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Chicago remains the homicide capital of America — 13 years straight. According to an analysis by Wirepoints, 573 homicides were committed in Chicago during 2024 at the rate of 21.5 homicides per 100,000 residents. These depressing numbers far exceed those of other major cities like New York City, Houston and Los Angeles.
Yet most of Chicago’s city leaders may as well be living on another plant. They refuse to look at reality in all of its ugliness. After an unruly mob of over 300 kids took over Streeterville and the Loop recently, Mayor Brandon Johnson said the solution was more “safe spaces.” Safe spaces for whom?
Anybody who knows Streeterville, home to the Navy Pier, knows that it is one of the safest neighborhoods in all of Chicago. In fact, there were two shootings in March — both were due to large gatherings of teen mobs.
That’s two shootings that could have been prevented had the city taken this problem seriously long before. When Mayor Johnson first took office there were three consecutive nights of street takeovers in the Loop and nearby areas. Fellow Chicagoans and out of towners were assaulted. Stores had their windows smashed and were robbed.
When we raised our collective outrage back then, Mayor Johnson chastised us for “demonizing children.” He went on to say, “They’re young. Sometimes they make silly decisions. They do. And so, we have to make sure that we are investing to make sure that young people know they are supported.”
I didn’t see anything “silly” about those videos showing these kids bashing innocent people over the head. I also rejected the mayor’s false argument that we’re demonizing these kids. What everyone was outraged about was the behavior of these kids and that it had been allowed to continue for many hours without any law and order.
Clearly, this delusional approach by the mayor hasn’t worked. Even he knows it. After the recent run of teenage mobs, the mayor said he would “not tolerate” this behavior any longer. But where is his solution? His plan?
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I never put any of my faith in him. I didn’t vote for him and was immensely disappointed when he won. I knew that Chicago would just continue with business as usual. Now, I’m seeing more and more Chicagoans wake up to the reality of this mayor. Many of them betrayed their common sense and voted for him because of identity politics. But the reality of the horror show that this mayor is has become too much for them to bear, especially when children are at stake.
We know the only way to reach our youth is to become involved in their lives. I’ve been doing this work on the South Side for decades and I can tell you that it works. It is not perfect — I have preached at far too many funerals for teens — but it does save many lives from the fate of the bullet.
What we do is very simple. We talk to these kids, find out where they’re at, what their demons are, and we let them know we understand. We know they’re being targeted every day for membership into gangs and we strive to counter that with the belief they can become somebodies with their shot at the American Dream.
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What we don’t do is provide these kids with “safe spaces.” What is the point of a safe space if violence still reigns outside the door. What we do instead is strive to make their communities safer. That is what gives these kids that sense of security and freedom to focus on developing their skills and ambitions.
My community center, Project H.O.O.D., reduced the homicide rate in our neighborhood of Woodlawn by 50% from 2021 to 2022.
Most of those kids running inside those mobs don’t have any of that. They’re lost. They’re sheep running wherever the mob takes them. They commit violence because it is all they have to offer society at that moment. They come of age during Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police and they know there’s nobody around who cares enough to stop them. In other words, they’re pushing the limits of our society as far as they can because they know they can.
Our mayor and most of our city leaders are guilty of indulging these teen mobs. They believe they can baby these kids to safety. But I can tell you that’s not what these kids want. Many of them want to be a man or woman of importance. They want to matter. But they don’t know how because their parents have failed them, their schools have failed them, their leaders have failed them and now they are failing themselves.
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The only solution is to shock them back into reality by showing them that there are consequences for their actions. Alderman Brian Hopkins has called for imposing an 8 pm curfew on these youths to help the Chicago Police Department get a grip on the problem. I personally would go further and arrest those suspected of directly committing vandalism and battery. Lock them up. I would also hold the parents of underaged children legally accountable. No more excuses.
We have to bring back reality, law and order, and force these youths onto the citizenship track. Otherwise, this social contagion will only spread to other communities and we’ll soon all be paying the price for our wayward youth.
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