It is hard to see a way forward from our seemingly endless cycle of gun violence. We barely recover from news of one mass shooting before another takes its place in the news cycle. Just as we tried to confront the crisis of carjackings in Chicago, street crimes at gunpoint rose and added new fears to our daily lives. When an assault-style rifle can be used to destroy life in Highland Park, a town with a ban on assault-style weapons, we throw our hands in the air as we see senators seemingly opposed to any meaningful national gun control legislation.
Our job as faith leaders is often, and unironically, to show the way of faith. This week, our faith in solutions for the future is based on the witness of the good work already underway here in Chicago.
At the heart of gun violence is the proliferation of guns. Yet what few pay attention to, but we faith leaders know, are two interlocking facts that must be addressed. First: Almost no one wants to be involved in a life of violence. Second: Too many people in our city feel they need a gun just to survive.
Michael Chester, an outreach specialist with Chicago CRED, said that every day, he sees “guys out in the streets that really want help, but don’t know how to get it and are scared to ask.” A decent job and a sense of security are far preferable to a life under the gun.
But at the same time, the proliferation of guns leads people to think they need guns themselves. After first experiencing gun violence as an 11-year-old on a basketball court, Jomarria, or Jay, now a 24-year-old READI Chicago participant, believed that to be safe and stay alive, he’d need a gun. The READI outreach team, however, helped him see and take another path for his life.
Empowering those most vulnerable to violence — like Jay — and providing the help desperately needed in neighborhoods across the city are what motivate violence interruption and street outreach programs. The need to interrupt violence before it proliferates is nothing new. In fact, it’s biblical. The books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy call for the creation of “cities of refuge” for the specific purpose of ending cycles of vengeful violence. Violence interruption is an ancient model whose value continues to be proved today.
Violence interruption and street outreach programs are critical but unfortunately have been inconsistently and inadequately funded historically. Together with READI Chicago, Chicago CRED and the many programs connected through Communities Partnering 4 Peace by Metropolitan Family Services, Chicago has numerous gifted violence interrupters and trained restorative justice advocates who serve our city with shoestring budgets and very humble community donations. The programs are too often limited by people in power who are too hesitant to boldly reimagine what public safety is.
That’s slowly changing. Recently, local leaders visited our nation’s Capitol to celebrate the signing of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun violence prevention bill in 30 years, which includes an initial $250 million investment into community-based violence prevention initiatives like the ones already saving lives here in Chicago. This federal investment is in addition to the commitment from Gov. J.B. Pritzker of $50 million for community violence prevention initiatives this year.
But we also need the robust support of our local leaders. Too often, the funding promised for violence prevention is a drop in the bucket compared with funding for policing and incarceration, which do more to destabilize neighborhoods than prevent violence.
There’s also growing support for mobile violence interruption, specifically a highly trained team of social workers, therapists and other professionals who can deploy anywhere in the city to try to de-escalate situations before criminal offenses occur. Such a mobile capacity would have an impact on reducing the violence we’ve seen at “trending” events at North Avenue Beach and Millennium Park.
Violence interruption works. We can prove it. READI Chicago, for example, responded to the research that engaging in gun violence is often an impulsive, split-second decision and created a 12- to 18-month program that combines cognitive behavioral therapy with paid transitional employment opportunities and other skills and supports. The vast majority of participants in READI Chicago are people who are 45 times more likely to be shot or killed than the average Chicagoan and twice as likely as men in their same neighborhood and age group, the organization says.
In a first-of-its-kind randomized controlled study, researchers at the University of Chicago Crime Lab compared men enrolled in READI with a control group of men who were turned away. The preliminary results of the study find the participants “stay engaged in the program and they have 79% fewer arrests for shootings and homicides” than those in the control group. Research is ongoing, with the expectation that a final report will be released in 2024.
We know how to save lives and prevent violence, but we need stable, long-term funding to run and scale violence interruption programs that break cycles of violence. And we need bold leadership to re-imagine what public safety is and to create a Chicago in which all people have access to the tools they need to thrive and live a life free from violence.
We need not have blind faith in a better future. We just need to put our energies and political will behind proven remedies.
Chicago faith leaders Rabbi Seth M. Limmer and the Revs. Michael Pfleger, Ciera Bates-Chamberlain and Otis Moss III have joined the Tribune’s opinion section in an exploration of potential solutions to Chicago’s chronic gun violence problem. Their joint column will appear each Friday until Labor Day weekend.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
