Crime in Chicago is the topic of conversation no matter where you are. Citizens are living with fear, caution, anxiety, and trauma. People’s habits are changing. I have a friend who gave up her car. I will not drive certain expressways. People are leaving the city, particularly professionals who easily find employment elsewhere and those with children who might attend Chicago Public Schools.
I am reminded of a neighbor who packed up and left the city when his four-year-old daughter asked to go to the park to play. He and his wife were educators. The daughter’s question haunted my neighbor, and he couldn’t figure what park they could go to, where he felt safe with his children. The family left town with new jobs in thirty days. He talked about his daughter’s question and, on Monday mornings as a principal, he was announcing over the speaker system the death of a student. He said he wasn’t equipped to handle student tragedies.
As we talk about crime and analyze the situation, it’s a one-sided conversation; we act as though the Mayor herself is out on the street shooting or that the policemen are committing the crimes. This is not the case. Police officers are on the brink with long days, and some might even be stepping aside from the violence out of fear. Police shootings are becoming commonplace as they patrol they become moving targets.
David Brown, the Chicago Police Superintendent is under constant fire, as though he alone can raise his hand or shoot his gun to stop criminal behavior. So the Friday before the July 4th holiday, Superintendent Brown and his top brass appeared in a six-hour sit down with council members to discuss the problem – not the best use of his time. Chicago has the second-largest police force in the nation. Police shifts are 12- hour days, with no days off and vacations canceled. To date, 36 Chicago police officers have been shot. Police officers are not social workers or mental health practitioners. They are to apprehend criminals. They are usually first responders. And even with the full force on the streets for a holiday weekend, crime escalated. The Mayor spoke of an approach to halt city crime with an all-hand-on-deck approach, yet the Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, John P. O’Malley, was missing in action for a holiday.
We need to look further than the fifth floor and police headquarters to attack the city’s crime problem. Chicago is out of control, as are other urban centers. The city is experiencing an epidemic of crime, and officials are playing with the help of the media the blame game rather than looking for solutions. Not good. Let’s look at the problem for real. The police department is not a social agency or a mental health center. They are law enforcers fighting gang terrorism, and in many cases, they are overwhelmed and outnumbered—the men and women who serve and protect. We look at death statistics on Mondays, like reading baseball game stats and hearing the death toll as though we are in a war over the weekend. We cannot ask the police for kid-glove treatment for sociopaths. But they all must be held accountable and be responsible for their deeds. Defunding the police is not realistic. Hopefully, Brown returns to the city with new strategies after meeting with President Biden and other top cops.
The tactics and strategies that the Mayor and police have implemented are not working. Over the holiday of July 4, 2021, in Chicago, 113 people have been shot and 20 killed; many are kids. The next weekend 40 shot and 11 fatal. One kid who resided in Northbrook and visiting his West Side relatives was killed with a bullet in his head while sitting in the car. So, what is the reality?
The gang kids are insane. They are shooting the children of their victims for punishment and retaliation. It is sick. What on earth did a one-month-old infant do to get shot? What did the six-year-old do, sitting in her grandmother’s living room playing with her tablet? Downtown Chicago, at the beam on Michigan Avenue, was a flash mob affair via Facebook. We have to know that Facebook is a significant player that can gather and put people in certain places at a specific time. The kids are playing games promoting killings on tablets and phones. They are detached and robotic-like as they listen to the music that cusses and demeans. The youth are living in a culture of negativity and crime has no shame. Negativity is the order of the day as the woke generation destroys every single traditional social norm as they live maximum freedoms. The crime in Chicago today is worse than in the days of Al Capone, Larry Hoover, and Jeff Fort. They did not shoot babies and ladies. The gangster structure had a hierarchy with leadership and resolve. Today there is wholesale, freelance anything that goes violent with absolute disrespect for all street gang culture.
Downtown was attacked, just like in a war zone. The attack came from terrorists, not children, and they should be dealt with accordingly. How about bringing out the dogs and the horses to direct the human traffic and to deter the violence. The children look like wild animals turned loose, running the streets. Two policemen, white shirts, were shot and could have been killed. Oh no, don’t turn the dogs on them, so let them shoot the police who arrived on the scene in a minute and were trying to rescue and employ safety. Bring the dogs out is a critical option. Have the gangs infiltrated the police department? The cops who were shot in the early morning of July 7 on the _Dan Ryan Expressway_ ramp at 119th Street were undercover in unmarked cars. This was not a random shooting. The shooter thought the undercover cops were gang members; therefore, shooting in their car was the right action before sunrise. Really, now.
What do you say to the college student, who was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing, going to work as an intern on his first summer job? He rode the train home to the Southside, and a stray bullet killed him on the train. He was a random victim for no reason. The police, the Mayor, did not shoot him. How do they deter such a happening? They don’t. That’s the point. Stop blaming public officials for the nonsense of insanity. We cannot police out of this crime situation, neither can we money out of, yet we need both. Our morality is shot. It is a complex issue; a web of past bad policies and experiences rooted in systemic racism got us here. We need to spend effort on the job training that will lead to jobs.
I have a friend who is in law enforcement. He rides his bike on the beautiful lakeshore in the summer. I called to ride with him. And he told me he didn’t ride anymore, not this summer. “Why,” I asked. He said, “I went riding one afternoon and was attacked by 12 kids. They were not teenagers; they were children. I had my gun, and I pulled it. I told the kids, I won’t get all twelve of you, but I promise to shoot eight of you.” He said, “I don’t want to be guilty of shooting kids, so I am not riding my bike this summer.” He suggested I not ride the lakefront because the kids are jumping out of the bushes to attack for fun—what a realization for our city with the beautiful skyline and a glistening lake.
Where is the Family?
We need to look at families and the upbringing of children. Twelve-year-olds need not be on the streets at 2:00 am for absolutely nothing but wrongdoing. Chicago’s crime problem is stepped in gang warfare. If there were a police patrol on every single Chicago street, it would not stop the crime. The crime is systemic. It is coming from deprived areas. This is the pattern of neglect, poverty, lack of employment, and opportunity. True enough. The enemy is within. But poverty doesn’t make you kill.
But it’s also parents not being parents; parent neglect is guilty of the crime. Parents are not raising their children to the protocols of good behavior. Homework, be in the house at a particular time, play sports, regular dinner ampere-hours, and the like are still workable methods. There is no old school versus new school system. Constructive play is the order of the day, as well as community policing, as well as a church activity. Decency, respect, and integrity are taught values.
We cannot continue the blame game rather than the game of fact and reality. The statistics say crime is down, but the TV shows another point unless we experience fake news. We cannot continue the denial of existence with a flash report of a breaking story at the scene of the crime. And then show mothers crying with teddy bears, marches, and candles. There is much to pass to the police, but not all. Driving the expressway, furthermore, the police or the Mayor’s office is not doing the shooting. The police are not driving through neighborhoods and spraying bullets in back yards and on the sidewalks of outdoor restaurants. The police are not high jacking cars. Unfortunately, there is a sector of popular youth who have no regard for authority, and they shoot the police when they show up to serve and protect.
A Summit
Chicago is at a tipping point. If you take a vote, the mayor and the police chief are at the point of a vote of no confidence. For Chicago to be a proper world-class city, all hands on deck is the order of the day. And it is beyond the city agency’s hands. It’s everybody’s hands. Teachers need to teach, preachers need to preach, and neighbors need to be neighborly. We all need to act differently to help solve this problem of criminality. Legislators cannot control behavior with laws; they are not parents. The mayor cannot work in isolation. She must work with the community; The solution is bottom-up, not top-down. Surely, if the city can ticket the autos with cameras for driving six miles over the speed limit, can’t those same cameras define the shooter of the baby?
We need a summit of minds to develop a plan of action to curtail the violence. Chicago is at a tipping point.
The mayor is looking worn. When she says all hands-on decks, it must mean the community at large: the clergy, the activists, the parents, the teacher, corporate business types, the sportsmen, and even the gang leadership. Everybody needs to be at the table to solve the problem, or else it remains unsolved.
Rev. Marvin Hunter, who has lost his great-grandnephew, LaQuan McDonald, to white police gun violence, thinks President Biden should come to Chicago to hold hearings on crime to hear from the people directly. He wants Biden to visit the neighborhoods where the crime is concentrated. Hunter wants Biden to see the problem first hand and wants federal funds to come into the grass-root organizations directly and not be distributed by the politicians. Hunter’s reach to the federal government bypasses local government entirely because he sees a national pandemic problem in America’s Black communities. Perhaps Biden will invite community leaders to the White House, as he did top cops, to discuss violence in urban areas.
Is It Time for The National Guard?
For years, I have suggested that the city needs the National Guard, especially on holiday. The city needs to be secured and silenced, is my point. I am scorned severely for saying it. No one wants a military state.
But we need protection and force. We need to come together to mastermind practical strategies, as though we are in a war zone. Don’t you think so? So, how about the soldier home from training, went to a party to be killed on Chicago streets. What did he do wrong? The mayhem cannot continue. Enough already. The Mayor should cancel the festivals, particularly Lollapalooza. Why? Because the city is not ready. The violence is too great, the risk for disruption is too high, and summer has only just begun. We cannot continue playing polite politics or politically correct politics. We must look at the problem with realism and workable solutions.
Gun control is a problem. We need common-sense approaches to stop guns from being sold to youth. We need to look at housing. When public housing was torn down, established neighborhoods were invaded with a new element. Middle-class neighborhoods changed with the disbursement resulting in changing communities that became violent and gang-infested. Black middle-class communities became demographics of the haves, and the have nots. Do Black lives matter only when white policemen shoot black people, or does Black Lives Matter when the stray bullets trike the baby or when the family picnic is sprayed with rifle shots from the car. Our neighborhoods are at stake as we seek new life from Covid-19 and redevelopment.
So, what are the solutions? Turn the dogs loose, mount the horses, watch the flash mobs, bring in the national guard, cancel the significant festival-type events, increase the police force, parents scorn your children for bad behavior, raise your kids correctly, bring the President to the city, fund the grassroots organizations directly and stop blaming. Reality speaks loud and clear.
You think this is harsh, I believe it is accurate. We cannot change without changing. We cannot afford another holiday weekend with 100 people shot and 20 murders. We cannot continue to shoot policemen. We cannot allow the one-month-old baby to be shot. We cannot let the university student get a stray bulletin on the el. We must be safe in daily ordinary activity. We cannot afford a soldier coming home from training to be killed at home.
Chicago, the city that works, is not working at this time. Time out. Enough. We are better than this. The city cannot prosper with the violence. Leadership needs to take charge or move on.
