Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: chicago, montage, violence, youth, youtube
Filed under: Miscellaneous
I apologize for the recent hiatus. The new quarter has brought new and more work, which has taken away a lot of my time from this blog. I will continue posting, but, unfortunately, at a slower pace temporarily. That doesn’t mean the subject of this blog has waned in importance, because judging by what has been going on in Chicago this summer, it’s more relevant than ever. For now, I’ll keep writing, and I hope you will keep reading.
Developing this blog, my main goal was to make this site more about you and less about me. The growing attention we’re getting is encouraging, but I’m a little disappointed by the lack of discussion and debate. With that said I want to throw out a few questions to get to know you the reader and find out ways I can retool and improve on things for the future.
1. Tell me about yourself. How did you find this blog? What were some of the things that kept you interested?
2. How often do you participate in online discussions or forums? What kind do you participate in?
3. If you haven’t commented on this site, is it due to a lack of interest or not feeling comfortable enough about the subject matter?
4. What types of news do you usually read?
5. How do you react to news about violence, particularly violence involving youth?
6. Is there something more of or less of that you would like to see on The Violence Project?
7. Anything extra?
Filed under: Miscellaneous, violence | Tags: chicago, chicago public schools, community, psa, students, video, violence
A public service announcement from The Violence Project
Runtime: 01:17
Filed under: Miscellaneous, article, event, organizaion, research, teenagers, violence | Tags: career, fair, malcolm x college, poetry, slam, spoken word, tap roots, violence
Courtesy of MySpace
I wanted to share with readers the spoken word poetry of Tap Roots, Inc. They are a West Side group who performs for students, offering an uplifting, positive message that they hope will spark the minds of at least one child in the audience. Recently, they performed for public school students at the 10th annual Citywide Health Careers Fair. The following piece was dedicated to the parents of young victims of violence and the victims themselves.
Filed under: Miscellaneous, chicago, gangs, schools, violence | Tags: chicago, chicago police, gangs, outreach, violence, youth
Dr. Ron Rufo is a crime prevention speaker with the Chicago Police Department. His police work mainly focuses on juvenile crime and speaking to various students about the dangers of joining gangs. In March, Rufo was stationed at Crane Technical High School the day student Ruben Ivy was killed.
Below, Rufo talks about a boy who learned the consequences of gangs the hard way.
Transcript:
So then I talk about paralyzation. I talk about dying. I talk about paralyzation. Then I talk about a young man that I actually tried to help when I was in the ninth district. I get a little choked up sometimes telling this story because it’s true. This young man was a good boy, but he lived in the heart of a gang on Morgan Street.
He said to me, “Officer Rufo, I don’t want to join a gang, but they’re pressuring me.”
One September when I was going to a school I happen to see this young man and his mom was pushing him in a wheelchair. He had got shot
He said, “Didn’t you hear what happened to me?”
Because that was my old beat.
He said, “Didn’t you hear what happened to me?”
I said, “No I didn’t. Can you tell me?”
He said, “Well, a couple guys got shot.” A rival gang, which is down the street, came over and started shooting.
The one guy he mentioned got killed, and I didn’t know about that. Another kid got shot in the leg…or like the lower leg by his ankle. And he got shot in the back. He said, “I’ve been paralyzed since.”
That’s what I tell these kids.
He asked me what I was doing. I said I was in preventive programs. I go out and teach kids about not joining a gang. He said would you mention my name and mention this to them:
“I didn’t listen to you and look where I’m at. My mom has to clean me, bathe me, and do everything else. My so-called gang, my so-called family never came to see me at the hospital, and they walk across the street while my mom is pushing me. “
Now, he’s got to be about 21.
He said, “Where are they now? I gave my life for them, and look what I have to live for: Nothing, and this how I’m going to be the rest of my life.”
Filed under: Miscellaneous, article, chicago, legislation & initiatives, organizaion, teenagers, violence | Tags: cbs, chicago, gangs, jesse jackson, jesse jackson jr, kennedy king, michael pfleger, poverty, rufus williams, schools, town hall, violence, wbbm
Disappointment cannot describe the feeling I had watching the CBS 2 Chicago/WBBM radio town hall on violence in Chicago. It has been literally a minute since it went off the air, but I couldn’t wait until the next day to write about this. Here you had two of the largest media outlets in Chicago giving light on a hotly debated subject, and they drop the ball. How did they drop ball you ask? With panelists and speakers ranging from Jesse Jackson, school board president Rufus Williams, Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Danny Davis, police superintendent Jody Weis, Rev. Michael Pfleger and parents of murdered CPS students, what or who possibly could have been left out?
The youth
The youth
The youth
Two hours of rhetoric, grandstanding, insight, and ideas about what is wrong with young people today, how can they be saved, why are so many at risk, but not one youth is given the chance to speak on their own behalf. The irony of this is that right outside Kennedy King College, where the town hall took place, you will find young people between 55th and 79th & Halsted breaking curfew, hanging out on the streets. For every youth out there who are gang banging, dropping out of school, or dying, there are many more trying to do something with their lives and able to offer as much — sometimes more– insight than the leaders who continue to speak on our behalf. Each time the camera cut into the audience, I scanned it to find at least one young face but could see a person who looked like they were under 25.
Despite popular belief, young people have to something to say. They always have. We just don’t listen. We put up the wall at the first difficulty and conclude that they’re “different” or “not how they used to be back in my day.” But as a recently vilified pastor once said, “different does not mean detrimental.”
Besides ignoring the young people, regular community residents were left out of this talk. I’m talking about the residents who aren’t part of an organization. If we’re going to open up this debate, we need to knock down the doors and let everybody in. Forget about the cameras. Forget about the lights. Forget about the ad sponsors. And, hopefully, Mayor Daley can take part too.
In fact, here is my idea for a town hall: Mayor Daley and these same leaders go on a citywide tour of community centers, high school gyms and auditoriums , churches, etc. — maybe even Soldier Field if the demand is there– and open the doors to everybody in the communities. When I say everybody, I mean everybody. Community groups, youth, parents, gang bangers, addicts, the homeless, the tired, the rich, the poor and the huddled masses. Open the gates and just have at it for as long as everyone is willing. Find out why these kids are dropping out? Why are the gang bangers joining gangs? Why are addicts doing drugs? Why have some people stopped caring? We don’t have to worry about commercial breaks or interrupting CSI: Miami and Criminal Minds.
If there was one person at the town hall who brought this point home, it was teacher and lecturer Dr. Adolph Brown, III. Brown walked around the room until the very end disguised as the stereotypical young male many are used to envisioning: doo-rag and baggy clothes. Brown encountered only stern looks and silence from most of those in attendance, not an ounce of outreach or gratefulness for this disguised young person making the effort to attend this forum. As Brown revealed his suit and true identity under the baggy clothes, the audience was left silent and befuddled from their hypocrisy. After two hours of talk, Brown challenged them to action.
Will they answer his call? We’ll see at the next town hall.
Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: chicago, class dismissed, keith stephens, meredith maran, salon, salon.com, schools, teens, violence
It was naive to think that another week would go by without reading about one more youth getting killed, but I try to be an optimist. Although a 15-year-old boy was shot last week, he did not die, making last week one of the rare weeks a Chicago teen has not gotten killed since I started reporting on education. Not reading about another death made last week feel like an eternity since the last murder. Schools and communities continued to make strides in addressing this problem. People were talking and listening to one another. The sense of urgency was present. But with all of that there, we still find ourselves coming back to reporting the bad news we’ve become used to. The latest young life taken remains unidentified until family notice. All that is known is that he was found dead in an alley in the Gage Park neighborhood on the South Side. With the cyclical nature of news, I wanted to share an essay written by journalist Meredith Maran. Maran is the author of the book “Class Dismissed.” It chronicles a year in the life of three teens at Berkley High School, considered to be the most diverse high school in America. One of the teens Maran covered, Keith Stephens, was later shot to death six years after the book’s publication. Maran’s essay touches not only on Stephens’ life and death but hope that Keith Stephens doesn’t just become another statistic or blurb we glance over as we read our newspaper. Keith Stephens, like every Chicago youth killed this school year, had a life behind their headline. They were lives filled with dreams, good and bad days and — most importantly– people who loved them. That is why I want to propose the following challenge: if you happen to come across a murder on the news ( doesn’t have to be a teen), dig a little deeper and find out something interesting about that person. It can be their favorite movie or something random their family has shared. Any takers?
Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: chicago, community, organizations, school, violence
PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education)
University of Chicago Consortium on School Research
Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
Chicago Public Schools Office of Research, Evaluation and Accountability
