We keep thinking that Chicago’s gun violence can’t get worse, and then it does. Three children killed in four days in February. Nearly 100 gun deaths already this year, after 766 last year. The latest? Chicago gangs are increasingly using high-powered rifles to maim and kill each other (and innocent bystanders, too, of course). As the Chicago Tribune reports, police say rifles are increasingly becoming popular because, well, "they are deadlier." "Rifle bullets can tear through cars and other obstacles, including standard-issue bulletproof vests worn by Chicago police," the Tribune reports.
If foreign terrorists had infiltrated Chicago to commit this mayhem, is there any doubt that the country would be at war? Why, then, are we wringing our hands but taking so little meaningful action when it’s Chicago residents killing each other?
The city’s horrendous level of violence — overwhelmingly committed against and by black males using guns, but also claiming the lives of little boys and girls — is utterly unacceptable. No one suggests the answers are easy. But ceaseless rounds of candlelight vigils and debates over citizens’ rights and police procedures are crowding out something we desperately need: a fiercer focus on protecting the victims and their families.
One reason this hasn’t happened is that most Chicagoans go about their lives virtually certain the havoc won’t directly touch them. Chicago’s gun violence is concentrated in a remarkably small number of low-income minority neighborhoods.
Those of us in less crime-prone neighborhoods shake our heads in dismay. But as citizens of Chicago we have an obligation to act with greater outrage and urgency.
Funeral service for Takiya Holmes, 11
A funeral service was held at Life Center Church of God in Christ on Feb. 25, 2017, for 11-year-old Takiya Holmes, who was hit by a stray bullet in Parkway Gardens on Feb. 11 and died from her wound Feb. 14. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
A funeral service was held at Life Center Church of God in Christ on Feb. 25, 2017, for 11-year-old Takiya Holmes, who was hit by a stray bullet in Parkway Gardens on Feb. 11 and died from her wound Feb. 14. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
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First, Illinois must require mandatory prison time for illegally carrying a gun in the state. People lawfully owning licensed firearms need not worry. The General Assembly has been studying and preparing to change gun laws while people keep dying. Enough! Act!
In 2006, New York increased its mandatory penalty for carrying a loaded illegal gun to 31/2 years in prison. Many factors affect violence, but one fact is stark: New York City, with a much larger population, had fewer than half as many homicides last year (334) as Chicago did.
Gun laws can and must be justly enforced. NFL standout Plaxico Burress spent nearly two years in prison for carrying an unlicensed handgun (with which he accidentally shot himself in a New York nightclub). He rightly was treated the same as any nonfamous, nonwealthy person.
Second, we must give police wider leeway to stop and search suspects for illegal guns. Many people wrongly believe a federal judge in New York City ruled that stop-and-frisk policies are unconstitutional. In fact, the judge specifically said such tactics can be legal if they don’t amount to racial profiling.
A study of New York City’s stop-and-frisk policy, published last year in a Columbia Public Law Research Paper, concluded that targeted police stops "based on probable cause or (indications) of actual crime" were associated with "significant crime reductions."
Civil libertarians will cite the recent U.S. Department of Justice report that sharply criticized Chicago police conduct. Those findings will help drive reforms, but they must not prevent us from taking new steps to reduce gun violence.
Without question, better training, recruitment and accountability of Chicago police must continue.
We must do our best to safeguard people’s civil rights against unreasonable searches and racial profiling while also doing more to protect their right to be safe from gun violence. Police must be able to do their job, which is to prevent crime, not just show up to clean up after the crime.
Chicago police believe four Hispanic gangs have used high-powered rifles in at least 33 shootings in Back of the Yards and Brighton Park in recent months.
Since most killings in Chicago occur in predominantly black neighborhoods, many of the suspects searched for guns will be black. But remember, the shooting victims are overwhelmingly black. Tragically, Chicago’s gun violence is anything but colorblind. It’s a brutal and literal instance of targeting minorities.
The distrust and lack of a constructive relationship between the police and some communities is all too real and must be addressed. But officers don’t need unreasonable constraints in trying to combat Chicago’s epidemic of violence. Among other things, the policy requiring officers to fill out cumbersome "receipts" for routine stops must be discarded immediately.
Our fellow Chicago citizens are being slaughtered. Just because many of us are unlikely to ever see these victims, their shooters or their neighborhoods, we must demand greater urgency and innovation to combat gun violence.
If anyone has alternative suggestions, speak up for Chicago. Doing more of the same has not worked. And waiting for Washington to help is a waste of time!
William M. Daley, a Chicago lawyer, is a former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama and former U.S. secretary of commerce.
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