Rising Gun Crime and Gang Violence Issue

Chicago is a city in Illinois in the United States. Chicago is famous for its gangs in the souther suburb areas. Nowadays, there are 59 active street gangs all around the community of Chicago.

Introduction

Polices are estimating that there are around 100,000 gang members in the city. Furthermore, 80 suburban police department responded to a Chicago Crime Commission survey that there are gangs in their communities. The biggest three gangs are the Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and the Black P Stones. Emily Badger said that “Today, more poor people live in the suburbs (16.

4 million of them) than in U.S. cities (13.4 million), despite the perception that poverty remains a uniquely urban problem.” This was a huge factor of the number of increase in gangs it because it makes it easier for these youngsters to get hung up on the fake promises of a fascinating lifestyle and for older gang members to step into the mentor role.

The Southern Suburbs of Chicago

There are gangs all around the community of the south suburbs of Chicago.

Everywhere you go there are gang members carrying guns and weapons. It is very normal in this area to see this kind of situation in these areas. There are drive-by shooting when they shoot people that are driving by through the window. Furthermore, every night the gangs come out to the street and start to shoot. By reason of this, people living in the south suburb of Chicago had to must stay home after 10 o’clock and sometimes they even slept in the bathroom.

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In addition, sometimes gangs fight against another gang to rank which gang is the most powerful. This makes the other people feel scared and frightened. Kids were under security of police officers when going to school and people mostly stayed inside then moving around.

Most of the people that are living in the Southern Suburbs of Chicago are traumatized. Everybody is going through psychological trauma and things that they are doing and being a member of the gang is how they cope with what they are going through. Also, some young people felt that they are outsiders, and the society doesn’t want them in so they created their own economy underground. They control buildings across the city and have wars between each gang to expand their criminal enterprises.

Growing Anger Towards the Police

In November 22, 2014 in Cleveland, Ohio a 12 year-old African American boy Tamir Rice was shot by a policeman for carrying a fake pistol. This all started when two police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback recieved a police dispatch call that a black male is “keep pulling a gun out of his pants and pointing at people.” Later, soon in a call he said that the pistol is fake. However, this Loehmann and Garmback didn’t receive this information. After, the two police officers arrived at the spot, they asked Tamir to show his hands continuously but he was not doing what they asked him to do. Therefore, they shot him twice, hitting him once in the torso. As a consequence of this, many people had a growing anger against the police. Fatal police shooting of Harith Augustus leaves community in anger, anguish, searching for answers

A similar incident happened in the same year. The murder of Laquan McDonalds happened in October 20th, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. The victim Laquan McDonalds was a 17 year old African American and he was fatally shot by a Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. Laquan McDonald was reported the he was walking down the street holding a folding knife that is about a three-inch blade. Initially, the internal police report similarly described the incident to determine the justification for shooting, and then Van Dyke was not prosecuted in shooting. However, thirteen month after this incident which was November 24, 2015, Jason Van Dyke was charged with second degree murder and sent to prison for more than six years for shooting Laquan McDonald. A black teenager killed by a white police officer has sparked public outrage in the country’s third largest city and beyond.

Rising Violent Attacks in the UK

According to ASTI, the Acid Survivors Trust International, UK is one of the countries with the highest rate of acid attacks in the world. In 2016, there were over 601 acid attacks that happened in the UK. Further on, over the past five years, there were over 1,200 cases of acid attackes recorded. In the six months of 2017, where were more than 400 incidents repored, which was regarded as the worst ever year of the acid attacks. Polices’ said that around two acid attacks a day occur in the UK in 2016 and leaving 472 attacks in London alone. Eventually, the country’s relationship with this malicious attack was notorious around the world.

In 2017, it was found that most acid attacks were aimed at women by men, mostly to do with rejecting marriage proposals or sexual advances. However, unlike other acid incidents, acid attacks in the UK were predominantly male-on-male and – according to former members and police – related to gang activity.

Criminologists believe that the gang members are probably trading guns and knives with acids as a weapon because possession is hard to monitor, but the impact on the victims are devastating. Dr Simon Harding, a criminologist and expert on gangs at Middlesex University said that acid is becoming the weapon of first choice because ‘Acid throwing is a way of showing dominance, power and control, building enormous fear among gang peer groups.”

UK Teenager Jailed for 17 Years Over Fatal Acid Attack

A teenager has been jailed for 17 years for throwing acid at a mother who died 11 days later.

Joanne Rand was visiting the grave of her daughter, that was killed by a car crash in in Frogmoor, High Wycombe on June 3 2017. After her visit of the grave, Rand was sitting on a bench in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire when a 19 year old teenager Xeneral Webster threw a industrial-strength sulphuric acid to her face and body.

Rand immediately dashed in a nearby KFC store and splashed wash over her face. Soon, she was sent to the hospital and got treatment for her face, arms, upper body and lower legs. However, unfortunately Joanne Rand died after 11 days because of multiple organ failure after contracting septicaemia due to the burns. Consequently, Xeneral Webster was sent to jail for 15 years after this acid attack.

The Possible Solutions

It takes a lot of courage and you need to be brave to stop the young people from committing gun crimes an acid attacks. Some communities has violence interrupters that goes and prevent violences before they happen. Lee is one of the violence interrupter in the South Suburbs of Chicago. He was a former gang member but he decided to protect his city after he served in jail for 15 years. As a violence interrupter, whenever he bears witness he would go and calm them down and talk with them.

There are some things that schools do in an attempt to block . They create school programs that focuses on identifying gang members, removing graffiti, resolving potential conflicts among gang members, and providing parents with information on gangs. Some schools have dress codes that will prevent the gang members from wearing gang colors and increased their security to close there school to prevent students from getting recruited by the gang members. In some instances, schools use metal detectors to screen weapons at outdoor stadiums and after-school sporting events.

According to ASTi the Acid Survivors Trust International, they say that the way to stop acid attack is by “implementing law around the acid violence against women and girls.” Secondly, they suggested not to go out on the streets alone if you are especially a girl because it is easy for you to be the target of the attack. Lastly, they say “educating and working with young boys and girls promoting respectful relationships and gender equality” can also be a way to stop the acid attacks.