On the street with Lightfoot: Mayor seeks light on Chicago violence after dark

It was the second 24 hours of the Independence Day weekend, a hot Friday night when anything can happen. We caught up with Mayor Lori Lightfoot on a periodic appointment during her first seven weeks — visiting violence-plagued communities after dark, seeking insight on Chicago violence from those wrestling with it.

SHARE On the street with Lightfoot: Mayor seeks light on Chicago violence after dark
Lead_Photo1.jpg

Escorted by Englewood District Commander Roderick Robinson (left) and CPD Patrol Bureau Chief Fred Waller, Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits the Englewood District police station on a Friday night, the day after the Fourth of July. Englewood ranked 3rd in most murders per capita last year.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

It’s a hot summer night in the inner city, a holiday weekend when anything can happen.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s black SUV is cruising through the Southwest Side Back of the Yards neighborhood. It’s Friday, just before dusk on the day after Independence Day.

Logo for the Chicago Chronicles

Back of the Yards, in the New City community, is an area that once boasted plenty of jobs within ample stockyards that were the largest in the nation.

Today, nearly 40% of its population lives below the poverty level.

And last year, it ranked no. 20 among the city’s 77 communities for most murders per capita.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits the San Miguel School Community Center

Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits community members holding an all-night campout at the Increase The Peace anti-violence initiative at the San Miguel School Community Center in violence-plagued Back of the Yards, the Friday after the Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Lightfoot’s SUV pulls up outside a community center on the corner at 1954 W. 48th St.

Opened October 2017, it belongs to San Miguel School, run by Christian Brothers of the Midwest, which had long struggled to raise money to rehab what had been a vacant space.

Partnering with St. Michael the Archangel Church, they rehabbed the space into a much-needed activity center for school and neighborhood youth as the city contended in 2016 with record violence that hit poorest neighborhoods hardest.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot takes photos with families at the San Miguel School Community Center in violence-plagued Back of the Yards, the Friday after 4th of July. | Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Mayor Lori Lightfoot takes photos with families while visiting the Increase The Peace anti-violence initiative, an all-night campout at the San Miguel School Community Center in violence-plagued Back of the Yards, the Friday after the Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

This has become a periodic outreach during Lightfoot’s first seven weeks — to visit violence-plagued communities after dark at the invitation of one community group or another, meeting with police on the beat.

Her mission: seeking insight on Chicago’s seemingly intractable gun violence.

Fourth of July, of course, brought another bloody holiday weekend: 6 killed, 66 injured.

IMG_5757.jpg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot grabs a hot dog while visiting community members holding an all-night campout at the Increase The Peace anti-violence initiative at the San Miguel School Community Center on the Friday after the Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Out front of the community center, a teen twirls on his head in mind-boggling break dance.

Families line up for hot dogs from steaming aluminum pans on long tables against the bright-hued, muraled walls. Other tables offer info on community help for various needs.

Inside, Lightfoot is escorted by youth leaders of Increase the Peace, formed in response to an Oct. 1, 2016, gang shooting that claimed the life of college-bound Curie High School senior Naome Zuber — by a stray bullet — as she rode in the back seat of a car.

IMG_5722.jpg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens to Tywone Milton, 15, talk about the violence in his community at an all-night campout at the Increase The Peace anti-violence initiative at the San Miguel School Community Center in violence-plagued Back of the Yards.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Backed by groups like The Resurrection Project, the youth hold anti-violence marches and camp-outs like this one in the summer — with games, music and food that goes all night, their effort to reclaim the potentially perilous night hours that can bring gang terror.

Wedged into middle school cafeteria benches, Lightfoot gets her insight talking with about a dozen teens.

So why do you think youths pick up guns, become shooters, she asks them.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot chats with about a dozen youths, seeking their perspective on why young adults pick up guns or become shooters.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot chats with about a dozen youths, seeking their perspective on why young adults pick up guns or become shooters during an all-night campout at the Increase The Peace anti-violence initiative the Friday after the Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

What follows is poignant and raw conversation.

To feel powerful. Lack of support from family. No one cares. Nothing else to do. Bullying. Lack of safety. Protection from other gangs. Lack of jobs. Lure of money or the good life. What else is there in this neighborhood?

It’s all taken in. Lightfoot promises to do better by them.

Maria Benitez, 19, a student at Georgetown University who is home for the summer, tells Mayor Lori Lightfoot about her brother, who got involved in gangs and was incarcerated for shooting someone.

Maria Benitez, 19, a student at Georgetown University who is home for the summer, tells Mayor Lori Lightfoot about her brother, who got involved in gangs and was incarcerated for shooting someone. The mayor visited the San Miguel School Community Center in violence-plagued Back of the Yards last Friday night.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Moving through the community center, she is mobbed in the gym. It’s not kids so much seeking to chat and take photos. It’s their parents.

Back of the Yards is predominantly Hispanic, 66%; 27% African American.

Nearly half the population lacks a high school diploma.

And about 80% of 16- to 19-year-olds here are jobless; as well as half of the 20- to 24-year-old age group.

Families said it is rare to see the mayor out in their ‘hood at night.

IMG_5745.jpg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot takes photos with families while visiting the Increase The Peace anti-violence initiative, an all-night campout at the San Miguel School Community Center in violence-plagued Back of the Yards.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Lightfoot tells them hard-working families shouldn’t be held hostage to gang violence, talks efforts to reclaim the streets, get guns out of their neighborhood, create more safe spaces like this.

She is in line with others, grabbing a hot dog, mustard — her preference; grabs a Coke with it.

She strolls and chats with the families, who show her the mural created in an initiative that is helping the youth see themselves as agents of change.

Used_photo7.jpg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot talks with community members at the San Miguel School Community Center in violence-plagued Back of the Yards on the Friday after Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Change, at least, has come in the form of a new 20th Ward alderman.

Former Ald. Willie Cochran was sentenced last month in wire fraud for stealing from a charitable fund set up to help youths and families in the ward, spending it on a gambling habit and personal expenses.

Three of the last four aldermen of the ward that includes parts of Canaryville, Washington Park and Englewood have been imprisoned.

IMG_5729.jpg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot takes photos with youth leaders of the Increase The Peace anti-violence initiative, while visiting their all-night campout at the San Miguel School Community Center in Back of the Yards last Friday.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Clutching her hot dog and Coke, the mayor bids adieu, climbs back into the black SUV.

Cruising past the vacant lots and boarded-up buildings, small businesses protected by thick iron bars, lovingly tended, decade-old homes, and an abundance of liquor stores and storefront churches, she is heading further south.

Lightfoot arrives at the police station at 1438 W. 63rd St. — the Englewood District, the neighboring community that ranked 3rd last year for murders — no. 1 was West Garfield Park, no. 2, North Lawndale.

IMG_5842.jpg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot arrives at the Englewood District Chicago Police station to visit beat officers at roll call on a Friday night, the day after the Fourth of July. Englewood ranked 3rd in most murders per capita last year. | Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Her first destination here: roll call with beat officers.

The mayor ensured over 1,500 additional officers were scheduled to work overtime or on adjusted schedules last weekend — as did former Mayor Rahm Emanuel last year.

The result? Nearly the same: 2018 saw 10 killed and 58 wounded.

Used_photo3.jpg

A police officer stands guard outside the roll call room where Mayor Lori Lightfoot was visiting beat officers at the Englewood District police station before they headed out on a Friday night, the day after Fourth of July. Englewood ranked 3rd in most murders per capita last year.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Lightfoot heads upstairs, escorted by CPD Patrol Bureau Chief Fred Waller and Englewood District Commander Roderick Robinson, then down the hall, to where officers have gathered.

Robinson gives the night’s pep talk. There are congratulations for the 13 guns recovered the day before — many confiscated at Fourth of July parties.

Waller follows with another pep talk.

Lead_Photo2.jpg

Englewood District Commander Roderick Robinson (right) gives a room full of beat officers a nightly report and pep talk during Friday night roll call the day after Fourth of July at the Englewood District police station, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPD Patrol Bureau Chief Fred Waller listen.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Now it is Lightfoot’s turn to address them. It’s a tough crowd, serious and attentive, faces purposely blank, unreadable.

The mayor thanks the men and women about to put their lives on the line on this, one of the most dangerous weekends of the year in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago.

She ends as Robinson and Waller did: “Be safe out there.”

Lead_Photo_3.jpg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot talks to a room full of beat officers during Friday night roll call at the Englewood District police station as CPD Patrol Bureau Chief Fred Waller and Englewood District Commander Roderick Robinson look on.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

The mayor leaves. It’s back down the hall with the commander and bureau chief.

Behind her, officers file out, in hushed voices. There are knowing looks. They return to routine, signing out stun guns, radios.

Partners pair off, and a sea of blue files out of the building into squad cars, SUVs, prisoner transport vehicles.

IMG_5813.jpg

Englewood District police officers at the station sign out stun guns and radios before hitting the streets the day after the Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

The mayor is outside now, at her SUV. But she isn’t getting in. She’s retrieving her things from inside.

A police SUV sits parallell, idling.

A couple of African American officers approach. There are smiles, whispered encouragement. One takes a photo with her.

Used_photo11.jpg

An Englewood District police officer takes a photo with Mayor Lori Lightfoot after she visited the Friday night roll call at the district’s police station the day after the Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Jacket and bottled water in hand, Lightfoot wipes the sweat from a furrowed brow, turns and walks away.

Wedged into the rear of a police SUV, Lightfoot this time will get her insight from the police taking her on a ride-along of their beat this night.

The police SUV lights flash blue, and it pulls off, taking the mayor deep into the night.

Used_photo12.jpg

After visiting the Friday night roll call at the Englewood District station, Mayor Lori Lightfoot heads to a police SUV to accompany officers on a ride-along on the beat the Friday night after the Fourth of July.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

The Latest
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
The way inflation is measured masks certain costs that add to the prices that consumers pay every day. Not surprisingly, higher costs mean lower consumer confidence, no matter what Americans are told about an improving economy.
With Easter around the corner, chocolate makers and food businesses are feeling the impact of soaring global cocoa prices and it’s also hitting consumers.
Despite getting into foul trouble, which limited him to just six minutes in the second half, Shannon finished with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists.