ERIC ZORN ON CHICAGO: Cops taunted, victim disrespected and the violence goes on:

“Black lives matter,” one of the young men said. “You a b—-.”

— A heckler quoted in a Tribune news feature about a group of African-Americans who gathered to taunt the police officers investigating a shooting early Friday in the 7100 block of South Paulina Street.

If black lives didn’t matter, the cops wouldn’t have been out there, hanging the sad bunting of crime scene tape in the West Englewood neighborhood, trying against considerable odds to solve another no-doubt senseless shooting.

If black lives didn’t matter, the men and women in blue would’ve just rolled slowly past the crime scene, shrugged at the persistence of violence in our most ravaged communities and driven off.

If black lives didn’t matter, the officers wouldn’t have spent at least an hour in the middle of the night gathering evidence and attempting to interview witnesses while enduring verbal abuse.

I think the goal of Black Lives Matter is to effectively end policing in black neighborhoods. Meanwhile, remember: In Chicago, it’s the gangs who are doing the killing, and it’s the Democratic politicians who are in bed with the gangs.