Riot prevention in Chicago

The 2011 summer riots in Britain that began in London and then proliferated to other parts of the UK, most notably Birmingham and Manchester, came as a great surprise to most of the general public. For days rolling news brought us pictures of the armies of youths looting shops, attacking the police and causing general panic and misery. Social networks and mobile messaging mobilised hordes of youngsters, who took advantage of an overstretched London Met and vulnerable shopkeepers. The Government was quick to crackdown on the criminals, keeping Magistrates’ Courts open throughout the night to deal with hundreds of cases. Those found with stolen merchandise or inducing violence were given tough penal sentences; all condoned by an unforgiving general public. It did not end there; politicians, commentators and victims debated and gave their thoughts on what was to blame. Most on the Left blamed Government cuts, the Right blamed the welfare state and the general public blamed the parents; whilst the outspoken historian David Starkey blamed it on the ‘blackification’ of white youths. It inevitably led to the resignation of senior police officers and a report to what happened. These riots were the first on this scale in Britain for around 25 years and have led to questions of what is happening in some of our communities and what preventative measures can be put in place. On BBC Four on Sunday was an excellent documentary called ‘The Interrupters – How to stop a riot’ highlighting the work of Cease-fire, a public health group that aims to prevent gun violence on the streets of Chicago.

The communities in South Chicago have had to deal with the day-to-day issues of gang and gun violence for decades. From the same streets where Barack Obama worked as a community campaigner, gun violence in 2008 claimed more lives in Chicago than US service personnel serving in Iraq (509 to 314). For generations, communities live in a poverty trap, the cycle of poor schooling and few job opportunities lead most youngsters to seek alternative sources of income i.e. drugs, that inevitably leads to violent crime. A local funeral leader said that 90% of the funerals he had overseen involved young victims. These murders are often trivial and not gang-related involved inter-personal spats or random attacks, teenagers murdered by other teenagers. There is a code of death over dishonour, which may seem odd to outsiders, but in a community where life is lived day-to-day, gun crime is the norm, hopelessness exists as reality. It is not unusual for people to have lost over twenty friends to death, drugs or prison.

The Cease-fire project is similar to schemes ran in Boston and Los Angeles; its aim is to reduce gun-violence in the neighbourhoods. Using data and statistical models to cite hotspots, their team roams the streets and interrupts potential scuffles. In a society, where violence is the release valve, people are often reprimanded with their lives. The interrupters have seen it all before, they too have been a part of gang culture and have seen their own lives affected by violence, prison or drugs. They speak aggressively to get the point across and to educate those on the street. It is clear that in the heat of the moment, no one thinks rationally. Their mediation is there to make people stop and reflect. They may not be able to stop gang beef but it allows them to coexist and who knows, possibly become a community. In targeted areas they have seen a drop in gun violence between 40-45%. What is most important is that Cease-fire is operating in schools, educating a generation to understand that by taking someone’s life will only cost you yours in prison, they speak of their own experience and the malaise of taking such decisions.

Community leaders recognise that ending the violence is the pathway for a better future. It will serve to create better schools and will attract businesses to the area, creating jobs. What many of these people want but have never seen are flourishing neighbourhoods and lasting peace. The interrupters help rehabilitate people, in one scene we saw a boy, who had served time for armed robbery, confront and apologise to his victims, he went on to find a regular job at a nursery, not on the street. The partnership in Chicago isn’t unique, similar successful schemes have been rolled out across other US cities. In the UK, Strathclyde Police introduced data-based policing and social measures to tackle gang violence in Glasgow. Like Chicago, generations had grown up in neighbourhoods where unemployment, dependency and substance abuse was the norm. The success is highlighted in the decline in the crime stats. This has now become a blueprint for police forces around the UK.

Much work is still required but perhaps what is most vivid in these neighbourhoods are the unofficial memorials dotted around the city. The victims, who died in undignified circumstances, leave a vestige of their passing on every street corner. One can only hope that these will serve as reminders of how far the communities have come.