COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS CALL FOR A WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM IN CHICAGO

Community leaders recently gathered outside of the University of Chicago Emergency Department and Trauma Center to announce the launch of The Solution Starts With Us initiative. Photo Credit: Majostee Marketing
Community leaders recently gathered outside of the University of Chicago Emergency Department and Trauma Center to announce the launch of The Solution Starts With Us initiative. Photo Credit: Majostee Marketing

Community Organizers Call For A Witness Protection Program In Chicago

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Several community leaders recently gathered in front of the University of Chicago Emergency Department and Trauma Center to hold a press conference about possible solutions to the violence in Chicago. During the press conference, the organizers announced the launch of The Solution Starts With Us which is an accountability and anti-violence initiative.

The core goal of this new initiative is to empower residents of Chicago’s most at-risk communities to create an action plan that will reduce violence in their communities and allow them to hold the City accountable for the role that they play in keeping communities safe.

So far, two anti-violence town hall meetings have been held as a result of The Solution Starts With Us initiative, one on the west side and one on the south side. The meetings were open to the public and allowed residents to share what they believed would make a difference in reducing violence in their communities. Those thoughts and ideas will be used to create an accountability plan for Chicago and once the plan is complete it will be made public for communities across the city to implement.

“The only solution to gun violence in our communities is going to come from the community members themselves,” said Ja’Mal Green, community activist. “ The real change will come from us and the solution starts with us. That is the new campaign that we are unleashing. We are saying that we need community members all over the city to join with us and craft the plan to hold leadership accountable in our city.”

During the press conference, Green and Father Micheal Pfleger, senior pastor at The Faith Community of Saint Sabina, called on the Mayor of Chicago to immediately create a witness protection and incentive program that would encourage people to come forward with information about violent crimes and protect them from witness intimidation.

The proposed witness protection program would offer Chicago Housing Authority vouchers for those who are willing to testify in cases of violent crimes and provide a financial incentive for those who come forward with information or evidence that leads to an arrest, according to information provided at the press conference.

“There is never just one person that sees somebody shoot somebody, there are a group of people that see it. If one person comes forward, they will be a target but if 20 people come forward there is no target. When the whole community decides enough is enough and they are going to speak up there is no target anymore. It’s when numbers stand forward together and the whole block speaks, that’s when things change,” said Pfleger.

The witness protection program is a short term plan to get killers off the street, according to Green, who went on to say that the only long term solution to the violence in Chicago is “investment into the community like programs for ex-felons and programs for mental health.”

To learn more or sign up to help draft and execute the accountability plan visit www.chicommunitysolutions.com.

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