Residents of North Chicago, Waukegan and around Lake County shared their concerns and ideas for addressing gun violence in an emergency town hall with elected officials in North Chicago on Thursday.
The meeting lasted roughly three hours as more than 15 community members addressed at least 100 attendees and a panel that included Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart, Waukegan-based gun violence prevention activists Anthony McIntyre and George Moore Jr. and the police chiefs of North Chicago, Waukegan and Zion.
North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. thanked Rinehart and the community for turning out, and expressed his support for a gun violence prevention initiative Rinehart’s office announced in June, which is expected to launch this month.
“I think all the mayors here are supportive of whatever effort you put together to stop this violence,” Rockingham said. “To our chiefs that are here, I know you’ve got a tough job. It is a tough job and I thank you.”
A slew of local elected officials, including Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, Zion Mayor Billy McKinney, Lake County Board members Angelo Kyle, Mary Ross Cunningham, Gina Roberts and Sandy Hart, all looked on as community members spoke.
Waukegan resident Ray Edwards implored power brokers in politics and law enforcement to truly listen to what residents are telling them about the gun violence they face.
“We’re not used to (meetings like) this,” Edwards said. “We’re used to being told to do something, sit down and shut up. That’s what’s been going on year after year after year, which is why we’re here right now today.”
Edwards recalled growing up in Waukegan and not having to worry about gun violence while “sitting at the (gas) station at the pump or at the grocery store.
“Stop coming to our communities telling us what you’re going to do,” Edwards said. “Come in our communities and ask us what we need.”
Edwards said a lack of investment and maintenance in the local school systems has fed into the status quo.
“You want to fix the violence in the community? Start with the school systems. Nobody has paid attention,” he said.
Leatrice Haynes, the mother of LaDarius Cowart, an 18-year-old from Gurnee who was murdered in Waukegan’s Bowen Park last summer, implored officials to act decisively.
“Reach these kids,” she said. “I don’t know if they meant to hit (my son) because the person that pulled that gun didn’t say, ‘I’m going to shoot and hit somebody so I can damage their life, damage their family’s life. I don’t believe that. But it’s what happened.”
McIntyre emphasized the importance of different local factions casting aside their differences of opinion and uniting in response.
“I’m telling you, if we don’t come together as a unit and start working together collectively to address these things, everybody is working against one another,” McIntyre said.
He and Moore are already doing violence interruption work independently of the upcoming gun violence prevention initiative, although both men are supportive of the program.
More Top Picks Best Burger Presses
Knizhnik said the initiative will name a community-based organization to hire a team of 10-12 violence interrupters in a “few weeks.”
The initiative is using $1.06 million allocated by the Lake County Board through American Rescue Plan Act funds and the board’s budget, and has secured funding for multiple years, according to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office.
McIntyre started Switch Lanes, and later, the Antmound Foundation after serving more than 19 years in prison, and he uses his own experience as a former gang member to try de-escalate situations where people may be considering resorting to gun violence.
McIntyre also criticized the inability of politicians on both sides of the aisle to adequately address gun violence that disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities in the country and in Lake County.
“We can’t talk about gangbanging in the streets when you see Democrats and Republicans gangbanging more than anybody else,” McIntyre said. “As much as you complain and talk about (gangs), go look in the mirror somewhere. And if you do, you probably would be a little bit more quiet or you would see them just as you see yourselves and treat them like you treat yourselves.”
Moore spoke about how his organization has been working to prevent instances of retaliatory gun violence, and similarly to McIntyre, how he and his organization work to de-escalate tensions when people are reeling from violence or are at a heightened risk.
“Know the demographic and be on-site,” Moore said. “At a hospital, when there’s a gun shooting victim, get there, talk to them. Any retaliation, talk to the families prior to that. If it’s a heated situation in certain areas, we want to be there on-site to talk to them and possibly mediate. That is how you can possibly prevent violence.”
McIntyre told the crowd that he and Moore haven’t always worked together in the past, but that they now recognize the importance of an all-hands-on-deck response.
Clyde McLemore, who leads the Lake County chapter of Black Lives Matter, said the communities of North Chicago, Waukegan and Zion need similar amounts of aid as Highland Park has received since a gunman killed seven people at the city’s Fourth of July parade.
“We stand and empathize with Highland Park,” McLemore said. “We understand the pain of loss and the trauma all too well. The horrible situation, but I’m thankful it was isolated. For Black and Brown communities, gun violence is daily. The trauma is ongoing. How do we get the same resources and support?”
Authorities and residents alike have raised alarms over incidents of gun violence this summer. Residents in Waukegan held an anti-violence march in June, and Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor pleaded for action to address gun violence that “tears families apart” at last week’s Waukegan City Council meeting.
In an earlier interview with the News-Sun, gun violence prevention initiative chair Sara Knizhnik said violence interrupters are uniquely qualified professionals who should be recognized and invested in.
“For this type of nonviolence work it’s very important to have people who have ties in the community,” Knizhnik said. “That’s why only certain people can do violence interruption work effectively. They leverage the credibility they have in their own communities, the fact that people trust them. It’s a very special group of people who are qualified to do this work and we are striving to create a program and put processes in place that really support them as the professionals they are.”
She said they go about their work without the protections and equipment that law enforcement carry on the job and “put their lives on the line in order to do this work.”
“They have no bulletproof vests,” Knizhnik said. “They do not carry weapons to defend themselves.”
Rinehart echoed the calls from community members about addressing causes of gun violence, rather than simply reacting to it.
“My interest in this is that if the police are already investigating a shooting, then we’re already at the end of the story,” Rinehart told the News-Sun. “And the goal for violence interruption and for a broad approach to violence reduction is to get to the beginning of the story.”
“We need to be talking in schools, we need to have legitimacy in the community and we need to connect all of our fantastic community organizations in a directed effort to essentially saturate people who are at risk with services and in risk with services and support,” he added.
Knizhnik believes communities all around Lake County will benefit from the initiative’s work in North Chicago, Waukegan and Zion.
“One of the key things people everywhere need to understand is violence doesn’t respect borders, socioeconomic borders on a map, any kind of border,” she said. “When we support in a meaningful way, in a way that allows violence prevention work to be sustained and when we treat these violence interrupters, street outreach folks as the professionals that they are, we all win even if we don’t live in their neighborhood or community. That’s really a narrow way of making a bigger point which is unless we recognize that we’re all in this together.”