Chicago’s Anti-Violence Groups Continue to Face Challenge With ‘Tremendous Hope’

Early in 2020, Chicago violence prevention groups set high goals in setting a 20 percent reduction in murders compared to 2019.

Organizers met at a large, festive event and said that the “challenge” gave them “tremendous hope.”

As of May 23, the city is on pace for a 12 percent increase in murders and a 20 percent increase in shootings.

To reduce the number of shootings over Memorial Day weekend, Norman Kerr, director of the mayor’s office of violence prevention, stated that Chicago was partnering with the anti-violence groups to aid in their efforts.

CRED and seven other organizations worked together over Memorial Day weekend to pay over 400 street outreach workers to “flood so-called hot spots.”

Over Memorial Day weekend, 2016, 40 people were shot and five were killed in Chicago.

Leader of Chicago CRED, former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan stated, “You do have places based upon data, based upon conversations with the police, based upon conversations with our outreach workers, that are particularly violent. And having our young men and women help to reduce violence in those neighborhoods, to help to mediate conflicts, we think is extraordinarily important.”

Kerr said, “We’ve shifted away from a law enforcement first and only effort. We are putting tools directly into the hands of our community-based street outreach workers who every day utilize de-escalation skilled to interrupt violence, prevent retaliation, and build positive relationships with those who are at the highest risk of violence.”

According to Kerr, Chicago has created a “violence reduction dashboard.” This program will provide real-time data to city agencies and street outreach organizations that can be used to determine where to concentrate resources.

David Brown, Chicago police superintendent, agreed that the goals of the anti-violence groups staffed by former gang members “mirror” the mission of law enforcement. He welcomed their help.

Brown stated, “That’s how we’re going to reduce violence. It will be a group effort. Memorial Day did not sneak up on us. CPD is prepared to safeguard this city and we will do it together.”

The anti-violence groups do not want to be “defined” by this one weekend, because the organizations are striving to reduce gun violence and they are ready to see the overall results of their efforts.

Arthur, from Chicago CRED, stated “we sill half of a year left, and we … have a real opportunity to course correct and get back on track.”

In a previous interview, Kerr talked about growing up. “Growing up in Rogers Park, I saw some violence take place. I’ve lost some friends and I’ve seen people killed in front of me. I’ve seen shooting. What I took away from that was, we lost a lot of talent. People who were smart. I had peers who were smarter than me, better athletes, should’ve been successful, and had that taken away.”

These experiences inspired Kerr to develop a program form Cure Violence, formerly CeaseFire, where he spent 14 years working with high-risk individuals. However, Kerr has learned that one cannot just focus on one individual.

“For us to think we can work with them for a couple hours and they’ll carry that with them, some individuals are resilient and can do that, but often success requires involving more of the person’s ‘ecosystem’ including family.”

By Jeanette Vietti

Sources:

WBEZ: Police, Anti-Violence Groups Hope Memorial Day Weekend Will Be A Turning Point
Chicago Tribune: Mayor Loi Lightfoot hires longtime anti-violence advocate as Chicago’s $130K-per-year director of violence prevention

Image Courtesy of Adam Courtemanche’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License