Chicago endures violent holiday
More than 40 shot, 12 killed during weekend
More than 40 people were shot over the weekend in Chicago, 12 of whom died.
The city has been in the national spotlight for gun violence increasing in recent years. The Chicago Police Department said in a statement Monday night that the majority of the shootings were attacks or retaliation during holiday gatherings by gang members.
“Ninety percent of those fatally wounded had gang affiliations, criminal histories and were pre-identified by the department’s strategic subject algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim of gun violence,” the statement said.
The Chicago Police Department confiscated 45 guns from city streets, starting Friday, according to the statement.
The Midwestern city recently experienced its most violent month in more than 20 years. Chicago recorded 92 murders in August, its deadliest month since June 1993. The city has reported more than 100 more murders this year than New York City and Los Angeles combined, according to the department’s data.
Gary Slutkin, founder of the Chicago-based, non-profit group Cure Violence, said part of the problem is that his nationally recognized organization experienced a drastic reduction in state funding two years ago when Illinois made across-the-board cuts.
His organization treats the gun violence epidemic as a public health crisis, he said. It has been effective in employing people who have experienced gun violence to detect those in their communities who might be in danger of slipping into that life — and in mentoring them and pulling them back from the brink, said Slutkin, a professor of epidemiology and global health at the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health.
“A lot of individuals and organizations are calling us, and we’re trying to figure out now how to re-engage in 2017 as fast as we can,” Slutkin said.
The organization, which launched in 2000, used to operate out of 18 districts, Slutkin said. That figure has dropped to one, he said.
In 2015 and 2016, the only community to maintain a Cure Violence operation was the only Chicago district where shootings and killings declined, according to police data cited by the organization.
Tamar Manasseh, founder of the Chicago-based Mothers Against Senseless Killings, or MASK, said the weekend uptick, comparable to a weekend in July in which Chicago saw 55 shootings, could be due to hidden depression experienced by people in challenging circumstances.
“What I’ve learned is that ... some people honestly lack the courage to take a gun and put it to their head and pull the trigger, but what they’ll do is they’ll take a gun and go out and kill somebody else,” Manasseh said. She said these people say to themselves, “I don’t want to be here, but I sure want to make sure that someone else wants to kill me.”
Manasseh, a rabbinical student and mother of an 18-year-old and 20-year-old, founded MASK to help make the streets safer for her children.
The organization works by employing people in the community who know the challenges of living there and can connect people with the services they need.
Manasseh said the weekend violence occurred because of the usual increase in stress and sadness that people experience over the holidays, but those in power need to target and engage in the problem, so they can understand what is happening and begin to fix it, she said.
“This is not a drive-through problem,” she said. “This is not a problem that we’re going to fix by driving through and marching through. You have to become a part of it, get in it and see it in order to fix it.”
Regarding the violence over the holiday weekend, the Police Department said in its statement, “Detectives are making progress in several incidents. So far, multiple people of interest are being questioned, and we are following up on some promising leads The violence primarily occurred in areas with historical gang conflicts on the South and West Side of Chicago.”
“Some people honestly lack the courage to take a gun and put it to their head and pull the trigger, but what they’ll do is they’ll take a gun and go out and kill somebody else.” Tamar Manasseh, Mothers Against Senseless Killings