I was pondering. We all enjoy the weekly football scores from chicago. Some of us enjoy mocking the media by making jokes about “teens”. (Sorry to blacks about my prolific use of such jokes, they truly are directed at the media and their perpetual absurdities)...anyway, off topic. My question is how would this crisis be solved, realistically? Short of imposed curfews, how do you stop it? Putting hundreds of “teens” in jail is probably going to cause a very negative reaction with the residents. Then you get some bad kids off the street..then what?
“My question is how would this crisis be solved, realistically?”
This carnage is, in my opinion, a function of culture rather than prejudice - and a large part of the problem is that the powers-that-be focus on racial prejudice (which exists, but much less so than it did several decades ago) and ignore the consequences of a ghetto culture that hates the cops more than it hates the gangs (which are responsible for much of the shooting, though not all).
Until that’s reversed, (and Groot and the alder-creatures have no interest in doing so), the murder and mayhem will continue and probably increase.
Were I to run for mayor (that’s a joke by the way) I’d give each neighborhood or police district a vote providing the option to continue with things as usual, or to impose restrictions resembling those in martial law, usually associated with extreme circumstances (if you want to consider 800+ murders a year extreme). Those restrictions would include any or all from the following menu: a curfew for those under a given age (19 or 21 or 25, whatever, take your pick; stop-and-frisk priveleges for law enforcement; prohibition of gathering of more than a given number of youths in the absence of adult supervision; and the like. I’m sure the cops could come up with others.
Even if approved in a given ‘kill zone’ (Englewood, Austin, Garfield Park, South Shore, Lawndale all come to mind), such actions would be opposed by the ACLU (from their safe enclaves in the burbs) and by some community activists (in the free-fire zones). And they might not pass legal muster - I have no idea. But short of a religious revival of blblical proportions, I can’t see anything else working.