Violence inside school
Violence in Chicago is very bad and it has been getting worse over the years. Every hour another person is killed. Last year in 2023, over 557 people were killed due to gunfire and there were 2,385 non-fatal shootings. Crime with kids has been getting worse too just this Wednesday, February 2, Daveon Gibson was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting at his school Senn High School.
It was not only him two other kids were injured and they remain hospitalized. Their family is very hurt and devastated. All of his family gathered and mourn of his loss. His mother said, “My baby was my best friend. My baby was everything to me.” She also said, “My baby liked to come home and play his game, be with his brothers, my heart so empty right now without my baby.”
Two other boys were also killed by their school Senn Highschool on there lunch break. One was named Monterio Williams. They were 17 and 16 years old. A vehicle pulled up and shot them both, the suspects who did this still have not been found. This shows that not only are people outside in Chicago is not safe. They are not safe by or inside their school either. School should be a safe place to go to. Instead its not very safe.
Violence around in Chicago
The violence in Chicago outside of school is even worse. A girl named Charity Johnson died on April 10th of 2023, she was shot and killed on the west side of North Lorel Avenue. She was only 14 years old and her birthday was just coming up. The Violence in Chicago is not only shootings theirs theft, carjacking’s, robberies, etc.
During the pandemic all of the crime went down. As soon as the pandemic got low the crime rate went back up. For example, in 2023, the rate of carjacking went up extremely high. Residents in their neighborhood say they’ve been hijacked more than once in this year. They never seen it happen this many times before.
The stuff that’s happening and has happened in Chicago is nothing new. It has been happening for years now. The violence needs to stop especially in the summer time. Different ways I think we could maybe stop or put an end to violence is by giving people and kids different activities to do in their community. People should come together more and stop resulting in violence to solve a problem.
That doesn’t help anything but leave people loved ones loss and families grieving. Half of the violence in Chicago is due to gangs over 61% of all the homicides in 2011 had something to do with gangs. The average of the kids in gangs is around 16 to 19, and the youngest ages are 13 and 14. It has been more people killed in Chicago than soldiers in Afghanistan the numbers are 419 to 259.
Police brutality
Police brutality is also another factor of violence in Chicago. Over 200 people had to be treated in the hospital due to law enforcement that’s supposed to serve and protect. The city taxpayer had to pay over $91.3 million to resolve the lawsuits and the issues of the police brutality.
Police brutality got out of control around the pandemic especially after the George Floyd situation happened. Protests started and Chicago got even more wild with crime they burned buildings down stole out all of the stores downtown and every where else.
Chicago was not the only city in united states doing this. An example of police brutality in Chicago is a 17 year old boy name Laquan McDonald. He was shot 16 times by a former officer named Jason Van Dyke. Laquan was walking down the street and he refused to put his knife down after that he launched at them.
This took place on Oct. 20, 2014, after it happened they found what Van Dyke did to be justifiable. He was not charged until the video of what he did was released. When it was released he was charged with second degree murder and their was a lot of protests that lead to his sentencing.
All of this shows that the violence in Chicago is really bad. People are not safe outside or in school, and not even with police that’s supposed to serve and protect us.
Written by Samaria Payton
Sources:
Wikipedia: George Floyd protests In Chicago
Wikipedia: Murder of Laquan McDonald
ABC News: Chicago gang Violence
Featured image Courtesy of Pedro Szekely‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Victoria Pickering Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
