Chicago IG blasts city over crime strategy

[VIDEO] The video above brought to mind the senseless murder of another school teacher on 79th Street in Chatham back in 2014. I wish I could tell you there was an op/ed after her shooting back then as we hear about in this FOX News Channel report after the death of another school teacher.

Here's a link to this op/ed from Chicago's inspector general Joe Ferguson:

Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell, in characteristically heartfelt fashion, recently asked why this shooting was different. A part-time Chicago Public Schools employee died a few days later, shot while sitting on her front porch, another innocent victim. It pierced the news cycle and then faded. Mary asked why the Rogers Park murder carried a jolt that the ceaseless stream of others have not.

Because it was an unintended wound to privilege – my privilege.

A white teacher was cut down in a place and under circumstances we do not associate with such occurrences. It stood out as not normal, even in a city in which we have internalized and compartmentalized the soul-grinding carnage on our streets as utterly normal. It is, in fact, a daily, at times hourly, occurrence in other parts of Chicago.

The children in those parts of our city never get to see the world as good, and are relentlessly exposed to brutal violence and the threat of violence such as to have them grow up in modified states of traumatic stress. This is not normal, either. If Chicago’s gun-murder rate was the same as New York’s, our annual murder tally would be 150 — about one-fifth of last year’s total and less than a quarter of this year’s likely total.

Can this be turned around? Hell, yes. Can it be turned around tomorrow? Hell, no.

Will Joe Ferguson step up to the plate to face Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2019? Will the city's violence be a cornerstone of his campaign? Read the whole thing!

Also allow me to note that Emanuel has stated that he plans to run for re-election in 2019.

Trump and county sending help for violence in Chicago

President Trump

Lost in all the tweets of personal attacks on cable network media personalities and a video which portrays the President at a past WWF Wrestlemania attacking someone who represents CNN (whose logo you see in place of their face - probably WWF owner Vince McMahon) was a mention of federal help being sent to Chicago.

Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

Bear in mind earlier this year he wrote this tweet

If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

It appears the President of the United States is actually fulfilling that initial promise:

Twenty federal gun agents have been assigned to Chicago to join a newly formed task force aimed at cutting the flow of illegal guns into the city and cracking down on people repeatedly arrested on gun charges.

Hours after the Chicago police department sent out a news release about the task force, President Donald Trump claimed credit for sending in the agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
...
The roughly 40-person strike force, which consists of Chicago police officers, ATF agents and Illinois State Police, will be working on unsolved shootings and gun-related homicides and combating illegal gun trafficking, officials said Friday.

In addition to the federal angle help from the Cook County Sheriff is coming to the south side also announced late last month:

The sheriff's office announced Wednesday that 55 to 60 sheriff's police and staff members would "supplement" the work already done by Chicago police in the Calumet and Gresham police districts.

Sheriff's officers and staff will help with patrol units, special operations, crime suppression tactical teams, evictions and other services.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) asked the sheriff's police to help "to create a safer, healthier environment," according to a news release.

Will additional law enforcement help from the federal government or the sheriff be enough to curb violent crime in the many low-income neighborhoods of Chicago?

BTW, yes the WWF is actually WWE now, however, as a wrestling fan old habits die hard. WWE will always be WWF or World Wrestling Federation to me. The usage of WWF was intentional.

Crain's: Why so many young Chicago men pull the trigger

Go Falcons!

One attempt to get a handle on the issue of gun violence in Chicago's crime ridden neighborhoods. At one point in time this blog strived to avoid issues of crime even though I recognize it as a reality in our fair city.

Regardless the fact that a shooting and the volume of them is news not just locally but nationally also is problematic. We all hope for a solution to save our young people. No easy answers, but something has to be done about the violence.

Also for this, there will be three parts to this series. I hope to be able to share the other ones as they're published.

Tribune: Mom watches paramedics treat dying gunshot victim, then gets a call that it's her daughter

This homicide occurred near 107th & Indiana. We need to do something about our gun violence problem. An innocent person taken in a gang shooting crossfire.

Mother watches paramedics treat dying gunshot victim, then gets a call that it's her daughter https://t.co/yIxOVnVF6f pic.twitter.com/pVVCNRazVv

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) April 19, 2017

#MBMHMC I don’t live in Chi-Raq, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

This report is via My Block My Hood My City by their head of data, Matthew Pietrus. The map above chronicles homicide hotspots throughout Chicago:

After analyzing homicides locations in conjunction with demographic data, I found that of these thousands of homicides from 2010-2015, two thirds of them occurred in neighborhoods that are two thirds or more black. Compared to just over 12% in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and under 2% in predominantly white neighborhoods, it is clear that violence is not equally shared.

Unfortunately, this is not news. Most Chicagoans understand the disparities that exist in the city so studies like these can seem repetitive. But the significance of this map, and other studies like it, lies not in the data displayed on its surface but in the social interactions that create it. While what is occurring is certainly of importance, only in understanding why something is occurring can change happen.

That is why the story this map tells, the story of Chi-Raq, is an important one.

With the mention of that term, many readers may have moved on from this piece, and with understandable frustration. With massive clusters of homicides isolated in the South and West sides of the city, to many Chicagoans, Chi-Raq, the city more deadly than a warzone, is not the city they know nor is it the reality they face. For this reason, there has been constant backlash to the city’s new name, dating from the term’s inception to Spike Lee’s recent film. However, is this image of Chicago really a misrepresentation? More importantly, is our outcry over the term Chi-Raq really more important than the larger socioeconomic, racial, and violent disparities that it brings up?

Conclusion:

Similarly, for city officials and community members to continue a blasé approach towards reading these stories is a form of complicity, permitting the city to continue its violent polarization. Instead of becoming numb to statistics and these stories, we instead need to mobilize when Chicagoans like Bettie Smith, Quintonio LeGrier, and Tyshawn Lee are killed. We need to call our aldermen, protest, and make our dissention known.

In the end, this map tells the story of Chicago’s segregation. This story is not just one depicting a lack of cultural integration but one telling of a social isolation which disproportionately impacts black communities. But just because this may not be the story of your Chicago does not mean it is a story you should ignore.

Now how do we change this idea of violent polarization in those violent communities?

NBC News: A tour of Roseland

Cross-posted to The Sixth Ward on July 7, 2015

The video above had been shared onto our FB page. A man talks about his Roseland neighborhood what it takes to survive there and what it takes to make it a better community. Even better how the community used to be in the 1970s.

A shame that the community was very nice back in the day only to regress into the violence he talks about today. Roseland and it's people deserve so much and soon. What does it take to turn that community around?

I invite you to read this article from NBC News which talks about violence in our fair city whether Roseland or the west side. Unfortunately Chicago has been taking an unfortunate hit because of the incidents of gun violence here. If only there is a solution to this problem.

Strausberg: Pfleger says no one shot or wounded last night is proof ‘We can do this’ #putthegunsdown

Fr. Michael Pfleger

An interesting account written by Chinta Strausberg for those events connected with #PutTheGunsDown from last Friday. Here's hoping everyone had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend.
Pfleger says no one shot or wounded last night is proof ‘We can do this’
Fed more than 500 at city-sponsored peace rally
By Chinta Strausberg

Police officials confirmed Saturday that no one died or wounded last night—an unusual state in this violence riddled city but good news to Father Michael L. Pfleger who said, “God is just waiting for us to be the inhabitants of the earth he called us to be and last night should tell us one very important truth…we can do this.”

The nearly 200 citywide “Summer of Faith” peace rallies took place last night and just a few weeks after Mayor Rahm Emanuel and radio personalities signed unto a “Put The Guns Down” anti-violence prevention campaign. Many of those attending the rally held at Saint Sabina’s Renaissance Park held signs bearing that message.

“I thought the night was a wonderful showing of what community is all about and should be every day….people from blocks all around, children playing games and dancing, adults laughing and dancing, teens playing basketball and everybody eating,” said Pfleger. “We fed over 500 people. It was a vision of what we all want and can have if we come together.”

Joining Pfleger were Amy Emanuel, the wife of Mayor Rahm Emanuel who was accompanied by Cyndy Lyons and Dr. Anita Blanchard, associate professor at the University of Chicago, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-16th), WGCI’s Tony Sculfield, DJ Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, and many others.

While Mrs. Emanuel briefly spoke to the crowd, McCarthy gave a clear blueprint of how to eliminate the violence that continues to grip Chicago neighborhoods. “Violence is not a police department problem. It’s a community problem. It’s kind of true, but it’s everybody’s problem and we are all part of the community. We all live in the city of Chicago,” McCarthy said.

Quoting the mayor who often says, “A murder or shooting in the city of Chicago affects everybody in Chicago” none of this not in my backyard, none of this that says it’s on the South Side, who cares, or if it’s on the West Side, who cares. If it’s in the city of Chicago, it affects everybody,” McCarthy said.

“This is a police problem. It is a community problem, and it’s a legislation problem and we need some leadership to step up and give us a hand, but it’s not going to happen because of anything we’re doing. It’s going to happen because of something we are all doing.”

Senator Collins said, “This is the best effort made by a community to come together on behalf of promoting peace….Anything that we can do and show that we care to one another, respect another, counts” and that includes coming out to have fun.…

Sculfield, who grew up at 79thand Aberdeen, asked the crowd to chant “peace” and to “lay the guns down.” “We had a long, tortuous winter and we want our babies, our kids and our families to be able to come out and enjoy the summer weather. We want to sit on the porch. We want to go to the park. We want to play in the back yard. We want to bring the grill out. We want to enjoy ourselves….” “Put the guns down, now.”

“We are going to be doing this once a month…. We need real men in the communities, real citizens…. We’re going to take this city back….Put the guns down. Peace,” bellowed Sculfield. Funk echoed Sculfield’s message also chanting, “Put the guns down.”

Father Pfleger announced that Chris Baker, who owns a tattoo shop in Oswego, Illinois, will remove any gang tattoos for free on Friday, June 13th during Saint Sabina’s 7 p.m. end of the school year march to proclaim peace in the streets rally. When asked why does he provide this free service, Baker said, “God gave me the ability to tattoo letters which I love and this is my way of giving back some love and right now Chicago needs some love.”

5th District Candle Light Peace Rally #putthegunsdown

This rally will take place on tonight from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at 113th & Michigan. An event such as this is scheduled to take place at roughly the same time in neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago. Please let us know if you're holding such an event in your neighborhood feel free to mention to us on our Twitter and Facebook pages.