Ray Lewis, former linebacker with the Baltimore Ravens, took to Facebook to blast the Black Lives Matter movement for its perceived failure to speak about the murder rate of blacks on blacks.
"I'm trying to figure out if black lives really matter, then [why] in Chicago alone [has] the murder rate ... soared 72 percent in 2016," he said, in a widely watched video post on his Facebook page, Breitbart reported. "Eighty-eight percent in the first three months of 2016 compared to last year. I'm trying to ask the question to an organization of black lives, if they really mattered, then why not riot now?"
His comments came in context of talking about the recent crime rates released for Chicago. The Chicago Tribune reported 814 were shot in the city between Jan. 1, 2016, and April 6, 2016. In all of last year, Jan. 1, 2015, through Dec. 31, 2015, the log showed 2,988 were shot, making Chicago – where gun control is extremely strict – one of the most violent cities in the nation in terms of gun-related crimes.
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On Sunday, there were eight shootings; on Saturday, there were 13, the Chicago Tribune reported.
And as DNAinfo.com reported, the first three months of 2016 in Chicago have seen more shootings than the first three months in any other year for the last decade.
Lewis, meanwhile, said in a video posted on his Facebook page he's "trying to figure out in [his] mind why no one is paying attention to black men killing black men."
Lewis slammed Black Lives Matter for remaining silent on this point, and said, Breitbart reported: "Why do we always find ourselves half the victims, and now we have the separation once again that we're being victimized because of one bad white cop, two bad white cops, three bad white cops, killing a young black brother, but every day we have black-on-black crime killing each other. ... We're not rioting in the streets about black on black killing each other."