-political commentator Dan Mayur talking to Hi India, about this rising gun violence in America says, “The fact is that no part of America is safe. Gun violence is rampant, it is increasing exponentially and can happen anytime at any place. Apologists of the gun lobby talk about any number of reasons except the only real one. They talk about poverty, ignorance, crimes of passion, income disparity, mental health, the second amendment rights and not having enough police or enough funding for them. All of this is irrelevant. There is one and only reason for gun violence in America. There are simply too many guns around. Three hundred million Americans own more than four hundred million guns, many of them in unauthorized, immature or untrained hands. And that is the real problem.”