Breaking Chicago’s Cycle of Exploiting Violence
The recent push to send federal agents to Chicago under the guise of combating violence is not an isolated event; it is part of a decades-long cycle of exploiting violence for political and financial gain. Chicago’s politicians, justice system leaders, and media have all played a role in perpetuating this cycle, often prioritizing power and […]
Telling Stories About Crime is Hard
Covering issues of crime and violence is very hard but that is no excuse for not doing it better. So says our guest this week on the Chicago Justice Show Jason Cherkis. Cherkis is seasoned reporter who started out working for weekly paper in Washington, DC covering these very issues. Through be told reporters at […]
Fact Checking Bill Daley’s Violence Solution
Everyone seems to have a solution to Chicago’s violence these days, despite not much familiarity with the issues beyond the headlines and certainly beyond academia’s leading research. The latest entrant: Banking magnate and former U.S Commerce Secretary Bill Daley. He authored an OpEd in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday March 1. Let’s fact-check Daley’s letter […]
Violence Solution Written From Cheney’s Cave
The following notion should scare the hell out of every Chicagoan. Mayor Emanuel is going to put the same effort he put in to “fixing” Chicago’s financial problems in to fixing Chicago’s violence problems! I would give you all three guesses which news outlet in Chicago had a columnist that wrote a column suggesting just […]
Gangs: Television Coverage, Violence, and the new RICO law
Isn’t the definition of insanity repeating the same actions and expecting different results? If so, then the Chicago media sure is insane. Check my reasoning: Every year, following a spike in violence, the media goes crazy with coverage demanding action to stop these crimes from happening again. They also demonize, rightly and wrongly, street gangs […]
Chicago Media on the Violence in Chicago
It would be nice if the media did their jobs to separate fact from fiction and urban myth. One thing the Chicago media is very good at is being an echo chamber for accusations and rumor rather than taking that material in and comparing it to the facts to see if there is any validity […]
CPD Raise, Violence, Suburb Comes Out Ahead
The contract negotiations between the City of Chicago and the Fraternal Order of Police have been completed pending City Council approval. Through the arbitration process the officers have been provided a 10% raise over the next 5 years. Seems a perfect time for a raise considering the City is finding all kids of ways of […]
Hillard – Weis – Warm Weather
“”Progressive communities can fix things early on,” Heintze said. “The question is whether the department is trying to identify rogue operations or dysfunctional management.” Hillard added, “If they see a problem, they have to be very aggressive. They need to address the kinds of issues that can bring a chief down.” Frank Main, Sun-Times, Sunday […]
Mental Health Clinics Closing – Guaranteeing Future Violence
Long-term violence reduction strategies are to be found in the social fabric of our communities and not in our criminal justice system. Our criminal justice system is reactive and is not built to be proactive, i.e., they respond to violence and for the most part do not prevent violence. Prevention plays out in our ability […]
What does an epidemiologist know about reducing violence in Chicago?
This post is the final in a five part series examining the anti-violence program CeaseFire. The first four parts of the series covered: The Illinois Auditor General’s audit of CeaseFire finannces, Northwestern’s evaluation of CeaseFire, media’s coverage of the program, and the role race plays in the defining of effectiveness of the program. Today’s post […]