End the _________

Violence is a hot topic in Chicago as summer weekends end with new deaths and shootings to add on an already too-long list. But is focusing on gangs and baggy pants, as city officials begin to take action, the best way to address the issue?

Chi-raq and Saggin'

The city has drawn national attention after recent research highlighted that the number of Chicagoans murdered in the city since 2001 is more than twice the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan in that period.

With 250 homicides recorded June 27 since January (compared to last year's 169) Chicago also has a murder rate almost four times that of New York City.

This increase in murders has prompted a series of calls by city officials and law enforcement to end the violence.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy recently announced a new Gang Violence Reduction Strategy which plans to use new technology to target not just high crime areas but 'hot' people as well.

Mayor Emmanuel has successfully pushed for a state version of the federal racketeering statutes making it it easier to prosecute those who organize illegal activities and not just those committing the crimes.

The city counsel passed a resolution on May 30 calling for more severe dress codes in schools banning baggy pants, excessive jewelry and other items often donned by “certain rappers, athletes and neighborhood thugs.”

The resolution attributes increased violence in schools and the city to this dress style, stating that “children try to act how they dress” to avoid being called posers. 
 
According to CPS records, 469 schools out of 593 already have similar dress codes and it is up to local panels to decide whether to require uniforms or establish dress codes.

From enacting stricter laws, increased law enforcement and dress codes, the city is narrowing in on gangs, identifying them as the main source of violence.

Defining Violence

Ten out of Chicago's 77 neighborhoods account for almost half of the homicides this year while a quarter account for 70 percent.

According to Mariame Kaba of Project NIA, a Chicago-based organization focused on eradicating youth incarceration, it is no surprise that the most violent neighborhoods are also the most poor.

“We are seeing an increase in unemployment, an increase in student expulsion--it might have something to do with what is happening with homicides,” says Kaba.

According to the 2010 Census, Riverdale holds first place for poverty at 60 percent followed by Fuller Park (46.6 percent) and Englewood (45 percent). City average is 21.6 percent.

Census data also shows that since 2000, in 17 of Chicago's 77 community areas a third or more people live below the federal poverty line.

Education is another area impacted by poverty. A 2012 Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program report ranks the Chicago metropolitan area's public school system as the second most economically segregated out of the hundred metro areas researched nationwide.

Little is being done by either the state or the city to address the issue.

This year, state funding per-pupil is below the required amount and a Roosevelt University study published in June shows that 78 percent of Chicago's TIF money designated to aid struggling CPS school districts is being spent north of 30^th Street.

Selective enrollment schools, including charters, received 52 percent of the funding despite only making up one percent of CPS schools.

"We think of public education as free and open to all, but the quality of public education that the family has access to is largely determined by their income," Brookings senior research analyst Jonathan Rothwell. “Instead of moving toward opportunity, we're magnifying inequality because of the way we assign students [to schools] based on where they live.”

According to the Illinois Interactive Report Card, every school in South Chicago has a poverty rate above 80 percent with the majority about 90 percent.

“Lets define violence beyond shooting,” says Kaba. “Increasing levels of poverty, unemployment, hunger: all are forms of violence.”

South Chicago Speaks

It is common knowledge that South Chicago's employment opportunities have dropped dramatically since the glory days of smoke stacks and steady pay checks. U.S.X. Steel at its peak employed 30,000 people, roughly the current population of South Chicago.

A 1996 Chicago Tribune article describes the poverty rate four years after the South Works USX Steel plant closed as “hovering at 15 percent.”

Four years later the 2000 census revealed that unemployment doubled to 30.6 percent.

By 2005, South Chicago was one of 12 neighborhoods in which the number of children in poverty had increased by more than 1,000.

And the most recent census shows South Chicago's poverty rate at 31 percent.

While city officials tally deaths and shootings, Kaba insists that their efforts will fall seriously short of addressing the issue.

“I have been particularity disappointed though not surprised that the response has been more police and more laws instead of addressing the need that we see on the ground: jobs,” says Kaba,“giving [youth] a sense of themselves as people who have a future.”

Residents of South Chicago share their own critiques about the City's approach to the shootings. All those interviewed mentioned the gangs as a problem but their solutions are job and social service centered.

“Its not just the gangs, says 14-year old Ricardo Hernandez says when asked about violence in the neighborhood. “Poverty has a lot to do with it, a lot of people have never even had jobs.”

The stress of unemployment perpetuates the need for illicit means of making money while also increasing the chances for gang related violence, says Dante Williams. “Poverty makes the system,” he says, urging for more jobs, not more police, to address the violence.

An increase in community centers and services is also needed, says Ana Cuevas because “even those that do have jobs are barely making it.”

But the governor’s recent $1.6 billion cut from state health care and Rahm's approval of the closing of public schools and public health clinics show that the opposite trend is in effect.

End the _________

South Chicago is one homicide short of reaching last year's total according to Observer analysis of city data.

While city officials ban baggy clothes and target gangs to end the violence, unemployment and home foreclosures continue to rise, pointing to feeble attempts to end poverty, says Kaba.

“Those who say they are shocked by the violence are playing games,” says Kaba. “If the Mayor wants to end violence then he should be working double, triple time to provide jobs, its not rocket science.”

[note: since the article was published the new numbers are:  361 dead since January 2012: three months with 50 or more deaths, three months with 40-49 deaths and one with 28 losses.  The majority of these deaths are due to gun shots (note: these numbers do not reflect incidences of shooting).  August has been the deadliest month so far with 56 homicides.  South Chicago's homicide number has increased roughly 33% since last year.]