Police brutality protests and addressing violent crime in Chicago
Back on Wednesday, activist and poet Malcolm London, who was arrested during the Tuesday evening protests, was released. As the hearing concluded, another defendant went before judge Peggy Chiampas. Cordero Harris was arrested for shooting an 11-year-old girl, and the judge was about to consider whether to grant him bail.
As London's supporters and reporters left the room, Chiampas expressed her frustration that a shooting of an 11-year-old girl got less attention than an arrest of a protester.
""Why don't we have a packed courtroom for this?" the judge exclaimed.
One of the things we usually hear every time there is a protest against police shooting suspects is something along the lines of: 'why don't those people protest against violence in their communities? That's way more important?'
Thing is, there are protests. Rallies calling for violence to end have become a depressingly regular occurrence in Chicago's ow-income, majority-black South and West side neighborhoods. This goes double during especially shocking killings, like when the 9-year-old Tyshawn Ford was killed because his father was in a gang and the rival gang wanted payback.
Anti-violence rally in Auburn-Gresham neighborhood (via Leslie Adkins)
I'm willing to bet Chicagoans who live in more well-off parts of the city never heard of whose rallies - and that's because those rallies usually happen in the neighborhoods where the shootings happened. Community newspapers like Austin Weekly News and Windy City Word, black newspapers like Chicago Defender and Chicago Crusader cover them. The bigger newspapers like Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times would cover them, but not as prominently.
The big reason why the Tuesday protests, and the protests that took place on Wednesday and earlier today, are getting attention is because they're happening in the heart of Chicago. Earlier today, the protesters tried to block Black Friday shoppers from entering the stores on Magnificent Mile, the city's most upscale shopping strip. Say what you will, but it's a pretty effective way to get attention, especially during the day when people would rather focus on anything but the shootings.
So why don't we ever see anything like this in the Loop when, say, Tyshawn got shot?
A big part of it, I suspect, is that the anti-violence rallies are directed at the gang members in the community. The recent protests were directed at Chicago Police Department, the city government, the county legal apparatus and the voters who elected the mayor and the state attorney. And keep in mind that, to a lot of people protesting, McDonald's shooting is just a symptom of the pervasive racism that doesn't hold African-American lives, especially lives of black teens and youths, in the same regard as white lives.
One person I interviewed for my last Austin Weekly News article, managed to sum up these feelings in one of those perfect quotes we journalists live for.
"When reporters come to the black community, they always ask black people what we're going to do about the violence," she said. "What about the white people? Where is the white clergy? Where is the white community who are outraged at [Van Dyke's] actions? Don't tell me how wonderful Chicago is when racism permeates it. White people need to end racism and they need to end it now."
There is also the fact that, as awful as what happened to Tyshawn was, gang members shooting people isn't exactly unexpected. The police, in theory, are supposed to be better than that.
Over the past few months, as the number of violent crimes rose in Chicago, we've seen black aldermen pushing for more cops on the streets, greater coordination between CPD and aldermen and generally more investment in the community. As you may remember from my previous post, the protesters have also called for more mental and social services,job training and more job opportunities, but nothing about more police.
I would argue that increasing job opportunities and generally encouraging more amenities should be part of any crime-fighting strategy. Gangs thrive, in large part, because they offer promise of easy money and status. There is also the fact that they are ingrained in the neighborhood's social fabric. When your father is in a gang, or your brother is in the gang, or your friends are in the gang, getting involved with a gang is awfully easy, even if you aren't actually part of it. Gang fights affect the way people move, the way they treat their neighbors. To combat gang influences, people must have viable alternatives. And one shouldn't underestimate the influence of social services mental heath services. If there's one thing that The Interrupters documentary underscores, it's how easily conflicts can escalate when tempers are high and guns are involved - and how knowing when to back down and how to resolve conflicts constructively can quite literally save lives.
Yet I would also argue that police would have to be part of the solution. People who would shoot a nine-year-old in cold blood need to be brought to justice. People need to know that, if they are raped, their rapists will be caught and brought to justice. Families those loved ones have been kidnapped need to know there are people who could help.
But the police can't be fully effective if the community doesn't trust the officers. While some mistrust will always linger, residents need to know that, when things like what happened with Laquan McDonald occur, the officers involved would be held accountable.
Having said all of that... I do think Judge Peggy Chiampas was right about one thing. We Chicagoans do need to care more about the violence in the city's poor neighborhoods. It's too easy to simply write off what happens in places like Auburn-Greham and Austin as "business as usual." And, because it doesn't happen in some neighborhoods, it's easy to write it off as someone else's problem. But it's not. The growing violence is a Chicago problem. Everybody who lives in the Windy City is effected by it to some extend or another. If nothing else, everybody's tax dollars go into city services and into CPD.
Maybe it would take downtown protests to drive that message home.
As London's supporters and reporters left the room, Chiampas expressed her frustration that a shooting of an 11-year-old girl got less attention than an arrest of a protester.
""Why don't we have a packed courtroom for this?" the judge exclaimed.
One of the things we usually hear every time there is a protest against police shooting suspects is something along the lines of: 'why don't those people protest against violence in their communities? That's way more important?'
Thing is, there are protests. Rallies calling for violence to end have become a depressingly regular occurrence in Chicago's ow-income, majority-black South and West side neighborhoods. This goes double during especially shocking killings, like when the 9-year-old Tyshawn Ford was killed because his father was in a gang and the rival gang wanted payback.
Anti-violence rally in Auburn-Gresham neighborhood (via Leslie Adkins)
I'm willing to bet Chicagoans who live in more well-off parts of the city never heard of whose rallies - and that's because those rallies usually happen in the neighborhoods where the shootings happened. Community newspapers like Austin Weekly News and Windy City Word, black newspapers like Chicago Defender and Chicago Crusader cover them. The bigger newspapers like Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times would cover them, but not as prominently.
The big reason why the Tuesday protests, and the protests that took place on Wednesday and earlier today, are getting attention is because they're happening in the heart of Chicago. Earlier today, the protesters tried to block Black Friday shoppers from entering the stores on Magnificent Mile, the city's most upscale shopping strip. Say what you will, but it's a pretty effective way to get attention, especially during the day when people would rather focus on anything but the shootings.
So why don't we ever see anything like this in the Loop when, say, Tyshawn got shot?
A big part of it, I suspect, is that the anti-violence rallies are directed at the gang members in the community. The recent protests were directed at Chicago Police Department, the city government, the county legal apparatus and the voters who elected the mayor and the state attorney. And keep in mind that, to a lot of people protesting, McDonald's shooting is just a symptom of the pervasive racism that doesn't hold African-American lives, especially lives of black teens and youths, in the same regard as white lives.
One person I interviewed for my last Austin Weekly News article, managed to sum up these feelings in one of those perfect quotes we journalists live for.
"When reporters come to the black community, they always ask black people what we're going to do about the violence," she said. "What about the white people? Where is the white clergy? Where is the white community who are outraged at [Van Dyke's] actions? Don't tell me how wonderful Chicago is when racism permeates it. White people need to end racism and they need to end it now."
There is also the fact that, as awful as what happened to Tyshawn was, gang members shooting people isn't exactly unexpected. The police, in theory, are supposed to be better than that.
Over the past few months, as the number of violent crimes rose in Chicago, we've seen black aldermen pushing for more cops on the streets, greater coordination between CPD and aldermen and generally more investment in the community. As you may remember from my previous post, the protesters have also called for more mental and social services,job training and more job opportunities, but nothing about more police.
I would argue that increasing job opportunities and generally encouraging more amenities should be part of any crime-fighting strategy. Gangs thrive, in large part, because they offer promise of easy money and status. There is also the fact that they are ingrained in the neighborhood's social fabric. When your father is in a gang, or your brother is in the gang, or your friends are in the gang, getting involved with a gang is awfully easy, even if you aren't actually part of it. Gang fights affect the way people move, the way they treat their neighbors. To combat gang influences, people must have viable alternatives. And one shouldn't underestimate the influence of social services mental heath services. If there's one thing that The Interrupters documentary underscores, it's how easily conflicts can escalate when tempers are high and guns are involved - and how knowing when to back down and how to resolve conflicts constructively can quite literally save lives.
Yet I would also argue that police would have to be part of the solution. People who would shoot a nine-year-old in cold blood need to be brought to justice. People need to know that, if they are raped, their rapists will be caught and brought to justice. Families those loved ones have been kidnapped need to know there are people who could help.
But the police can't be fully effective if the community doesn't trust the officers. While some mistrust will always linger, residents need to know that, when things like what happened with Laquan McDonald occur, the officers involved would be held accountable.
Having said all of that... I do think Judge Peggy Chiampas was right about one thing. We Chicagoans do need to care more about the violence in the city's poor neighborhoods. It's too easy to simply write off what happens in places like Auburn-Greham and Austin as "business as usual." And, because it doesn't happen in some neighborhoods, it's easy to write it off as someone else's problem. But it's not. The growing violence is a Chicago problem. Everybody who lives in the Windy City is effected by it to some extend or another. If nothing else, everybody's tax dollars go into city services and into CPD.
Maybe it would take downtown protests to drive that message home.