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Chicagoland
Chicagoland: Back of the Yards
Aired April 19, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NARRATOR: Previously on "Chicagoland":
RAHM EMANUEL (D), MAYOR OF CHICAGO: There's 100 cities that drive the world city, and I'm determined to keep us in that top 15.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A very violent weekend here in Chicago.
BRUCE KATZ, VICE PRESIDENT, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: A mayor like Rahm needs to deal with this upsurge in violence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the cost of gun violence? You tell me what a parent would pay to have their child back.
DR. ANDREW DENNIS, SURGEON, COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL TRAUMA UNIT: In a matter of a split-second, his life has completely changed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody on edge.
ELIZABETH DOZIER, PRINCIPAL, FENGER HIGH SCHOOL: There's an ongoing gang conflict.
Gentlemen, not going to happen!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, we're going to have tragedies.
NARRATOR: As fall arrives, Chicago starts to cool off. Kids have settled safely into school and crime's taken a nosedive. That gives the mayor just enough time for a late-night date with David Letterman.
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
I want to hear about Chicago now. It is, oh, don't go to Chicago. The violence is unbelievable. Now, tell us why people say that.
(LAUGHTER)
EMANUEL: Well, first of all, they are watching CBS and you late at night. And that's why.
(CROSSTALK)
LETTERMAN: That's exactly the problem.
EMANUEL: Actually, it is on its way down.
NARRATOR: The number one thing the mayor doesn't want to talk about on national TV.
LETTERMAN: Good to see you, Mr. Mayor?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it frustrating when you get to the national stage and you are on the "David Letterman" show and one of the first questions is, of course, what about all of the violence in Chicago?
EMANUEL: Chicago has a great reputation as a great city. We are an architectural capital. We're a culinary capital, a theater capital, and people will start to see the progress we are making of having taken an intractable problem and start to solve it. I want to see it faster. I know that doesn't come as a surprise to some of you.
I want to see it yesterday. I want to see it more. I don't want to hear -- I don't want to make the phone calls to the individual mothers and grandmothers I have to make anymore. I don't want to do that.
NARRATOR: The mayor relies on his top cop to get results, and one of police Superintendent Garry McCarthy's big crusades is his call for mandatory jail time for possession of illegal guns. His cops on the street confiscate a lot of them.
GARRY MCCARTHY, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: There's about 80,000- plus guns that we have recovered, and we destroy them on a regular basis.
But look at the nature of some of these weapons. That's an Uzi-style machine gun. There's drum loads, I don't know, probably up to like 30 rounds. That's a shotgun. Look at the size of that barrel.
I think that there's holes in the laws that facilitate the flow of those firearms to the street. And then on top of it, while we recover more guns than any police department in the country, very few people go to jail for gun possession. It just doesn't make sense.
Once my officers face down a firearm arm like this in somebody's hands on the street, that person has got to go to jail. If we don't get something done about this, we are going to stay on the hamster wheel.
NARRATOR: It's no surprise McCarthy is not a big hit with gun control opponents.
MCCARTHY: The NRA does not like me, and I'm OK with that.
NARRATOR: But in the fight for tougher gun laws, he also faces unlikely opposition from African-American political leaders, who believe mandatory minimum sentences inequitably target minorities.
KWEISI MFUME (D), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: People are getting crazy sentences where you just got to send somebody away for an extremely long period of time.
NARRATOR: Guys locked up in Cook County Jail aren't part of America's gun debate, but they know a thing or two why so many people pack pistols in Chicago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have pulled 4,000 guns off the street in this year alone. There's 4,000 more on there already. The quicker they confiscate them, the quicker they come right back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't even come outside unless you got a gun. These are the laws in our area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone come up a gun on you, now you know you need a gun to protect yourself. You are going to do whatever to get this gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People out here in the streets, they ain't got no training in shooting guns. If he over there, I'm going to shoot that way. Hopefully, I hit them. If I don't, OK. I can go back and tell my homies, I shot at him. I killed two little girls in the process, but I did shoot at him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why fight and get dirty when you can shoot and stay clean?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just came from the penitentiary from doing time for a pistol. And I still keep mine wherever I go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would rather sit up here than sit up in a casket.
FRANK DOMMA, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR: The guns, you were the main guy with the guns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody in the city of Chicago has a gun. The whole city is trapping. I don't want you to hold back, you hear me? I didn't let you down yet, have I? You are more effective in the street than you are in here for me. So, I'm not -- why am I going to get you hurt? You know, I do this for a living.
NARRATOR: Frank Domma is a criminal investigator at the jail. He's also expert on Chicago gangs.
DOMMA: When you talk about gang intelligence, right here, this room is gang intelligence. There's more information in here than you can imagine. I can solve every murder in the city of Chicago inside this county jail. I can do it very easily because everybody talks.
Hey, listen, there's a guy in division two. I need you to work on that. I need it done today, not tomorrow, you hear?
NARRATOR: The steady streams of illegal guns flowing into Chicago remains a major focus of Domma's investigations.
DOMMA: The weapons that you guys were getting, how easy were they?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was easy to get, like, crates of guns.
DOMMA: What kind of guns were you all getting in the crates?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was mostly like .380s, .32, .9, .45s, .40s.
NARRATOR: This guy hopes cooperating with Domma could make the time he spends in jail easier.
DOMMA: And what were the guns going for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't that much. Whole crate probably was a couple thousand.
DOMMA: How easy is it to get the bullets?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Usually like be people like in the neighborhood. You got a gun cart or something, we will throw him a couple of hundred here, go buy all types of bullets for whatever bullets we need.
DOMMA: If I was the mayor of Chicago, how can I stop it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. That, I don't know.
NARRATOR: Despite the ongoing gang conflicts, Liz wants her students to enjoy a fun, wholesome homecoming week.
DOZIER: I'm Ms. Dozier. I'm the principal, by the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you're the principal?
DOZIER: Yes, I'm the principal. Nice -- today is pajama day. I don't normally come in my pajamas. Where's your pajamas? I don't even want to know. You shop at Victoria's Secret. I don't want to know that.
How are you? No pajamas today. I hear you.
Thank you for wearing your pajamas. I know. We're going -- having to do a redo or something. Everyone is being lame. Come on, you all, let's go, let's go, let's go. Catherine, come on back. Who else was it? Who else? Be quiet. Be quiet.
NARRATOR: Pajama day is a bummer. It's like everyone got up on the wrong side of the bed.
DOZIER: Go stand right over there and don't move.
I'm not sure what is happening today, but this isn't going to work. Why do you think the kids not dressed up today, only adults?
DONALD GORDON, DEAN, FENGER HIGH SCHOOL: Because they just don't like pajama day.
DOZIER: I don't think that is true.
TOSHA JACKSON, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, FENGER HIGH SCHOOL: The kids really came out though last year.
DOZIER: We had a lot of the kids. It was our highest attendance day of the entire school year was pajama day. So, all I'm pushing is, what happened this year? We don't have hardly any kids dressed down in pajamas.
It can't always be -- like, I bought your pajamas last year. I bought your pajamas last year. I was on the phone with you last year when I was in Target going to get your pajamas. What are you wearing for pajamas? I can't always -- it can't be me.
JACKSON: I never ended up getting my pajamas.
DOZIER: You don't have to get...
(CROSSTALK)
JACKSON: No, no, no, I want to, because it is only 10:15.
DOZIER: It is not just about pajama day. We don't have the school right now in terms of culture and climate, because if we had then, I would see more adults and more kids in their pajamas. You all are going to think this is trivial, but that's the honest-to-God truth.
NARRATOR: There are people all over the city trying to give kids a shot at something better, whether it is pajama day at Fenger or a boxing gym in Englewood.
SALLY HAZELGROVE, FOUNDER, ENGLEWOOD CRUSHERS: Donovan, get the scale.
NARRATOR: If it wasn't for Sally Hazelgrove, these boys might be on the streets dodging bullets, instead of in the ring ducking punches.
TIMOTHY PITTMAN, BOXER: For like the last three years I have been living out here, someone has tried to kill me. I try to get to the gym to avoid all the bull crap.
NARRATOR: Sally started this boxing program in a church attic to give Englewood's most hard-core kids a fighting shot at changing their lives and saving their neighborhood.
HAZELGROVE: Whoa! Calm down.
I have been working in Englewood for about 13 years with at-risk youth. I decided to survey them on the corners. So, I basically went out and said, what would get you off the block? And boxing was one of the activities that they said they would like to have access to.
I got trained myself. And I started grabbing them off the blocks and going to the schools and saying, give me your most dangerous boys, the ones that you think are going to kill somebody.
Don't get mad. When you get mad, you lose your power. Be calm.
I constantly emphasize to all the boys, you guys are going to change Englewood and save it.
NARRATOR: Sally left behind all the comforts of the North Side and moved to Englewood to pursue her calling.
HAZELGROVE: Come on, baby.
The mission came to me about 13 years. I had seen Englewood on the news a lot. I started volunteering. And I remember when the minister took me over to the church where they had the juvenile program. And there were all of these boys down there looking very tough. He said, oh, no, you don't want to bother with them. He's like, they are a waste of time. Forget about them. And I told him, I said, actually, that's exactly where I want to start.
NARRATOR: Sally's compassion comes from having lived through some dark days of her own.
HAZELGROVE: I made so many poor choices. I stole things. I ran with a really bad crowd. I even carried a gun at one point. I had a little dainty velvet purse, and I would go to a bar or club with my little gun -- my little purse with my big gun in it.
Did somebody say something to you? Are you sure?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HAZELGROVE: OK. Because you know I will get them if they do. Right? I'm not going to let nobody -- all right, fine. Now you throw some punches, baby. There you go. Boom, boom, boom.
NARRATOR: In Englewood, a lot of boys don't have anywhere else to turn, kids like Ivry, who's back at the gym the day after his mother died. He and his brother are on their own now, and soon they could be homeless.
HAZELGROVE: Is there anything we can do for you for the funeral tomorrow?
IVRY HALL, BOXER: I should be good.
HAZELGROVE: I know there has been a lot happening. How do you think your grades are going to be?
HALL: My grades are still good.
HAZELGROVE: They are still good? That's good. See what I mean? That just shows how much strength you have, that you are still getting good grades, going through all this crazy stuff, because a lot of people can't.
HALL: I left my report card at the hospital with my mom.
HAZELGROVE: With your mom?
HALL: Yes.
HAZELGROVE: You know I love you, right?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NARRATOR: Even Chicago's older set knows how to party. And this group at Senior Fest is a reminder that, in Chicago, many grandparents are also their grandkids' guardians.
EMANUEL: Our seniors, the most important people in our lives.
I know that because I call my parents every day. And if I don't call them, they call to remind me to call them as soon as they hang up.
(LAUGHTER)
EMANUEL: Welcome to being the son of a Jewish mother.
Every day that I'm a father to a 16-year-old, a 15-year-old, and a 14- year-old, I know I'm getting old, man. But every day, I'm reminded of how good a job my parents did, because everything I know about how to be a parent, I got from them and they did a tremendous job, not with me, but with my two brothers.
Every one of you is a grandparent. And the measure of this city, the measure of who we are will be whether we take care of the next generation and build a future, or only worry about our past, and that we have to make this city -- as great as it was for us, we have got to make it even better for them.
NARRATOR: At this park in Little Village, a Latino neighborhood on Chicago's West side, that's exactly what Rob Castaneda and his wife, Amy, are trying to do.
AMY CASTANEDA, CO-FOUNDER, PROJECT PLAY: Hey. How are you?
ROB CASTANEDA, CO-FOUNDER, PROJECT PLAY: Six years ago now, we started a program called Project Play. And so the idea was, as a community, if we come out here, bring out some balls, Hula-Hoops, and the idea is getting the neighborhood out here.
NARRATOR: For a lot of Mexican immigrants, Little Village is the principal point of entry to the Midwest.
Little Village also has a serious gang problem and strong ties to Mexican drug cartels that supply heroin and fuel violence. When Rob and Amy moved here, they got a warm welcome, but not the kind you think.
R. CASTANEDA: They found out that we were calling the police on them. And so in retaliation, while we were sleeping inside, they lit our house on fire.
The guys out would be out there. They would all be screaming, and yelling, and like shooting, and throwing bricks and bottles at cars. I have seen all kinds of crazy things from this window.
NARRATOR: Rob and Amy refuse to move out. A. CASTANEDA: One of the things that came out of it is, where do we go from here? Do we leave and just say, well, this didn't work out the way we thought it was? We just felt like the answer was, we need to have more things for kids in our neighborhood, because really when kids have something else to do, they choose that something else to do. Most kids don't grow up dreaming of being a gangbanger.
R. CASTANEDA: What's up, sir?
NARRATOR: They doubled down on their commitment to kids in the neighborhood and started a sports and arts after-school program called Beyond the Ball.
R. CASTANEDA: It's funny, because everybody always wants to move in to a nice neighborhood, but it's harder to get people to make their neighborhood nice.
NARRATOR: Over at Fenger, some kids just want to graduate and get out of the neighborhood as fast as they can.
MAGGIE COLEMAN, SENIOR, FENGER HIGH SCHOOL: He's talking about historical events that happened to African-Americans, right, like how they changed and how they became better.
I won't recommend anyone to live Roseland because it is kind of violent. It's too much. Like my friend, he just got shot in the head, and I actually lost my boyfriend last year. He passed away due to gun violence. And he attended Fenger.
Everybody knew that was my boyfriend. Like, Ms. Dozier, she attended his funeral, she know like how much that affected me.
I don't want to talk about that no more.
NARRATOR: Maggie has her sights set on college next year, but she is anxious. Until she leaves Roseland, anything could happen.
COLEMAN: They don't think now. They just shoot. And it will be your grandma. It will be kids in the crowd. They don't care. They see one person that they don't like and they will just get to shooting at the whole crowd.
NARRATOR: Liz depends on the police to help keep Fenger safe, so she goes to meet Roseland's new commander.
DOZIER: Hi. How are you? I'm Liz Dozier. I'm the principal. Very nice to meet you.
I just basically wanted to meet face to face, because I think the police department is such a critical partner for our school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you could fill me in on some of the issues that you're dealing with.
DOZIER: Some of the current things that we have been facing just around 111th and Halsted at dismissal time, usually, around 4:00 to 4:30, there is a whole group of kind of community that come up, and sometimes there can be problems.
NARRATOR: Every Monday, Garry starts the workweek with although show and tell to keep attention on the city's continuing trouble with illegal guns, but first the supe has got some sage advice for police spokesman Adam Collins, a father to be.
MCCARTHY: By the way, when is Kim due?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A week from today.
MCCARTHY: Ooh. Once the kids come along...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Life changes.
MCCARTHY: Oh, yes.
Why do you think I can be so calm in crisis?
(LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: I have had training and practice.
You guys all ready? Let's go.
Good afternoon, everyone. As we all know, Chicago has had an issue with violence going back generations. We have seized more than 4,350 guns so far this year in the first 32 weeks of 2013. That's an average of about 136 guns per week.
Our officers recover more illegal guns than any police department in the country. We tell you that all the time. Gun laws in New York State, they have a three-year mandatory minimum for illegal possession of a firearm. It's not the same level felony as untaxed cigarettes, like it is in the state of Illinois.
The system here is not structured to support the efforts that we're doing here. Our men and women are putting themselves in harm's way to get those guns off of the street. And what's different here is the fact that the law does not support preventing those guns from getting into criminal's hands and significant jail time, which will teach people not to carry guns and make them unavailable to commit other crimes.
And if we as government have an opportunity to do something about it, shame on us for not doing it. Thank you.
After that press conference, an editor actually said something to the effect of, well, look, the guy got arrested with a gun. So, he didn't shoot anybody. And I was -- I was awestruck. And I said, well, not yet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's been a mass shooting in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood tonight. It happened about 10:15, the fire department confirming for us that 11 people have been shot, one a 3- year-old child.
MCCARTHY: Unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four of the shooting victims have been transported to area hospitals.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirteen people, including a 3-year-old boy, were shot on Thursday night in the Back of the Yards Park.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say the gunmen opened fire at a park around 10:00.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the gunfire triggers a new round of anger and frustration about violence in this city.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chicago police are still working to arrest those responsible.
NARRATOR: A mass shooting puts Chicago's violence problem back in the spotlight. Police Superintendent McCarthy faces the media.
MCCARTHY: Anything change in the last like two minutes?
NARRATOR: Investigators believe gangbangers armed with military assault weapons shot up Cornell Square Park in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
MCCARTHY: Illegal guns, illegal guns, illegal guns drive violence, and military-type weapons, like the one we believed to have been used in this shooting, belong on a battlefield, not on a street or in a corner or in a park in the Back of the Yards. And it's a miracle, in this instance, that there have been no fatalities.
QUESTION: Is this a setback to the efforts that you have had and the announcements you have made recently that violence is down in Chicago? And now, all of a sudden, 13 people shot and 24 shot people overall in the past 24 hours. Is this a setback?
(CROSSTALK)
MCCARTHY: Every time somebody is shot in this city, it is a setback for us. The fact is, there is a structural problem with our laws that facilitates the flow of illegal guns to our streets.
QUESTION: The FBI last week called this city the murder capital. How do you get rid of that image, though, in the rest of the country?
MCCARTHY: We keep knocking down the murder rate, like we are doing now. And this is not a time to talk about statistics. So I'm not even going to do that.
QUESTION: This story is going to be on every network newscast this evening at 5:30. Would you still tell America, I guess, at this point that your violence-reduction strategy is working and that Chicago is a safer city than it was in 2012?
MCCARTHY: You see, you are putting me in the position where you are going to make me talk about statistics, which is not the point of being here. For me to stand here right now and tell you that we have got more than 500 less gunshot victims in this city right now than we had last year, for me to stand here and tell you that we have got 200 and about 30 less shootings than we had in 2011 is absolutely irrelevant.
And I'm sorry. You are making me do it, but the fact is, that's what's happening.
NARRATOR: McCarthy hopes to catch the shooters before their rivals seek street justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with some of the victims and their families the Mount Sinai Hospital.
NARRATOR: Mayor Emanuel cut short meetings on the East Coast and came home to visit victims at the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A 33-year-old woman who was shot in the shoulders is at Northwestern, as is a 31-year-old man shot in the buttocks. That list seemed to just go on and on.
PASTOR COREY BROOKS, FOUNDER, NEW BEGINNINGS CHURCH OF CHICAGO: When they had a mass shooting, Colorado stood up. When they had a mass shooting, Connecticut stood up. In D.C., when they had a mass shooting, they stood up. And now a mass shooting has come to our city, our great city. And it is important that we, as Chicago citizens, stand up.
EMANUEL: When we come together, when we work as a community, that is who Chicago is. This is the real face of Chicago.
Last night is a reality of Chicago. This is the real face of Chicago. The parks of the city of Chicago belong to the families of the city of Chicago. The streets of the city of Chicago belong to the families of Chicago.
NARRATOR: The mayor and Pastor Corey Brooks call on witnesses to speak up and help police catch the shooters.
EMANUEL: That is wrong.
(APPLAUSE)
BROOKS: Every single day, it seems like we are faced with violence on every hand. We just ask that you protect our children, protect our families. We cannot do everything on our own. But give us the strength to do what we can do. Amen.
CROWD: Amen. SEMEHCA NUNN, GRANDMOTHER OF 3-YEAR-OLD VICTIM: These streets crazy, these rude, disrespectful, inconsiderate people that just goes around shooting up cars, people's homes, cars, not knowing kids in there, not -- it's crazy. It's got to stop.
NARRATOR: Sally Hazelgrove's boxing gym in Englewood isn't far from the scene of the mass shooting.
HAZELGROVE: I mean, do you think they meant to shoot 13 people or they were gunning for just one person.
JEROME WARE, BOXER: Oh, no. When people -- when people put their handguns down and go get big guns, they are more so trying to kill a mass amount of people, basically.
HAZELGROVE: So, what do you think retaliation is going to be?
LADARIUS SUMRELL, BOXER: Retaliation is a must. It's a matter of when and on what scale.
NARRATOR: She's worried about her boys' safety and the future of her gym.
HAZELGROVE: I just feel like the only way to stay safe is to be inside right now, you know? It's the reality.
WARE: The situation with Chicago is so delicate right now, because you already got a group full of kids that don't trust nobody. They don't trust nobody.
SUMRELL: Killing around us 24/7 is enough to drive a man insane. But I have been desensitized.
HAZELGROVE: You guys once again have another moment to really be heroes to these kids and to the parents. And since you are not scared...
SUMRELL: I'm scared a lot. I have a 2-year-old daughter I need to take care of. So I fear losing my life every day.
NARRATOR: Over at Fenger, Liz worries that recent gang conflicts could threaten her students.
DOZIER: You are not going to make it. You have got to make it to the hall. Let's go.
OK. So, I just want to make sure we are all clear in kind of how we're going to proceed over the next couple of days.
GORDON: There's so much going on in the community, so much shootings out there and this gang -- this gang stuff is just getting fired.
What are other schools doing too to resolve this or keep this under effect? It is coming in. It's just -- it's there.
DOZIER: I really think there's more we can do to control this. I'm not -- I don't buy -- I just -- I don't buy it. I don't buy this, that we just have to, well, we are going to do what we are going to do in the building, and the kids are just going to do what they do. There's stuff that we can do.
What are we each doing to make the kids feel so close to us that A, they're telling us what's going on and that, B, they're not keeping the stuff down in the building. I just don't know. I don't buy we are doing everything. You know, like, there's nothing else we can do.
Everybody's working hard but we're not working smart. The reality is the ball is being dropped; it's being dropped over and over and over and over again. Until we get the ball back in our court, the school will not be right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liz is counting on her team to keep the school in order while she's away at a conference.
DOZIER: Everybody has to have a come to Jesus talk with themselves tonight and do some serious prayer and reflection and realize it's messed up. You guys have to get it together. You guys have to work together as a team. I won't be here. And I don't expect the building to fall apart. You know, everybody -- it's just a mess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pressure's building and not just at Fenger. McCarthy and Emanuel are under the gun to catch the Back of the Yards shooters before there's another mass shooting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are searching for the shooter or shooters in an incident that has grabbed national headlines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And police say they're questioning people but have no one in custody.
FATHER MICHAEL PFLEGER, CATHOLIC PRIEST: I believe that there's a hidden hand that's trying to convince many of our young people that life is cheap and that their life is cheap, but we most expose this lie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father Pfleger is a Catholic priest who, for more than 40 years, has been speaking out against violence like the mass shooting in the Back of the Yards.
PFLEGER: We must let our young people know that their life is valuable, their destiny is great, their potential is unlimited. They are the very best of God's children. Let's let our children know we've got their back!
In 36 years here, I have never seen more poverty, more hopelessness and more people in desperate situations than I have right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peace. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now.
PFLEGER: This is a human problem. This is a genocide, and people don't give a damn. You go to Springfield or you go to Washington, won't touch the gun they shoot because who's dying? Black and brown kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two days after the mass shooting, Father Pfleger invites the mayor and a few NBA stars to a peace basketball tournament at his parish, Saint Sabina. Bulls all-star Joe Chemonoah and Englewood native Derrick Rose are in the house to show their support.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of issues in the street. A lot of gang and a lot of gun violence. And we're just here to help and show love.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This court is a safe place where even rival gang members can play together.
ISIAH THOMAS, NBA HALL OF FAMER: This is the first time in the history of black and brown America where black and brown men have been killing each other at this rate.
There was a time in this country where black and brown men came together and fought police brutality or fought a racist society that wanted to attack them.
These are teenagers we're talking about. We label them as gang members. We should all be concerned to care enough about these young teenagers that are in this predicament.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The predicament is clear at the jail, where black and Latino men make up 86 percent of the population. Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle takes a tour.
TONY PRECKWINKLE, COOK COUNTY BOARD PRESIDENT: What happens is an incredible amount of injustice in our criminal justice system. First- time offenders that get these absolutely astronomical bonds, and their families struggle to come up with 500 bucks to get them out. So this disproportionately impacts of communities of color. I say that jail is the center of racism and poverty in the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frank Domma doesn't get caught up in jail politics. He's all about solving crimes.
FRANK DOMMA, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR: Now where do you guys get it from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bunch of ways. Sometimes from the Arabs. Back in the day we used to get...
DOMMA: What kind of guns?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Handguns, SKs, machine guns, all kind of guns. It ain't just people on the streets that's bringing these guns in. There's people in higher positions bringing these guns in.
DOMMA: Is there any way possible you can make a phone call and get us a gun?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there it's a wooden gate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said underneath the garbage can, and there's a wooden gate right there.
DOMMA: Where's the gun at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man, no. I don't want that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Domma's boss, Sheriff Tom Dart, has a team that investigates the trafficking of illegal guns, like the automatic weapons used in the recent shootings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is the myth that the guns were all flooding Chicago from the far south. That's just not the truth. The majority are coming from within Illinois.
Stemming the flow of guns has to be done, and that's what we've been focused on. But the other part is convicting the people who are doing this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gun law loopholes continue to allow straw purchasers to buy guns in the suburbs and illegally funnel them into Chicago with little risk of consequences.
MCCARTHY: You could buy as many guns as you want and walk out the door and there's absolutely no accountability. We'll recover the gun and they say, "Thank you, it was lost two years ago, but I didn't have to report that." In the meantime, it could have been used in a murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And those guns flood neighborhoods like Englewood, putting kids like Sally's at risk.
SALLY HAZELGROVE, FOUNDER, ENGLEWOOD CRUSHERS: You know I'm paranoid about people, right. I'm so -- you have no idea how paranoid I am.
Y'all go somewhere. You big people go somewhere. I'm getting irritating seeing you standing around and doing nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one has been arrested in connection with the Back of the Yards shooting. Sally keeps security tight to protect her kid cans. HAZELGROVE: Excuse me, this is my place. No, no, no. You didn't hear me. Go. This is my club. You brought somebody over 18 into my club. That's it. It's for children anyway. So bye.
I worked with young men over 18. But I realized it was too much of a risk, to be honest. There were too many times when they had too much gang activity. And I was worried about them being a target.
Why would he tell them and have them come here? I mean, you know what? It's just a mess.
What if somebody shoots at them and I'm with my little boys, and one of my little boys gets shot?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the manhunt for the Back of the Yards shooters continues the mayor makes an appearance at the Chicago Football Classic, an annual showdown between black college powerhouses.
When the mayor's first term kicked off, he had strong support from the black community. Since then, he's lost ground with African-Americans, and he's trying to regain it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Respect to you. Respect to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These days, there aren't a lot of ball games played at Cornell Square Park, the scene of the Back of the Yards mass shooting.
CURTIS HARRIS, SHOOTING VICTIM: I was sitting down and talking, and I just got up and ran when I heard the shots. I didn't realize I was shot. Bodies laid on the ground. Everything was the majority right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Neighbors here still worry about their safety. Curtis Harris got shot in the thigh, and his fiance's grandson was the 3-year-old, who took an assault rifle bullet to the face and survived.
HARRIS: He was the strongest one out of everybody. You know, he didn't cry. He didn't scream like he was shot or anything. He was trying to run around and play.
You know, this is a place where we come to have peace of mind and try to enjoy ourselves. Never thought an incident like this would happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Little Village, Rob and Amy revived a park that was nothing more than a gang war battleground.
AMY CASTANEDA, RUNS PARK: You are in third grade, right? You can sign up for the basketball league if you talk to Coach Mike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Word of Rob and Amy's good work has spread far beyond their neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have been there since we started this. Thank you so much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're excited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In New York City, their program, Be on the Ball, gets honored at the Up to Us Leadership Awards.
KAREEN ABDUL JABBAR, NBA HALL OF FAMER: Sports is the most effective tool in influencing the lives of young people. So we have to get behind the effort that coaches and mentors are available to our youth, especially in inner-city environments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having heard about Rob and Amy's success, Back of the Yards neighbors reached out to them for advice.
MAUREEN KELLEHER, BACK OF THE YARDS RESIDENT: I knew the amazing work that they had done in Little Village to bring people back and restore confidence in public space when things happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After something like that happens it's like a circus, you know. The media, the politicians, just anybody and everybody, they're out. And they want the inside scoop. And eventually, this story is going to die down, and something else is going to pick up. And for community residents, you know, we're -- we're afraid that people aren't going to use the park.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back at Fenger, Principal Dozier's staff works to keep things under control while she's away so homecoming can go off without a hitch. Fenger's pep rally gets off to a spirited start.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are my staff that can dance? Come on down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until some former students return to school and start trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything good down there? Johnson, come here. There's something going on, Jackson. Something going on. I need you to call more police. More police. Please, call now. We're right now on 112th. We're on 112th.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With Liz out of town, all this has her staff rattled.
TOSHA JACKSON, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, FENGER HIGH SCHOOL: Is there nothing that we can do about that? I don't go here anymore.
KEITH CONNOR, DEAN, FENGER HIGH SCHOOL: Dozier has been talking to them. They've been promising they're not going to come up here on their own, but you see, Simpson got out and just shooed them away. So...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think?
JACKSON: The problem is there's something fundamentally wrong with punishing the entire school for an action of a few kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because 97 percent of the building is fine. JACKSON: At some point we've got to be able to have a normal high school, like every other high school in the city is having a freaking homecoming dance. Every other high school in the city is having a homecoming dance. Why can't we have a homecoming dance? It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking news, charges are filed late tonight in connection with last week's shooting that left 13 people wounded, including a 3-year-old boy. Two suspects are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow morning.
MCCARTHY: Last night, charges were filed against two offenders. Overnight, two additional offenders were charged, including the man who fired a military-grade weapon.
Bryon Champ, one of the offenders, charged last night, was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon in July of 2012 and was sentenced to boot camp. If Bryon Champ is not on the street, as he shouldn't have been, this incident likely does not occur.
The motivation for this incident was an unreported shooting, where this individual, Mr. Champ, suffered a graze wound earlier last Thursday. And as a result, the retaliation took place at Cornell Park.
The criminal who becomes a victim of gun violence and does not cooperate with us does so likely because they're going to take care of it themselves and that's what happened in this case. Couldn't be a more clear case of gun violence and a way to prevent it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should talk about bringing in the state patrol or the National Guard. Your thoughts? Any extra help?
MCCARTHY: If the state wants to give us some help, then give us some gun laws.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The story is out I offered you $5,000 not to go to Englewood, but that wasn't true.
HAZELGROVE: It was true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not.
HAZELGROVE: It was, too, true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really not a question of money. If I had a million dollars, you would do the same thing you're doing. Your purpose is noble. Do I ever relax that you're in Englewood? No. No, I don't. It's dangerous as hell. There's a helplessness that you feel as a parent. There's nothing you can do about that.
HAZELGROVE: I get scared sometimes. Be crazy not to be. But all I ever think is, it's not OK for my kids. How can it be OK for any kids? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
HAZELGROVE: You know?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At Fenger, homecoming is on. Dean Gordon and staff decided that, despite the recent flare-ups, their students deserve to have their dance. The kids are excited, especially Maggie, a senior with her heart set on getting crowned homecoming queen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't get to get, you know, my crown for today because, you know, I'm homecoming queen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Liz is back.
GORDON: Homecoming court.
DOZIER: Who is it, Gordon?
DOZIER: Thank you again. I really appreciate it. Thanks.
The commander was here. And I reached out to him and a couple of people downtown about making sure we have some additional support for our dismissal of the dance. I called the big dogs, the bat phone. We need help.
Let's start making our way. Let's start making our way home. Let's start making our way home. Be safe. Have a good night. Watch your mouth. Let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the dance lets out, there are no officers in sight as the kids walk home.
DOZIER: Stop throwing stuff!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the street, some students get in the kind of scuffle that's especially scary in Rosalyn.
DOZIER: Call the police. Tell them there's a possible fight in progress. I'm not even sure why they're not out here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liz marches into the fray.
DOZIER: OK, you all, let's go. We're not doing this. Let's go. So whoever needs to start moving, start moving. Let's go. Everybody needs to go. Start walking.
I got this. Did you all get that? I got this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: City hall makes the most of the recent capture of the mass shooting suspects and uses it to continue to push for commonsense gun laws. The mayor and Superintendent McCarthy are joined by the mother of slain honor student Hathya (ph) Pendleton, whose murder made national news.
CLEO PENDLETON, MOTHER OF VICTIM: It's been almost nine months since I got a call from Hathya's (ph) friend that Hathya (ph) had been shot. It's been nearly nine months for everyone else, but for me it's just like yesterday.
Learning about my daughter's alleged murderer, had been in jail for another gun crime was devastating. It's like rubbing salt in an open wound. In my community carrying an illegal gun is no big deal. But it needs to be a big deal.
Now people ask me why I keep speaking out on the issues when it's clearly painful. Yes, it's painful, but I know if I don't speak, I'll sit around and cry, and crying doesn't do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man charged with Hathya's (ph) murder was released from jail just months after being arrested for illegal gun possession.
EMANUEL: I want to thank you on behalf of everybody in the city of Chicago for taking your personal pain and trying to make it into a public good and make us better. And I know how painful it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Emanuel and McCarthy continued to push for stronger gun legislation, despite a law that made it illegal to conceal and carry pistols even in Chicago.
EMANUEL: The weak link in the system is our gun laws. It's life or death. And the laws we have on the books do not actually act as the deterrent they are intended to do.
So we say that, if you have a gun and use it illegally, you get the same kind of minimum for shoplifting. Really? That's what we want to communicate? That's what we want to say to the people in the city of Chicago, that a gun crime equals shoplifting?
We all know that the impact on a family, on a sibling, on a block, on a neighborhood, on a community is far more severe. And yet, our laws do not equal it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next, on the season finale of "Chicagoland."
EMANUEL: Don't tell me how it was done 40 years ago. Ask is there a better way to do it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guy spraying a handgun. You have to get out of the way. We don't want any retribution.
DOZIER: It's about providing kids with resources. Ultimately, we just need more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody is putting gangs signs up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one is over 25.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is my job to worry about what could happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A ticking time bomb of public employee pension.
EMANUEL: The union now are the bad guys? (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think anybody can be beat.
