Special contribution by Stephen Franklin

I’m frustrated and maybe you can help.

I hope you can. 

When I first read the news accounts of 6-year-old Aliyah Shell’s death, it sadly seemed like so many other news stories.

A child killed by a random bullet. Police say it may be gang-related. Family, neighbors, and many others are heart-broken and outraged.

Same story, again.

Next I saw Superintendent Garry McCarthy, quoted at a news conference saying that the gun violence which fatally swallowed Aliyah Shell and nine others and injured 39 others over the weekend, was largely the result of gang violence.

And gangs have splintered and sprawled, he said, according to a story in the Sun-Times, making it more difficult to track them. Still, he said police know that gangs have had a greater role in the mayhem, claiming as much as 80 percent of the firearm violence in the city.

What I would like to know is what is exactly going on with these gangs. I remember folks from CeaseFire saying a while ago that some of the violence nowadays comes form gang wannabes, or just dumb tough kids, which makes it even more chaotic.

I would like to know why gangs live on in here despite years of police crackdowns. What is missing here? Not long ago I figured out that possibly as much as $100 million comes into Chicago yearly to deal with youth violence.

Tell me if this money is making a difference. Tell me if goes off in different directions or there’s a broad strategy in place.

And what feeds the gangs’ existence?

Is it the poverty that appears deeper and more punishing in many poor black and Latino communities?

Is it the sea of guns? If so, tell me about these guns. Where do they come from? What kind of guns are they? Tell me about the life of a gun so I can see the toll it takes.

Is the drugs? If so, tell me how they are marketed and who sells them and what happens the dealers? Let me see the lines that connect the drug links here.

I see from the Tribune that homicides are up 42 percent so far this year, and nonfatal shootings are up, too, 38 percent. I wonder about people who have been shot multiple times because we know that’s a reality too.  How many carry such wounds?

Tell me where the violence reigns. What streets? What police beats? Tell me who are the people the police arrest.

Tell me about violence’s long lingering impact on the streets where it happened, on the victims and the families it touched and  on the  emergency crews, the police, the court workers and all who regularly face it. Take me to the county jail or state prison or wherever I can hear from those who are the major actors in this terrible tragedy.

I wonder too about the latest count of those who have been paralyzed or disabled from the violence. I’ve heard that these numbers have been growing lately.

Help me see the larger picture.

Tell me what is happening in this broad human context so I can see where differences might be made.

Help me to spread the word that we don’t want the same story with few questions asked and few answers offered.

So, please pass the word that we have to know more.

If you work for a non-profit agency, or you are a journalist, or you simply care about what’s happening, talk to me. Let’s change the story.

We need to understand so we don’t hear the same story again and again this summer.

Talk to me. And most importantly, talk to the news media.

Steve@chicagoistheworld.org

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