Pfleger leads South Side anti-violence march: ‘Our children need to see us outside’

Mayor Lori Lightfoot joined the Rev. Michael Pfleger and hundreds of anti-violence activists Friday night for the outspoken priest’s annual anti-violence march through Gresham, rallying for citywide peace as shootings in Chicago tick upward along with the rising temperatures.

“We must teach our young people different ways to resolve disputes. We must teach our young people that this growing community of victims is not a place where they want to be,” Lightfoot said on the steps of Saint Sabina Church.

“The most powerful tool that we have to make sure that our young people grow up in a world where fear is not their norm ... is everyone in every neighborhood reclaiming the territory under your feet and saying, ‘We will not shelter the people who wreak havoc and chaos in our streets. We will not give them sanctuary.’”

Shootings and homicides through last month had dropped precipitously compared to recent years, according to Chicago Police Department data, but the first few weeks of consistently higher temperatures have brought with them Chicago’s regular surge in warm-weather violence.

Nearly 115 people have been shot across the city since the start of this month. That includes the worst weekend of violence so far this year; from May 31 through June 2, eight people were killed and 44 wounded in shootings. Last weekend, 39 people were shot, leaving three dead.

Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times

“Our children need to feel safe, and our children need to be safe,” Pfleger said. “We’ve got to declare our blocks to be safety zones, where the violence will not be tolerated. We must come out on our porches, come out in front of our houses. Our children need to see us outside, so they know we’re there to support them and protect them.”

With a full marching percussion section and a PA blaring tunes, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx marched alongside Pfleger as more than 500 chanting, dancing participants brought 79th Street to a halt, calling for guns to drop.

Police have boosted patrols in anticipation of the yearly surge in shootings. One of police Supt. Eddie Johnson’s top deputies drew the ire of Lightfoot earlier this month by taking a scheduled vacation despite the new mayor’s insistence that police brass stay on the job during the busy summer months.

Scattered raindrops at the end of the rally hinted Mother Nature could give the mayor, police and community members a hand in tamping down weekend shooting numbers. There was at least a 40% chance of rain for most of the city through Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times

Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times