Gangs are to blame for much of the weekend violence that left 23 people shot and four dead, but police can’t stop the bloodshed without more help from citizens, Chicago police Superintendent Jody Weis said Monday.
Weis made the remarks at a press conference called to discuss what the department is doing to reduce violence, at least the fifth such event he’s held since the beginning of August. It was the latest attempt by top city officials to show they’re responding aggressively to a summer spike in violence — and to deflect the blame to gangs and the neighborhoods where they’re active.
“Of the homicides and shootings that occurred since Friday morning, over 50 percent were gang-related, showing once again the risk involved with this lifestyle,” Weis said.
As he has in the past, Weis said the police department was fighting back by deploying gang specialists and other mobile units to areas most prone to violence, which are determined by “predictive analytics”–a sophisticated analysis of crime trends, gang membership figures, and even weather reports. But he said Monday that’s not enough.
“We keep asking for help from the community, and that is never going to change,” Weis said. “You are our eyes and ears, and we trust in your commitments to your neighborhoods.”
The superintendent and other top city officials often sound like they’re taking citizens to task for the city’s crime problems. Mayor Richard M. Daley has repeatedly said it’s up to neighborhood residents to drive drug dealers and gangbangers off their streets.
“What can you do as men and women and adults—are you willing to say, ‘I can walk up my block with two or three other adults and say, ‘We belong here—you don’t belong here’?” Daley said to hundreds of participants in an anti-violence march in June. “What we’re asking you to do is reach down into your soul.”
But some residents who are cooperating with police feel like the city has left them on their own. “At each point when we’ve been trying to solve problems, the city has cited the poor economy and the lack of resources,” said Robert Brown, president of the block club on the 8100 and 8200 blocks of South Winchester Avenue, where a shooting last month left one man dead and another wounded. “But to me the job description doesn’t change. You have to be more creative.”
Today Weis noted that over the weekend police had announced charges in five murder cases, including the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl who was skipping rope last week when she was caught in the crossfire of a gang conflict. Thanks to tips, police have one suspect in custody and are looking for another, he said.
“This was a case that was so heinous and so egregious that many members of the community have come forward,” Weis said. “But there’s been some others where it hasn’t been so good.”