Pain, Progress And Lessons Learned From Chicago Peace Surge

By Starla Muhammad -Managing Editor- | Last updated: Sep 14, 2016 - 10:30:37 AM

Chicago area youth call for peace in the streets and to stop the violence. Photos: Haroon Rajaee

CHICAGO—Labor Day weekend in Chicago was again marred by gunfire and death but a glimmer of optimism and hope shined through in one area of the city that local activists pointed to as an example of what can be done to address the cycle of violence that is all too common on the South and West Sides.

At least 65 people were shot, 13 fatally Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2-6) which is generally a time that most notably marks the winding down of summer fun before students head back to school. Victims varied and included teenagers, young adults and an 80-year-old man. Last year, Labor Day weekend saw 46 wounded and nine killed. At Final Call presstime there were a reported 2,959 people shot in Chicago so far this year compared to 2,988 for all of 2015.

Several grassroots organizations and community groups worked tirelessly with little to no money and resources to try and quell potential violence during the weekend as part of the Chicago Community Peace Surge. Their efforts were also in response to a memo released earlier in the summer from the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police urging its members to avoid working mandatory overtime during that weekend.

The objective, explained surge organizers was to concentrate on preventative efforts in 10 high crime areas of the city where residents and volunteers would engage in community outreach by picking up trash, engaging in positive activities with youth, talking with local business owners and residents and cooking food to give away. Men, women, young adults and children participated.

Phillip Jackson (middle), a long-time Chicago activist and founder of The Million Father March has been active in working with and educating Black and Latino youth and working for solutions to violence that plagues the city.

Left to right: Minister Floyd Robert Plump, T.J. Crawford, Loren Taylor, Student Minister Jeffrey Muhammad, Daniel X and Phillip Jackson. Photo: Starla Muhammad

“I want to congratulate the men behind me who worked and who were successful at keeping violence down during the past Labor Day Weekend, and it’s hard to see those numbers, 66 shot, 14 killed here in Chicago and say, ‘You kept it down?’ We absolutely did,” Phillip Jackson executive director of The Black Star Project said during a Sept. 8 press conference. He was joined by other Community Peace Surge coordinators.

“We’re not claiming victory. We’re saying that we did the work and there’s a lot more work that needs to be done.”
While the overall goals fell short in terms of preventing violence throughout all areas and the frustration about the ongoing violence was evident, activists vowed to continue their work. But, they are pleading for help from residents that sincerely desire to see changes.

Jeffrey Muhammad, co-chair of the Chicago Justice or Else Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and a peace surge coordinator said groups with a proven track record and history of implementing effective programs and engaging in transformative, redemptive and educational community work should be allocated the necessary and available resources to do what needs to be done.

A male member of the Nation of Islam greets resident.

“If the citizens of Chicago, the city government of Chicago and those with proper resources in Chicago would distribute and allocate those resources to organizations … then what we were able to accomplish with the permission of God, if given more help we could help to stem the murder and crime rate in Chicago,” said Mr. Muhammad.
“If more people cared versus watching television, if more people came out versus talking about it, if more people wanted to be active in the peace surge versus talking about the murder rate then we can drop the murder rate in Chicago,” added Mr. Muhammad who also serves as student minister in the Nation of Islam.

Loren Taylor, a volunteer with The Black Star Project and the Chicago Justice or Else LOC monitored and compiled stats from the weekend. “The single most important finding that came out of the data is that the Community Peace Surge was most effective in those areas where we had an already existing partnership with an organization that was doing ongoing work that was taking place before the peace surge, was intended to take place after the peace surge and quite likely would have happened anyway. We just came in to enhance it,” said Mr. Taylor.

Organizers pointed to the South Side area of Chatham, where they and other groups have been working for several months, as a bright spot amid the dismal news of Labor Day weekend violence. There were no shootings or homicides in Chatham during the weekend organizers said, which points to progress and work local groups are doing there is paying off.

Daniel X of the 10,000 Fearless and T.J. Crawford of Breaking Bread shared that during the past several months, they along with other activists, have worked extensively in Chatham.

“Leading up to the Community Peace Surge, we started off on Friday evenings by conducting our ‘Fearless Fridays’ which is what we do every Friday. We go out and engage the people directly, we pass out information, we shake hands, we wave, we do all of these things as a group of community activists and individuals from the community actually participate,” said Daniel X.

Officer Kevin Quaid of the public affairs office of the Chicago Police Department confirmed in a telephone call with The Final Call that there were no homicides in Chatham during Labor Day weekend and only one shooting he said that occurred in the wee hours of Friday morning, Sept. 2. Organizers did not include that incident in their statistics because the alleged victim reportedly crashed his vehicle near the area and then reported he had been shot in Chatham.

Mini chess tournaments, street corner hip hop and spoken word cyphers, martial arts demonstrations and neighborhood clean-ups were just some of the activities that took place in Chatham.

Organizers presented a list of 20 “lessons” they learned from the weekend.

“Number one, you’ve got to have critical infrastructure; you’ve got to have standing institutions addressing this problem. You cannot just pop up as we do in Chicago with policemen a week before a violent holiday and say ‘we’re going to protect the city.’ It doesn’t work,” said Mr. Jackson.

Activists vow to continue working to address the violence in Chicago and understand it will take a concerted and unified effort. The Community Peace Surge cannot be a one-time event, they stressed.

For more information about the efforts of the Chicago Community Peace Surge and to get involved, call 312-610-7787 or visit CommunityPeaceSurge.org.

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