Should Chicago Try Something New To Tackle Gun Violence?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:27)
Hey Chicago, I'm SashaAnn Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Stick around till the end of this podcast to get the latest on what's happening in and around Chicago. But first, this past weekend, Chicago saw another holiday with a deadly spike in gun violence. Eight people were killed, nearly 40 others were wounded, and a drive-by mass shooting in Roseland drew national attention, including comments from President Trump. Meanwhile, local violence interrupters are calling for a stronger focus on prevention. So now that summer has begun, and as shootings tend to rise, what solutions are actually working? At the table was Sam Castro, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships with the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, Cedric Hawkins, who is an outreach supervisor for Chicago Cred, and Emmanuel Andre, Chicago's Deputy Mayor for Community Safety.
The conversation started with reaction to President Trump's comments that he, quote, could make Chicago a safe city in one month. The deputy mayor went first.

**Emmanuel Andre** (1:34)
My response to that would be, we have what exists and the importance of continued support from the federal government, especially in terms of some of these investment dollars that we've seen disappear in the infrastructure of public safety.
So I think that's where we need to look at in terms, especially if you look at over the last three years, the successes that Chicago has had. We're not happy where we're at, but in terms of the decrease that we've seen and the violence all across the board, including last summer, which was a historic year for Chicago. We're not happy with that, but we do need to sustain investment and leadership from the federal government to be able to continue what we're seeing.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:14)
Yeah, and we'll talk more about that, Cedric. I want to know what sort of comes to your mind every time something like this happens and then it sort of jumps to national airwaves.

**Cedric Hawkins** (2:25)
So for me, the first thing I look at is that what type of shooting it was, right? And I understand when it's a mass shooting, it's multiple individuals. If it's one person being shot, it's coming out of that same weapon, right?
And the thing for me is without multiple mass shootings, we probably wouldn't be where we are right now. We probably would be down like last year. So to hear our chief say that he can clean up Chicago in a week, a month, a year, whatever that may be, it's just something that is unbelievable for me. Because my thing is Chicago has a mental health problem.
That's the real problem. It's really not a gun violence problem. It's a mental health issue problem. So the thing for me is to be able to help individuals mentally instead of just coming to lock everybody up. The thing about it is if you can clean up Chicago with the rest, you're still putting Chicago in a position where we have a mental health issue.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:35)
Sam, what's on your mind seeing President Trump's social media posts?

**Sam Castro** (3:41)
I'm going to ride the wave with the Deputy Mayor. I think that if the president really cares and wants to support, pour into what we have now. We have built a civilian infrastructure between CVI, the mayor's office, professional understanding with law enforcement. So whatever work last year, pour into that and then we can double down on everything that's happening good versus bringing in National Guard who's not used to policing in communities.
As we've seen, he did it before and it didn't work out and people ended up being hurt and afraid and I don't think that's right for the community.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:25)
So when you see a weekend like, did you have something to say Deputy Mayor?

**Emmanuel Andre** (4:28)
Just one last point on this. I think one of the issues that happens when it shifts the conversation.
So we're now only focused on a ludicrous claim that's put out there in the conversation around the investments and around what really happened that evening and how to intervene in that, how to prevent that. And that's, I think, one of the most problematic issues that you have when statements are made like that. Now that becomes the focus and the energy on the media, on the ecosystem, versus how could we prevent this, versus just reactionary.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (5:10)
Well, we have to report what happened.

**Emmanuel Andre** (5:12)