Even for a city inured to horrific violence, the shooting death of Jai’mani Amir Rivera Tuesday afternoon was a shock. On a hot summer’s day, the 7-year-old was walking to a neighbor’s house when a bullet from an assault-style rifle shot from a distance struck him in the chest. If he’d left his house five minutes earlier or later, presumably Jai’mani would be with us still. Such is the randomness of life and death in a city where the bullets fly all too often.
Police Superintendent Larry Snelling hesitated to confirm the killing was gang-related, although he did say police had no reason to believe Jai’mani was targeted. At this early stage, Jai’mani appears to have been an unintended victim of someone shooting at someone or something else. Finding the cause, of course, does not bring this dead Chicago child back to life.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and Snelling briefed reporters afterward, and both appeared shaken by what happened. The act was so appalling that even Johnson, who most of the time cites systemic reasons for why so many in this city have so little regard for human life, called for some level of personal responsibility for these all-too-common outrages.
He said we’ve “reached a breaking point in this city,” and spoke well from there. “This is about course correcting ways of life of some individuals in this city who’ve caused terror, trauma and torment,” he said. “We hold individuals accountable.”
As well we should.
Making Chicago safer — particularly parts of the city like Jai’mani’s neighborhood in the shadow of the United Center — requires an array of strategies and resources, some of them law-enforcement-related and others more proactive, such as the violence-interruption groups that are winning meaningful funding support from private and nonprofit sources.
Johnson, when he is forced to discuss his unacceptably crime-ridden city, talks most often about how more “investment” in such neighborhoods will reduce violence. For sure. But accountability and consequences — severe ones in the case of those who would shoot at 7-year-old Chicagoans — have to be part of any solution. Perhaps Johnson at last is seeing that reality in Jai’mani’s death.
Rhetoric goes only so far, though. When it comes to reducing crime in Chicago, what Johnson and Snelling are doing so far isn’t working no matter how frequently they point to statistics showing homicides and shootings are down from last year.
By any common-sense measure, this is not a remotely “safe” city. Residents believe crime is by far the top issue on Johnson’s plate. Many of them, we’re sure, roll their eyes when they hear the mayor and his police chief brag about a modestly lower murder rate when we’re not even halfway through the year and just beginning the traditionally violent summer months, which look set to be especially hot this year.
Even before Tuesday, Chicago had suffered through a Father’s Day weekend in which more than 70 were shot and eight were killed by gunfire. Was there any acknowledgement of that on Monday by the mayor? Not a word.
The first order of business in attacking the No. 1 issue for Chicagoans is to treat violent crime as a crisis. The mayor should resist the urge to repeatedly cite statistics that soft-pedal the unacceptable reality. He’s not the first mayor to turn to stats to try to convince Chicagoans that they should feel safe on city streets. But he won’t be any more successful doing so than his predecessors were. We hope he’ll stop.
The second priority is to admit that the strategies being deployed right now mostly aren’t working. The public would be far more reassured if city leaders acknowledged the obvious — this is a crisis; it’s not getting better — and pledge convincingly to change course. Policing is a part of this needed change, of course. But, as Snelling correctly says, the cops can’t solve this problem alone.
On Tuesday, Snelling came as close as he has since assuming the top job to accusing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office and the local judiciary of making matters worse.
“When we arrest people for violent crimes, we have to prosecute them,” he said, to many people’s surprise. “We have to keep them off the street. We cannot allow offenders to go back on the street. This is not only frustrating to the Chicago Police Department; it is not only frustrating when we know we’ve arrested someone who’s committed a violent act and they’re right back out again; it’s frustrating to members of our community.”
The prevailing progressive ethos of second, third and fourth chances for violent criminals is wearing thin on a public grown more than tired of feeling vulnerable as they they walk city streets. Thankfully, we’ll have a new state’s attorney soon, and whether Democrat Eileen O’Neill Burke or Republican Bob Fioretti, they will need to work far more effectively with Chicago police.
Johnson said “we’re not pointing a finger at anybody,” on Tuesday. Yes, by all means, point some fingers, Mr. Mayor. Start with the street gangs that are the source of much of the worst violence. If no one is to blame, then it’s impossible to hold anyone accountable.
In addition, Johnson on Tuesday chided those who resist his tax-and-spend solutions. “It’s unfortunate we have people fighting my administration against the investments we are working to make,” he said, and then weirdly announced that “our parks are open.” The naïvete that Chicago’s park system, as expansive and impressive as it is, is somehow part of a solution to gang violence isn’t reassuring to an anxious public seeking answers.
Budgetary realities are a fact of life, whether for households, businesses or municipal governments. You have to do your best with what you have available. And, regardless of the fate of Johnson’s broader agenda, the mayor badly needs a short-term approach to deal with the violent crime crisis, even if his longer-term approach of giving would-be criminals a better alternative to their lifestyle eventually comes to fruition.
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