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Chicago has been the American murder capital for 13 years in a row. According to Analysis with WirePoints573 murders took place in Chicago in 2024 at a rate of 21.5 murders per 100,000 people. These melancholy numbers far outweigh other major cities such as New York, Houston and Los Angeles.
However, most of the city leaders in Chicago may live in another plant. They refuse to see reality in all of their ugliness. After an unruly mob of more than 300 children recently took over Streeterville and the loop, Mayor Brandon Johnson said the solution is a more “safe space.” Who is a safe space for?
Anyone who knows Streeterville, home to the Navy Pier, knows it is one of the safest areas in all of Chicago. In fact, there were two shootings in March. Both were due to a large gathering of teenage mobs.
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That’s two shootings that would be hindered if the city had adopted the issue seriously. When Mayor Johnson first took office there was a three-night street takeover in the loop and nearby areas. A fellow Chicagoan and out-of-towner were assaulted. The windows were destroyed and stolen in the store.
When we raised collective rage at the time, Mayor Johnson disciplined us to “demonize children.” He continues, “They are young. Sometimes they make stupid decisions. They do. And we need to make sure that the young people are investing in making sure they know that they are supported.”
I didn’t see anything “silly” about the video showing these kids pounding innocent people on their heads. We also rejected the mayor’s false argument that he was making these children a demon. What made everyone angry was the behavior of these children, and they were allowed to continue for hours without law or order.
Obviously, this paranoid approach by the mayor is not working. Even he knows that. After the recent teenage mob practice, the mayor said he would not tolerate the action. But where is his solution? His plan?
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I never put my faith in him. I didn’t vote for him and was very disappointed when he won. Chicago knew he would continue his business as usual. Now I see more and more Chicagoans awaken to this mayor’s reality. Many of them betrayed their common sense and voted for him for identity politics. But the reality of horror shows that this mayor is too much for them to endure, especially children at risk.
Chicago residents tore Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (Reuters/Vincent Alban)
We know that the only way to reach young people is to get involved in their lives. I’ve been doing this work on the South for decades and I can tell you it works. It’s not perfect – I preached too many funerals for teens – but it saves many lives from the fate of a bullet.
It’s very easy to do. We talk to these kids and find out where they are, what their demons are, and let them know that we understand. We know they are targeted every day for membership in the gang, and we strive to counter it with the belief that they can become someone else’s body in the shots in American dreams.
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What we don’t do is provide these kids with a “safe space.” If violence still reigns outside the door, what is the point of a safe space? Instead, what we do is strive to make their community safer. That gives these children the peace of mind and freedom to focus on developing their skills and ambitions.
My community center, Project Hood, reduced the homicide rate in the Woodlawn neighborhood by 50% from 2021 to 2022.
Most of the kids running inside those mobs don’t have it. They are lost. They are sheep running wherever the mob takes them. They commit violence because they are everything they have to offer society in that moment. They are old in Black lives, and no one has enough people to refund the police and stop them. In other words, they know what they can and are pushing the limits of our society as much as they can.
Our mayors and most of our city leaders are guilty of indulging in these teenage mobs. They believe that these children can be safely turned into babies. But I can tell you that it’s not what these kids want. Many of them want to be important men or women. They want problems. But they don’t know how, because their parents have made them fail, their school has made them fail, their leader has made them fail, and now they are failing themselves.
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The only solution is to shock them into reality by showing that their actions have consequences. Mayor Brian Hopkins is calling for these young people to impose an 8pm curfew to help the Chicago Police Department grasp the issue. I personally go further and arrest people who are suspected of committing vandalism and battery directly. Lock them. I also hold my minor children legally accountable. There are no more excuses.
We need to regain reality, law, order and push these young people into the citizenship truck. Otherwise, this social contagion will only spread to other communities and we will soon pay the price for our whimsical youth.
For more information about Pastor Corey Brooks, click here
