Emanuel confident police will keep city safe
This weekend concern is up about the violent attacks in downtown Chicago. In the last week alone, dozens of arrests have been made but the attacks continue to happen. They often involve large groups of youngsters.
In a press conference on Friday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that police can keep the whole city safe.
He said, "I'm confident as it relates to not just this weekend, but during the week and every weekend in every neighborhood. And that we have a strategy of putting police on the street which is where we need to put those resources."
Emanuel says additional police and undercover officers are being deployed downtown. Many of the assaults and robberies happened near the Michigan Avenue shops and in broad daylight.
Cops and Neighbors: Explaining the divide between police and the community
Summer’s coming, which can lead to a rise in the temperature of violence in some Chicago communities-- a spike that could cause further distrust between cops and residents, especially kids. In a one-hour WBEZ special, Cops and Neighbors, hosts Steve Edwards and Richard Steele present a wide-range of community views—people and police—on what divides them and what can be done to solve it.
Edwards began on the South Side of Chicago at Kenwood Academy High School in Mr. A’s Global Issues class. He asked the room of about 25 high-achieving, mostly junior and senior-class students if they would feel comfortable sharing information about a crime with a police officer. Only three, or four at most, said they would volunteer information to help an officer solve a crime.
Chicago now has a new mayor and police superintendent. And even though crime rates in the city are down from historic highs, Chicago’s rates continue to surpass those in other big cities like New York and Toronto. Numbers aside, many Chicago communities can still feel like war zones.
Earlier this spring, WBEZ obtained a video that appeared to show Chicago police officers deliberately parking their vehicle in the middle of a Chicago street while allowing a crowd of bystanders to taunt the backseat passenger. The specific circumstances of the video are still unclear, but the police department said the behavior in the video did not reflect the department’s values and its Office of Internal Affairs is investigating the incident. The video unleashed a wave of public response; people shared their experiences with the police with WBEZ.
Edwards spoke to "Ray," a top leader of a Chicago street gang. Despite Ray’s gang experiences, he expressed sympathy for Chicago cops and the daily grind they endure. In fact, Ray said one of the current problems is that too much is expected of cops—they’re expected to be social workers, counselors, teachers, mentors—which he said, has its consequences.
Today, Azim Ramelize is assistant commissioner for the City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services. But years ago, as a kid growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was a member of a street gang. He explained that while there was always a lack of trust in the police within the community, ultimately they were still the people called when things went wrong. The dichotomy, Ramelize said, is driven by those who terrorize communities.
This breakdown of trust has real consequences for a community and its police force.
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