Emergency room treatment–in addition to regular doctor bills, beefed up security in certain areas and the cost of incarceration, all contribute to the exorbitant amount–$2.5 billion–gun violence costs the city each year, according to a r
Emergency room treatment–in addition to regular doctor bills, beefed up security in certain areas and the cost of incarceration, all contribute to the exorbitant amount–$2.5 billion–gun violence costs the city each year, according to a recent study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab.
A total of 510 people were murdered in Chicago last year. Eighty percent were killed by guns, and nearly half were between the ages of 10 and 25. The vast majority were male, the study, Gun Violence Among School-Age Youth in Chicago, indicated.
From September 2007 to December 2008, 508 children were shot in the city.
Such violence tends to lead residents to relocate to the suburbs and incur the costs of a daily commute to the city for work. Other factors that also contribute to the $2.5 billion–or $2,500 per city household–cost as a result of gun violence in Chicago, Harold Pollack told the Defender. He is a professor at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the study.
As cited in the study, “the increase in homicides that Chicago experienced from 2007 to 2008 reduced the city’s population by nearly 5,000 people.”
When people are afraid to step up and tell who’s harboring firearms, that signals a problem. When assault rifles tend to be the weapon of choice among perpetrators, that signals a problem, said clergy and community leaders.
So what’s the solution?
To start, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said the “anti-snitching campaign” has to cease.
“We really need people to step up and speak up. We have to make sure people come forward and tell us what’s going on. These problems didn’t come overnight. This community has to come together,” Weis said.
If the community doesn’t step up, if the guns aren’t taken off the streets, if there aren’t stricter gun laws, Mayor Richard M. Daley said unfortunately, “you’re going to see more.”
“There are too many guns out there. There are too many younger people killing younger people all the times, day and night,” Daley said.
The Rev. Gregory Livingston of Rainbow/PUSH, who spoke recently outside of Bowen high school on the Southeast Side, said more afterschool activities, more employment opportunities and a ban on assault weapons is the long-term solution.
From January to February, 1,279 firearms were recovered; 61 of those were assault weapons. For the same period last year, 975 firearms were seized; 35 of those were assault weapons, according to the police department.
But immediate help is needed, Livingston said.
“We need a drastic change. This is a social crisis. We need a bandage until we find a cure,” he said.
Livingston urged for more “on the ground intervention” with groups like CeaseFire.
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In top photo: Kids Off The Block, a Roseland social service agency headed by Diane Latiker, maintain a memorial to some of the city’s victims of violence since 2007. Each of the 135 bricks of the memorial (Latiker said she is 15 behind), which stands at 11618 S. Michigan Ave., bears the name and age of a slain person.
In bottom photo: Parnell Pitts, left, and Shajuan Pitts hold giant photos of their brothers, Kendrick, 17, and Carnell, 18, at a memorial service held for the slain brothers Saturday at Rainbow/PUSH. A University of Chicago study indicates that gun violence, like what felled the Pitts brothers, costs the city $2.5 billion each year.
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