Reality Allah: Part 1 — FIRSTHAND: Gun Violence

Someone just got shot as soon as we walked away, I was already five feet away from him, damn, hey, stop that, yeah, I think we might even have to go back there. He was about to talk to the man I'm talking about. I walk up to Joe the man and I'm thinking I don't know how I fell off my bike and I look up to see another one of my brothers on the ground shot at Shaq, the tall guy in the dress he just was. talking about man, hey, cute, shine, shaq, they just got shot, yeah you're okay, I'm sick of this, these blocks got me in a lot of trouble, I can't say that, it's okay, here we go, I'm a worker extension for Ready Chicago, it is

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. prevention organization what's up buddy, that's good, I involve high risk kids in Englewood, come here tonight.

Sean needs to yell at you, come on man, I get them into the Ready program and give them ongoing behavioral therapy and transitional work experience. How many friends do you think we have? had lost in this in this strip right here alone man alone because of the gun

violence

more than 20 more 20 guys man we were going to face these

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icipants who had fallen a little when they shot you man man new years eve man damian who had fired and had had to run the program to cure at midnight i hot shot at you man like Sean who was suspended right now um but we still get him involved while you're ready to get back to work man or what man get out of the block and get off the block man, yeah, you lost some brothers on these streets, didn't you?

Yeah, how many brothers did you lose, three, three brothers, and that was the whole point of going around the block trying to catch up with some of these guys that might have gotten disengaged, but also. to show the community that these guys have someone like me who still cares about them, they have a great friend who isn't trying to put guns or drugs in their hands, who is actually trying to get them job training, trying to get them to address their traumas and things like that you have to remember your brothers, that's how you keep them alive.

I really feel like it could be something positive that everyone can do with their whole life, anything I can do to support them, let me know. man keep letting me know what I can do to support you as soon as we walked away and one of the people who was there became a victim. He was shot this second time he drove off that block and someone was shot the last time. He left Jmo got hit this time I left I can't live there you know I can't just post there constantly and keep the peace constantly I'm a man I'm sick of this when the shooting happened damian was clearly shaken because the young man who was shot was very close to him, I'm sick of it, I don't know, bro, I don't know, I've never seen anything like that before, it's not fair, he said, the governor bought him whatever. said this neighborhood needs it done, a lot of people dealing with trauma, a lot of people going through things they just want to be heard, imagine if you had no one to say to, man hey, in the middle of crying on the street, you know, and without having anyone, let's just bounce, man, I can imagine and I wanted to let you know that I hear you, let you know that I feel you.

Violence is one of those things that is like a disease and anyone who cares about the person who was shot is now going to suffer from the disease of violence they are going to want to transmit that disease to someone yes, yes, that is something that They'll show you the shots, this is really wearing out I realized, man, I can't save everyone. I realize I can't mediate every conflict, but these two guys here own my caseload and the reason I'm doing this job is to keep them out of the way. Hello how are you? How are they?

I do this work not because I feel like I have all the answers or solutions. I do this work because I just want to make a difference right now. We have a 399 strategy where we are trying to reduce the homicide rate to 399 murders, something that has never happened since 1965. That is our goal now: to try to minimize their interaction with the criminal justice system and provide them with resources that can prevent them from shoot or shoot someone. give them that phone you're on house arrest well i should be back in 30 to 40 minutes so i'm going to go to this guy's house who's currently under house arrest fighting weapons charges james henry is under electronic monitoring he has to be in the home 24 hours a day, except for work and he hasn't received any motion to come to work, ready man, what's up buddy, hey, how are you going to get back?

So today I got a request for me to sign so I can get it out. from your house, let's get you this move first, get you into the program and be a

part

of it, get cognitive behavioral therapy to change your way of thinking once you randomly enter the program, brother, there are different resources that I can take advantage of to help you, just contact me anytime. You need me and you know I will be here. I have you. There's a bullet hole. Damn, someone shot him. I'm going to take a photo of this man. I'm going to see if we can fix this window for you and you. family man and because kids shouldn't have to see bullet holes in a window that they have in their dining room table is right there, the living room is right here and just to come here and see this every day has to do something to your psyche only to see that every day different things have to affect you that can trigger trauma I want to be constant in your emotional security I have you brother I know the impact of trauma I know it because I have seen it and experienced it at a very young age.

I went out when I was nine and ten years old. One of the things that really fascinated me was art. I would see this beautiful work of art on our vitox and I would go home and write it in my books at that time. I didn't know he was drawing gang signs. I just thought it was cute. I actually joined the smallest gang in that area. I started selling drugs when I was 11 or 12 when I arrived. 13. He had seen multiple shootings. Several people were shot. I always felt inaccurate because of my age, so I tried to compensate with violence.

The summer of '85 was my summer of breaking away from violence when I was 13 years old. I was involved in a coup. about a rival gang member and they arrested me, I finally did about a year, my trajectory in my life in the gang skyrocketed after that, when I was 20, there were active gang wars, we were involved with everyone, they charged me of first degree murder by a young man who was shot I served 22 years in prison the prison is a microcosm of the streets but the prison is a little more intense. I've seen someone die in the shower. my next door neighbor committed suicide in my second week.

In fact, I saw something that really just changed my entire understanding. I see the leaders of almost every other organization kicking around, asking about each other's families and things like that. Now, mind you, I was in a full-blown gang war with these bottom-list guys and I'm like. well, if the ladies in prison get along well, they ask each other about each other's families, they shake hands and have each other halfway, what are we doing, I questioned that, that was engraved in my heart for a long time, maybe we We're losing something here, maybe we would have been playing.

Like pine trees, I began to question everything I had done up to that point and that was what gave me the revelation that I had to start moving in a different direction in my life. I kind of promised that if I ever got out, I would go back to those same communities and try to save some lives that you