Covering Youth Violence, a guide for journalists—Informes sobre la violencia juvenil
This is a guide for your coverage of youth violence. It will walk you through reporting strategies, offer examples of reporting, and ask you to consider how you can do your best for an issue that touches so many lives today. Why do we need a guide? Because the work you do, shapes [...]
The Underworld of Teens in the Shadows
They are the pawns of a hell that thrives among us. They wandered into it out of despair or confusion. Or they are trapped and sold and marketed. And they often live amid the crippling dysfunction that feeds the mayhem that feeds violence in our city. They are the teens snared in human trafficking, and [...]
The Barriers Between Us
When we talk about crime, we often judge. We say: Those people are bad. Those people can’t be saved. Those people….. I was talking with a veteran criminal justice professional at her South Side office recently and I was remarking how some South Side neighbors have banded together to keep the gangbangers out of their [...]
What drives the violence is what is missing
So how do you stop the violence here? That’s what the out-of-town TV executive wanted to know. It was a recent meeting at a Chatham restaurant pulled together by Revolt TV, the channel owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs. And Keith Clinkscales, Revolt TV’s CEO, said the channel wants to tell the story of the violence [...]
The Trauma That Lingers
Violence marks us with a fever. A fever that marks: The shooters or victims, who think they need to retaliate. Those, who think they need to defend or protect themselves by carrying a gun. Those, who flee their streets, their communities, their cities wanting to protect themselves or their families or their businesses [...]
Let’s Count Our Heroes
You’ve probably heard the lament that nobody is working in Chicago’s communities to deal with the violence. But that’s not the case. Not at all. Heaps of organizations and individuals dedicate their time and hearts to making a difference. The problem is, we don’t always hear about them. So, we’d like to begin [...]
A block party. A normal life. A story not told
By Steve Franklin The story begins: “It was a perfect Saturday for a block party. Not too hot, but just enough sunshine making its way through the burgeoning ash trees along South Wolcott Avenue in West Englewood. “The men on the block had gotten up early to mow the grass and pick up litter. By [...]
Attention, please. This is a city. Not a war zone.
By Steve Franklin The words we use to describe violence frame how we think about it in Chicago. How? Words create mindsets. They can dehumanize. They can increase the sense of despair, rejection, anger, isolation and withdrawl. Words can enforce the stereotyping that swallows whole neighborhoods under a vast canopy of violence. Natalie Moore, [...]
Cleaning up the blood
The blood had gushed everywhere, so the paramedic had his hands full cleaning up the ambulance. And he was in a hurry because he said he might have busy night on the streets. Another shooting victim. Another night like the rest. What’s driving the violence, I wondered. It’s guns and business on the streets – [...]
The people want peace…… el pueblo quiere la paz
You stop violence when the community steps forward. And when you heal the community, you leave no room for violence. That’s the mantra. But how do you get it to work? This video from The Resurrection Project’s You Tube channel gives us a good example of how to do this.(Click on the video above) It [...]
Crime’s Mirage – Getting the Facts
Violence haunts us. But sometimes it is the image and not the reality that haunts us more. The Pilsen Portal, a local news website, recently took on the challenge of separating truth from image in an excellent example of community reporting. It asked whether their community is as crime-ridden as some say. Here is [...]
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