President Donald Trump says he wants an end to rampant gun violence in Chicago. He’s talked about our city several times in his first two weeks in the White House. So far he’s offered no remedies. On Jan. 24 he tweeted: "I will send in the Feds!" That’s not a policy prescription. It’s a movie cliche, no better than, "Get me Batman!"
Yet we welcome Trump’s obsession with Chicago’s enduring tragedy of murder and mayhem. In fact, we challenge him to talk and think more about the crisis. Because the bully pulpit of the presidency is no small thing. Maybe Trump is just popping off, but the more he threatens to act, the more heat he puts on Chicago’s leaders to do the hard work of healing broken neighborhoods. By the same token, the more involved he gets, the more he must accept a share of the responsibility for solutions or risk looking like a do-nothing.
On Wednesday at a White House event for Black History Month, Trump heard from a concerned Ohio minister who wants to arrange a gang summit in Chicago. The minister’s idea, while well-meaning, holds little promise because the city’s gang structure is atomized. There appear to be no leaders empowered to negotiate a truce.
But Trump’s response to the Rev. Darrell Scott contained seeds of a valuable promise: "If they’re not going to solve the problem … we’re going to solve the problem for them because we’re going to have to do something about Chicago," the president said. "Because what’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country."
On this, the president — unproven in leadership, often foolhardy with his words — is correct. What’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country.
January was another terrible month: 51 homicides, according to the Chicago Police Department. That’s one more than the 50 killings in the first month of 2016, the city’s worst year for violence in two decades, with 762 homicides. Shootings, which not only injure people but terrify entire neighborhoods, are preposterously out of control. The Tribune counted 4,367 people shot last year, plus an additional 319 last month. In one 12-hour period Wednesday, eight people in Chicago were shot. Among them, a 15-year-old boy shot in the neck, a 23-year-old man struck in the abdomen, a 19-year-old man hit in the lower back, a 23-year-old woman grazed in the head.
Woman holding Trump sign Alyssa Pointer, Chicago Tribune
A woman, who asked not to be identified, holds a sign in the Gold Coast neighborhood near the scene of a shooting involving multiple victims, including an off-duty police officer on Jan. 28, 2017, in Chicago. "I’ve been a direct target of [gun violence]," the woman, a resident of the Englewood community, said." Every time there is a shooting, I’m coming up with this sign until he does something."
A woman, who asked not to be identified, holds a sign in the Gold Coast neighborhood near the scene of a shooting involving multiple victims, including an off-duty police officer on Jan. 28, 2017, in Chicago. "I’ve been a direct target of [gun violence]," the woman, a resident of the Englewood community, said." Every time there is a shooting, I’m coming up with this sign until he does something."
(Alyssa Pointer, Chicago Tribune)
There is no easy explanation for the violence. The causes run deep in communities where hopelessness and guns proliferate. Many shootings are gang-related, but not all. The Police Department is absorbed by the task of containing crime, while struggling to fix its own dysfunctions. City Hall, other government officials, neighborhood leaders, all try. President Barack Obama tried, but didn’t put Chicago violence at the top of his agenda. Trump, by contrast, is fascinated.
While his attention may pass, we see an opportunity. Politics is about attention and momentum. When the president of the United States calls out Chicago for its blood lust and threatens to swoop in if things don’t improve, political pressure builds. Let Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the 50 aldermen, Chicago’s state legislators, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and others feel that pressure. Let them use it constructively to improve policing and stabilize neighborhoods.
We’ve criticized aldermen and legislators for doing too little, in their neighborhoods and in their lawmaking. That said, we trust that virtually all Chicagoans care deeply about trying to curtail the violence. But nothing has solved this crisis — and now the president is fixated. Let him escalate the pressure.
Mayor Emanuel reacts to President Trump’s statement on Chicago crime
Mayor Rahm Emanuel responds to a tweet by President Donald Trump saying he will “send in the Feds!” if the city “doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on.” (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Rahm Emanuel responds to a tweet by President Donald Trump saying he will “send in the Feds!” if the city “doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on.” (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)
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Let him feel it, too — and act. Some options:
•Trump’s Department of Justice can support CPD by intensifying federal law enforcement resources. Maybe that means more manpower, more imaginative approaches, more technology. DOJ also should negotiate the consent decree that wasn’t concluded by the Obama administration. There’s speculation Trump isn’t interested in addressing excessive force and other problems that isolate cops and communities. But if he wants to see a stronger Police Department, he’ll pursue the decree.
•There are existing, effective social service programs in Chicago, ranging from gang conflict mediation to teen mentoring, that would benefit from a targeted infusion of federal dollars. George W. Knox, director of the National Gang Crime Research Center, wrote in a recent Tribune commentary that a "strategic approach" would include job skills programs and improved conditions in juvenile detention centers.
•The broadest target is a focus on job creation in impoverished neighborhoods. Emanuel had a notable success bringing a Whole Foods to Englewood. Trump’s bet the success of his presidency on creating jobs. Can he muscle business to make more investments in Chicago’s South and West sides — and to do more hiring and training there?
There’s symbiosis here if the Republican president and Democratic mayor can suppress their rivalry and work together. Lives are at stake, and so is the city’s future. Both leaders want to end the scourge. Mayor Emanuel: Keep trying to secure resources from the White House. President Trump: You’re riveted on Chicago violence. Good. Now take some ownership.
Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
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During an appearance before the Tribune Editorial Board in 2015, Donald Trump addressed Chicago crime, saying "tough cookies" are needed to combat it. (Brian Ernst/Chicago Tribune)
During an appearance before the Tribune Editorial Board in 2015, Donald Trump addressed Chicago crime, saying “tough cookies” are needed to combat it. (Brian Ernst/Chicago Tribune)
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Over 700 crosses were erected and carried along Michigan Avenue on Dec. 31, 2016 — one for each person killed in 2016 in Chicago. Greg Zanis, of Aurora, constructed the crosses with the help of volunteers and distributed them to families of the victims.
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