Summer Of Gun Violence

Last night, July 26th, nine people were shot at a bus terminus at 79th and Western in Chicago.  This savage episode marks yet another sad chapter that is unfolding in my birth city, a town I still love and call home, even though I moved away to Tucson in 1987. We had judged it as unsuitable to raise a child then and nothing has changed our minds since.

 

I was born in Chicago and saw my share of butchery on the streets as a kid. When our son was born in 1986 we just felt that things were only going to get worse and not better. We had the werewithal to get out, and we did. It broke my heart to leave because I love all things Chicago; the food, the attractions, the neighborhoods, and its sports teams. So this current wave of gun violence feels so tragic to us.

 

Last night's incident is one in a string of shootings have become the norm in Chicago. Thank God no one was killed, but in recent weeks three Chicago police officers have been killed. Most of the violence is gang-related but bullets know no gang members when shots are indiscriminately fired in the streets. Most often the ones who are hit have nothing to do with the gang feud.

 

What scares me most is that I have a good friend who is a beat cop in the Southside neighborhoods most afflicted with the violence. I worry about her every day.The police commissioner, Jody Weis, has mandated that every cop in the department do some street time to supplement the patrol force, but all this seems to have done is to raise bad feelings within the department. We've heard all kinds of crazy solutions, including putting National Guard troops on patrol. They are untrained in urban police work and would simply be moving targets.

 

Calls for stricter gun control are irrelevant. Chicago has one of the toughest gun laws in the nation. It is nearly impossible to register a gun there. The shooters don't use legally owned guns. It's the people in the communities who need to become vigilent, reporting suspicious activity and standing up to the gang activity by working with the police.  Additionally, folks have to get their kids off the street at a reasonable hour and keep them home and out of arms way. Until the people themselves take ownership of their neighborhoods the shootings will only escalate.