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First Family on Vacation; Chicago's Deadly Streets; Tackling Chicago Violence Nationally
Aired August 23, 2009 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. It is the top of the hour, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.
Tonight, a war zone happening now in a major U.S. city: gangs and thugs running rampant. Families and children caught in the cross fire. Many shot dead in neighborhoods they call home.
This hour: CNN's special coverage. We investigate Chicago's deadly streets.
We'll get to our in-depth reporting in just a minute.
But first we want to update you on a developing story we're watching this hour off the coast of Maine. A Sunday outing almost turned tragic. A hurricane spawned wave crashed ashore in Acadia National Park dragging sightseers into the Atlantic Ocean.
A rescue operation was launched including crews from the U.S. Coast Guard. We have learned in the last few minutes that all missing persons have been rescued.
Let's go straight now to CNN's Jacqui Jeras. Jacqui, you have some new pictures for us. But that late word that they have been rescued -- good news because when we spoke to the superintendent of the park he said three people were still missing at the time. All accounted for now, though.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Certainly some great news. Such a testament for the power of the water out there and what a danger it continues to be.
Dana Moos (ph) sent us these pictures. We got them off her Tweetpic (ph) site as she was at Acadia National Park. She said this afternoon and while she was there she said they shut everything down so people could stay away from this danger.
You can see those crashing waves. And we'll advance to the next one and it will show you, there you can see the rocks, this is right on the shoreline there. You can see how those waves just crash into them and move on up. They say that the wave that moved through this area was a rogue wave. And what we consider a rogue wave is something that would be about twice the regular height of the average waves that are moving into the area.
Dana, thank you so much for sending us these photos. We have our buoys which are out there from NOAA on our map here today. We are going to query them just to give you an idea of what the wave heights have been in this area.
There you can see this one closest to the area at 13 feet. We'll go ahead and query this one over now. And there you can see that one's about 8 feet and closest to where Bill is right now over hear near Nova Scotia we are still seeing some 18-foot waves. So, some really impressive wave action out there.
Bill is way out there now, moving towards Newfoundland and believe it or not this thing's going to end up over towards the U.K. It's a very fast-moving storm but it still has those threats with those waves. That will stick around today, Don, though the waves should diminish throughout the day tomorrow.
LEMON: So be very careful for the next few days.
Jacqui thank you very much.
Hurricane Bill blew past Martha's Vineyard delaying the first family's arrival. And the health care reform debate is expected to sweep its way into the first family's vacation.
Rows of well-wishers greeted the Obamas' motorcade and there are cupcakes and ice creams named for the first family. The White House says Mr. Obama's planning to relax during his first vacation since taking office.
Joining me live now from Martha's Vineyard, CNN's Dan Lothian.
Dan, serious business here; I know he is on vacation but Ted Kennedy has been very active and involved in the health care reform. And we know Martha's Vineyard is very close to where Ted Kennedy lives.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
LEMON: Do you expect the two to see each other this week?
LOTHIAN: Well, you know, there have been a lot of reports out there -- I know some of the Boston papers have been saying that the President would be meeting with Senator Kennedy as early as Tuesday. But I did talk to a senior administration official who told me that's simply not the case at this point.
While the White House and the President has been in touch frequently with the Kennedy family, right now there is nothing scheduled, no meeting, no plans for the President to leave Martha's Vineyard and go visit Mr. Kennedy over on the Cape.
LEMON: Ok, so it seems like the White House is going out of their way to kind of keep the reporters at bay. I said earlier that the President was on vacation but of course the media was in tow.
LOTHIAN: That's right. You know, what's interesting is that this has happened twice now. We heard it from Robert Gibbs last week and then from Bill Burton who's the deputy spokesman for the White House. He said today on the gaggle aboard Air Force One on the way here to Martha's Vineyard that the President really was asking reporters to relax, take a walk on the beach, go out enjoy the nice restaurants and to really give the family, in particular the young girls, their privacy. Really suggesting that we should leave them alone so they can enjoy themselves out there on the farm.
So yes. While we do expect perhaps the President will go out and about, nothing like what we saw Mr. Clinton do years ago here on Martha's Vineyard. They really are trying to sort of set up the screen to allow them to sort of stay out of the public light for a while. But as you know, that is going to be a little hard for the President of the United States.
LEMON: Yes. Let them alone. Like that is going to happen.
LOTHIAN: That's right.
LEMON: Dan Lothian at Martha's Vineyard. Thank you, Dan.
The Greek government is welcoming all the help it can get in putting down a rash of wildfires. They ignited three days ago miles from the capital of Athens. But a steady diet of gale force winds have fueled the flames uncomfortably closer to the city. Thousands have been evacuated in advance of the wildfires thought to total more than 80 altogether.
Italy, France and Cyprus are helping out with air support. No fatalities reported. We will keep you posted on that one.
Ten thousand American dollars, that's what the alleged mastermind in Wednesday's Baghdad bomb attacks said it cost in bribes to get a truck loaded with explosives past the city's traffic checkpoints to one of six sites targeted by insurgents. The suspect's alleged confession was broadcast across Iraq today. Nearly 100 people were killed and more than 500 hurt in Wednesday's bombings.
A 59-year-old soldier from Washington State has become the oldest U.S. service member man to die in Afghanistan. First Sergeant Jose San Nicolas Crisostomo was killed by a roadside bomb in Kabul on Tuesday. The military reported his death Friday.
Crisostomo was a Vietnam vet and twice received the Bronze Star for combat valor. His death underscores what the top U.S. military commander says is increasingly dangerous situation in Afghanistan eight years after the war started. Joint Chiefs Chair Admiral Mike Mullen had this to say today on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: I think it is serious and it is deteriorating and I've said that over the last couple of years that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better and more sophisticated. Their tactics -- just in my recent visits out there and talking about our troops certainly indicate that. (END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Meanwhile, Thursday's presidential election in Afghanistan is being marred by allegations of fraud and abuse. An election commission charged with overseeing the voting results says it has received 225 complaints of voting irregularities including stuffed ballot boxes and voter intimidation.
In Malaysia, a model is about to served Islamic justice. A court has ordered this woman Kartika Shikarno, taken into custody and lashed six times with a cane just because she sipped a beer in a hotel nightclub. It will be the first caning of a woman in the history of the Muslim country. As if that weren't enough, that punishment wasn't enough, she will have to spend a week in jail away from her two special needs children.
We'll keep you posted on that one as well.
A war zone in our very own country: so far this year, nearly 300 people have been murdered in Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is sad. I would rather be in the country. The city is not for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We're talking problems and examining solutions on Chicago's deadly streets.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was riding his little car, and I heard like pop, pop, pop, pop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The crack of gunshot the wailing of sirens, sounds all too familiar to familiar. The perpetrators and the victims all too young.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It hurts me so bad.
LEMON: Tonight the grief, the anger, the cause, the solutions on Chicago's deadly streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
We begin with the hard facts. So far this year nearly 300 people have been murdered in Chicago, 258 were killed by guns. More than 5,000 handguns have been taken off the streets. Add to that 232 assault weapons. You get the point.
Police say homicides are down slightly but that's after a stunning murder rate in 2008. And keep in mind this year isn't over yet.
Let's go to Chicago's deadly streets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Summer is hot in Chicago. People are looking for relief.
Not just from stifling temperatures...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's bad. It's real terrible. There's too much violence here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's sad. You know, I'd rather be in the country. The city is not for us.
LEMON: Relief from the heat of gunfire and the wave of violence gripping the city streets.
WGN News at 9: A teenage girl is in critical condition tonight, hurt in a possible drive-by shooting in the South Side.
LEMON: It is a war zone. Consider this, this year 287 U.S. troops had been killed in Afghanistan, 113 in Iraq. In Chicago 293 people have been killed, 69 of those under the age of 21, most of the city's south and west side.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our young folks are just (INAUDIBLE) as they resort to pick up weapons and try to resolve their differences.
LEMON: 2008 was one of the city's deadliest in recent years. Taking drastic steps, police brass saturated some city streets with SWAT Teams, arming officers with more firepower. Still the violence and shootings persist.
We go to Chicago to talk solutions and to hear from people living and dying in Chicago's deadly streets.
Like Matthew Ramirez (ph) gunned down on his way home from a friend's house. He was just 16 years old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone went out there and took his ability to make his mark on the world.
LEMON: At 18, Terrell Bosley (ph), a self-taught six string player and a drummer was shot and killed outside of a church.
ANNETTE NANCE-HOLT, BLAIR'S MOTHER: My baby suffered for what reason. He wasn't in a gang. He didn't sell drugs. He didn't do nothing. He was a college student.
LEMON: And then there's Blair Holt, who died a hero at 16, throwing himself on top of a classmate when shots rang out on a city bus.
MICHELE LINTON-DELASHMENT, KERMIT'S MOTHER: There is nothing in this life left that can hurt me like that than losing my son. I'm sure all of the mothers here would agree there is nothing else in life that would break worse than your child being snatched from you like that.
LEMON: Kermit Delashment Jr., 21, a star college basketball player who dreamt of fame. But not the fame he got from his shooting death.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son was killed three days before Christmas, an hour after I spoke to him on the phone.
LEMON: Christina Waters (ph), caught in the cross fire; leaving a church function shot in the head, the 18-year-old survived.
JAMES ROSE, CHRISTINA'S STEPFATHER: She has a second lease on life.
LEMON: It's that raw. Is he right? It takes you back; is it always just raw pain?
DELASHMENT: Oh, yes. Every time we talk about what happened that day it breaks me down all the time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just as numb as that night, that afternoon Annette called me and she told me Blair had been shot. You talk about the worst feeling in the world; instant trauma to the emotions.
DELASHMENT: You know, when I think back to what kind of child I had, it hurts me so bad. It hurts so bad.
LEMON: Most of you are carrying some sort of memento or something. What are you guys carrying?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son was killed 3 1/2 years ago and as you can see, I still have his cell phone on. I can't bear to turn it off because I keep having that stupid little thought in the back of my head when he walks back through the door, if he doesn't have a phone he is just going to die.
LEMON: Does it ever ring?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I leave it on for his friends for them to text him and they text him a lot.
LEMON: What do some of the text messages say? Do you get the text messages?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just poems. I love you, I miss you. Things like that.
LEMON: You can read it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to lose anybody else. This hurts a lot. I love you.
LEMON: You brought something of your...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I brought the program, the obituary and the newspaper article. Because he told me he would be in the papers.
LEMON: This is how he is in the paper.
College student is city's 500th homicide of the year. This isn't how you expected your son to be in the paper.
Tell me your story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Terrell was a bass player, gospel bass player. He was at a church coming out to help his friend get drums out. Somebody came shooting and shot Terrell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I drove him to high school for four years. I drove him everyday so that he wouldn't have to take public transportation. And the one place I never worried about was church. I never worried about him being at church. And to get a phone call that your son got shot coming out of church, it was just unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I get a call from a complete stranger. They are coming from -- they were coming from -- her and her friend were coming from a church function and I get a call on my cell phone. It has her name, calling me to get an update. How was your afternoon going, it's 5:00 in the afternoon.
A complete stranger telling me my daughter is laying in the alley bleeding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We almost lost Christina. I feel very lucky that we still have her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I could say anything to that parent whose child caused my child to lose his life, I hope you never feel like I feel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, their stories are just the beginning. I spent a night embedded with a group called CeaseFire Illinois. They took me to K-Town, short for Killer Town. You'll see what I saw.
Bur first, this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She fell right here. That is where her head was, where the blow was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Our cameras were still rolling after an interview with the Chicago city official when we got word a 15-year-old girl was shot in a drive-by shooting.
I'll take you to that scene.
And as always we appreciate your feedback. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Guns and tempers, territory and respect -- deadly combinations and huge problems on Chicago streets. That is why there is a group that stops the violence, it's a movement called CeaseFire Illinois. They dispatch foot soldiers to step in between rival gangs.
Director T.O. Hardiman asked me to come to Chicago to meet some of the young men they mentor and some who refuse their help.
Our first stop: Killer Town.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: T.O. Hardiman knows Chicago's deadly streets and takes us for a ride in a neighborhood so dangerous it has been dubbed Killer Town.
T.O. HARDIMAN, DIRECTOR, CEASEFIRE ILLINOIS: If you come up through Killer Town and people don't know who you are, we can get shot right now. For sitting in this car riding down the street, we can get shot.
LEMON: Hardiman grew up out here but now runs CeaseFire Illinois, a non-profit that tries to get troubled youth, gangs and drug dealers out of the neighborhood.
HARDIMAN: Chances are, I know most of the people in the area. If I was to get out of the truck, and say this is T.O. I'm doing something with CNN, they'll give us the pass.
LEMON: But just from riding here we are taking our lives in our hands.
HARDIMAN: You are taking a chance right now, Don, I have to be honest with you because people shoot and they ask questions laters. There is no method to the madness.
LEMON: Madness like a child selling drugs.
You are out here at 8 years old. How old are you now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 17.
LEMON: What was the routine? What did you do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I walk up and down the streets until I see somebody and I say what I have. If I have weed, I say weed. If that is what they wanted I go serve.
It was fun at first and then you keep on flipping then you just get tired of it.
LEMON: Did you get caught?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I got caught. LEMON: Yet the lure of the streets is like a drug, so powerful it becomes a way of life for teenagers like Bill.
Why is it so easy to fall into the violence, the drugs, guns? Why is it so easy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Money. Money. Like a lot of young cats like a lot of money, you know what I'm saying. Want to be like a rapper on TV, you know what I'm saying.
LEMON: What is the result of that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting locked up or dead. You know what I'm saying? Chasing the money.
LEMON: The almighty dollar, the common thread.
We called this young man Dave. He asks us to conceal his identity. So what do you do for a living?
DAVE: Sell drugs.
LEMON: You sell drugs. Why?
DAVE: I'm my own boss. There isn't nothing like being your own boss.
LEMON: You are your own boss but you know people including your brother who have been shot.
DAVE: I've been shot.
LEMON: That doesn't happen to me on my job.
DAVE: That's the life you chose. I chose this life. Why the life of going down to work at McDonald's check $200, $300 every two weeks. I can check $200, $300 in one second usually from one person.
LEMON: In one night, how much?
DAVE: In one night probably about $5,000 or $6,000.
LEMON: $5,000 or $6,000 in one night?
DAVE: Or better. Some people check 20 or 30. I'm just a small fry. But I'm eating.
LEMON: What's the violence for? What is the whole reason for shooting? Why do so many people get shot?
DAVE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED); all about the mighty dollar.
LEMON: So if you kill somebody you get rid of them that is more money for you. I don't mean you specifically.
DAVE: Not me specifically but some people. LEMON: Explain it to me. What do you mean by that?
DAVE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You are just cutting the middleman out. Some (EXPLETIVE DELETED) get in the way. Some people got to die for the next man to get on top.
LEMON: The crude reality. In a deadly business and why some young men like Tremayne (ph) and Bill are working with CeaseFire to turn their lives around. Are you done with it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LEMON: For real?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LEMON: Why do you say that why should I believe you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can only show you.
LEMON: You see these guys out riding their bicycles and kids, kids who are coming up, what is your advice if you have any?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's my advice? Man, stay in school. School where it's at. You aren't going to make nothing in the streets. You aren't going to see nothing. Isn't nothing out here. Nothing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: I want you to take a look at what of our iReporters, Chicago iReporters caught on tape.
You won't believe the rest of what he saw. We'll show you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We're continuing our conversation tonight about Chicago's deadly streets. And for the record, CNN has repeatedly asked Mayor Richard Daley for an interview to address this issue. His staff said his schedule was tight.
I did have a conversation though with Chris Mallette. He has been appointed by Mayor Daley to specifically address solutions to violence in the city.
Here is just a glimpse of why they need him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: In Chicago, there is no hiding the violence anymore. Our iReporter writes in his report submitted on August 12, "For the past several nights residents of the uptown neighborhood of Chicago have been experiencing gang rioting beginning around 9:00 p.m."
Last night this reportedly led to three being wounded from gunfire.
Send the "n-word" to the hospital. Beat him to a pulp.
That is what they yelled. The iReporter says, "I called 911 at 9:10, and again at 9:15. I began filming, and I called 911 again at 9:25. The police arrived sometime after the third call.
As this is going down on Chicago's North Side, I'm on the South Side.
Hello, Chris.
CHRIS MALLETTE, DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY SAFETY INITIATIVES: How are you?
LEMON: Just about to tape an interview with the man the mayor hand-picked to stop youth and gang violence, Chris Mallette.
What is different about Chicago that percentagewise it has so much of this happening now? That is what I can't understand.
MALLETTE: Right. I think if you look at other cities, other cities aren't necessarily counting. I think one of the things about Chicago is we make ourselves vulnerable. We count how many young people have been killed. We make it public. We're not trying to hide records.
LEMON: What do you mean by accounting, counting.
MALLETTE: Right.
LEMON: If Los Angeles has 158 people shot, Chicago has - the numbers are the numbers.
MALLETTE: Right.
LEMON: I don't understand. Los Angeles has not had that many. New York hasn't had that many. A homicide is a homicide. A shooting is a shooting. So what is different here? What is going on here that needs to be fixed that's not happening in other cities? That's my question.
MALLETTE: I think if I had the answer to that or if anyone had the answer to that we wouldn't be doing this interview right now. I think that is something that we are trying to get to the root of. I think there needs to be a substantial movement by all Chicagoans including the media.
LEMON: In the middle of our interview with city officials charged with stopping this violence. We got word, another shooting, a teenager shot in the head, caught in the cross fire.
CMDR. DANA ALEXANDER, CHICAGO POLICE, 4TH DISTRICT: She went to shield a child. She was struck by a bullet.
LEMON (voice-over): A 15-year-old high school sophomore who lives just doors from the Alderman's home.
CARRIE AUSTIN, 34TH WARD ALDERWOMAN: I believe that our kids have no sense of what - how important life is.
LEMON (on camera): That is unique to Chicago?
AUSTIN: No. I think it is all over the world or all over the United States. I think it is in many other places besides Chicago. It just have run so rampant in our city.
LEMON: So this is the crime scene and that is your house?
AUSTIN: That is my house right there.
LEMON: Were you here when it happened?
AUSTIN: No. I was down at the McCormack place for the 2016.
LEMON (voice-over): The 2016. That how Chicagoans referring to the Olympics they are so desperately working to secure. And random shootings are not the kind of publicity city leaders want. But unless the gangbangers listen...
ALEXANDER: Put your guns down. You know, we are shooting innocent babies. Put your guns down.
LEMON: And police get a handle on this. Chicago's hope of Olympic gold in danger of being tarnished.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: By the way, that 15-year-old girl who was shot during my conversation with Chris Millet, her name is Takara Swain. And we spoke with her cousin, who was right there when the shooting happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERRELLE MCCRAY, SHOOTING VICTIM'S COUSIN: We heard the gunshots, and we thought they were firecrackers. And my mom said no, those are gunshots. And I was about to run. But I remembered that my cousin was right here. And I turned around and she was on the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We spoke with Takara's family. She is still in the hospital. The shooter has not been caught. So how do you stop the violence in Chicago's deadly streets. Maybe with one intervention at a time. We'll take you to a roundtable where gang members work out their differences with the help of Illinois's CeaseFire.
Plus, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sits down with me to discuss solutions on a national level.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Going into troubled neighborhoods and interrupting violence before it happens is half the task for Chicago's CeaseFire. I had an opportunity to sit down with the staff along with a couple of young men who have benefited from CeaseFire's interconvenience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (on camera): This looks like your boardroom to me. Once they come in and once you got these two guys to come in and get it together, what happens after that? Do they come back and sit around this table and talk?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And they brainstorm with us how we are going to meet the needs of the other guys that are still out there. You know, how are we going to get them to come in or if they are not ready to come in, how are we going to keep a constant flow of communication and able to stop them from making the decision to shoot someone.
LEMON: Easier said than done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: .. than done. Right.
KARL BELL, CEASEFIRE OUTREACH SUPERVISOR: Well, if you keep your eyes open, your ears to the street. And We try to catch everything on the front end. If we can catch it on the front end, it's simple.
LEMON: What does that mean on the front end?
BELL: On the front end means that if I hear about them two having an argument and I can calm them down, look, man that's nothing. It is only a girlfriend. It is not worth your whole life. If we catch it on the front end we can stop it, but on the other hand if someone's shot, it is a more difficult mediation.
LEMON: like him.
BELL: Right. His story is an exception to the rule. He got shot August 1st of last year. I got a phone call so when I got there they was putting him in the ambulance and all his guys was heated. They was high. So I told him that it was a blessing from god because he got shot point blank and he lived.
LEMON: Why did you listen to him?
NEKENYA HARDY, CEASEFIRE VIOLENCE INTERRUPTER: Basically I really listened to him because of the fact of him bringing my - both of my baby mamas in there like I said and be realizing that they're pregnant and the situation that was going on with me that I probably got to be here for my kids. He made me think about more about my kids instead of myself.
LEMON: So you guys know where these guys are coming from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LEMON: Because you've been there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LEMON: Do you think that makes you respect you more or listen to you more because you've been there before?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe they know we came from the underworld. You know, we live in a sub culture. They believe that because we got out of it, there's a way out. They need the information that we give them to get out.
LEMON: Will they listen to you guys - because the police department tries to - they try to do the same thing with the gang task force and all of that stuff.
BELL: No. What the police do is oppression. You know, lock them up, throw away the key. That's it. That's all. What we try to do is change the norm. Change and let them know that the behavior is abnormal. It is not normal to sell drugs. It's not normal to kill people.
LEMON: So when the police ride up, they scatter.
BELL: Right.
LEMON: When you ride up...
BELL: What's up? Credible messenger.
LEMON: Why is it, what's up?
BELL: Because in most of the communities that we're in, we try to get people from that area that are credible messages, and there's change from their neighborhood. Like what Jack (ph) was saying about me. I'm big homie. He know I did a long stretch. He know I changed my life. He know I could have jumped back in but I didn't.
LEMON: Go ahead.
BELL: And I say, I mean, we don't have solutions for the economic problems. So me, myself, I don't go out there trying to figure out from trying to change them from selling dope all the time. because I don't have anything to substitute for what they are doing.
LEMON: So here's what's interesting. I spoke to the police department and they said to me, it seems to be what is working for you is that needs to happen in Chicago right now is not to get people to stop selling drugs, not to get people to do whatever, it is to stop the violence.
BELL: We don't care how you eat. Don't shoot. Don't shoot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: CeaseFire's outreach workers partner with families and communities. Their director Theo Hardiman says the organization mediated 220 conflicts from January to July of this year and they provided resources to 900 men and women looking to get off the streets. CeaseFire has outreach workers who partner with the families and communities and again they provide resources to young men and young women who are trying to get off the streets. We want to tell you now about some of your feedback. Here is some of the feedback here.
Here is what rio1054 (ph) says: "This is so very, very sad. Probably not the only place it is happening. America needs to wake up. No guns. Bravo, Don. Insite45 (ph) important issues in Chicago - these kids need to believe in education but more importantly experience real life benefits of one."
Madnews101: "Don, I am so glad you are covering the story, this Chicago story. I haven't seen anything on the other news networks. You're awesome."
Thank you for that. Of course, we appreciate your feedback on Twitter or any of the other social networking sites.
Coming up...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNE DUNCAN, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: It's the one area why I felt during my time in Chicago, we improved in so many ways. This is one area where I feel like an absolute failure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan talks about the challenge of stopping the violence. Plus, parents step up to the plate with their own solutions. Chicago's deadly streets. And you can see more of my reporting from Chicago as well as my producer's blog about her personal connection to this story. It's all on our Web site, cnn.com/newsroom. Just click on Don.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: President Obama is from Chicago. So is his education secretary, Arne Duncan. As CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Duncan wrestled for years with the alarming rise in teenage deaths in his city. I sat down with him recently to discuss what can and should be done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (on camera): When you see all of the kids, you know, all of the people killed in Chicago this year, it is terrible that it happened, but many of them are school-aged kids. It is happening in and around schools. Solution?
DUNCAN: First of all, it's a devastating problem and it's not acceptable. And you know, kids can't learn if they don't feel safe. It's the one area why I felt during my time in Chicago we improved in so many ways. This is one area why I feel like an absolute failure. And in fact -
LEMON: Why do you say you feel like a failure with that?
DUNCAN: I look at trends. And from the time I started raising this five years ago when 20 students were killed. I think every year those numbers have gotten worse not better.
LEMON: I know it is not just numbers. You know, because Kristina Waters is someone that you knew and you know her family.
DUNCAN: Well, this was by far the hardest part of my job in Chicago, was going to classrooms after kids were killed and trying to explain to those classmates with an empty desk what happened and why, trying to give some meaning to that. Going to the homes of loved ones who lost their son or daughter, going to the funerals of these children.
I'm the father of two young children. I'm always a father first. And what these families go through is simply unimaginable to me. And these are innocent children. These are children who are going to and from school. These are children who are shot at 7:30 in the morning by an AK-47 in their living room getting ready for school.
These are children, Blair Holt, who was shot at 2:30 in the afternoon on the way home on a public bus going home. This is Kristina Waters, who thank God, survived, who is shot at a church picnic on a Sunday afternoon two weeks before she leaves to go to college.
LEMON: So, you can name those kids by name. So then what do you do in order to help those kids back in your hometown?
DUNCAN: Well, we have to do a number of things. First of all, we are trying to put unprecedented resources behind creating climates where student can be safe. So money is a piece of the issue. And we are looking for $400 million that we want to put out on a competitive basis to those districts, those communities who are willing to tackle this courageously, tackle this head on.
Second, we have to really think more broadly. This is not just about school safety. And you know, knock on wood in Chicago, none of these, zero of these shootings have occurred in schools. These are all out in the community. And so while we should to take pride and work hard and be vigilant to make sure our schools become those safe havens, that simply is not enough.
I think we've been willing to sort of stop at the front doors. And if our children can't get to and from school safely, they still can't concentrate on Algebra and Biology and AP Physics. And so we really have to think about how we work with churches, how we work with community groups. How we engaged the entire community to create not just schools that are safe havens but entire neighborhoods where children don't talk about if I grow up, not when I grow up. It is just crazy to me.
LEMON: It's not just what happens in school as far as reading, writing, arithmetic. Sometimes you have to teach kids conflict resolution. Do you think that should be taught in schools and if so when? How early should it be thought?
DUNCAN: We have to make sure our children are fed and not hungry. We have to make sure our children can see the blackboard and we have to make sure our children are learning conflict resolution skills and they have to interact with their peers and decrease stress rather than, you know, escalating everything and so many of these shootings are over nothing. Over absolutely nothing.
LEMON: Somebody stepped on my shoe or...
DUNCAN: Looked at me the wrong way, said the wrong thing. And to your point, no one has worked with the children to says that is not a mortal blow. That is not a challenge to your manhood. And if fact, if you are a man or a, you know, a maturing young man, picking up a gun is not the solution, just destroys your life as well as the person you shoot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Secretary Duncan really had much, much more to say. So to watch the interview in its entirety, just go to our blog, cnn.com/newsroom and click on Don.
Time for some of your feedback real quickly. Tony Blunt (ph) says it is not Obama's job to address the violence in Chicago. He can't micromanage when he has to run the country. Another viewer writes educating people is the best way to go. And that's what CNN does. I prefer CNN to other news programs because you guys do you care.
All right. We always appreciate your feedback here on CNN. Holding President Obama accountable for the deadly violence in his hometown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our president of the United States is from here. He knows. He's from Hyde Park. He knows what's going on here. And it's time for him to address this as a major issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We will look for ways to end the violence on a local and a national level.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: An immediate international intervention in Chicago. No one knows the need for that more than the parents of children who have been killed. Many of those moms and dads were born and raised in Chicago. But no longer feel safe at home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (on camera): Do you feel safe when you're leaving your house and out in the city? If you feel unsafe, raise your hand. Everybody except for you. You feel safe?
RONALD HOLT, BLAIR HOLT'S FATHER: I feel safe because, one, I refuse to live in fear.
LEMON: But the reality is...
HOLT: That's the reality. That's my reality. That's my reality. I refuse to live in fear. When our son was taken from us, I told myself what else is there to fear?
LEMON: I don't hear you guys mentioning drugs.
HOLT: It's tied together because that's a part of the underbelly of society. Gangs, guns and drugs go together like baseball and apple pie in America.
ROMMIE BOSLEY, TERRELL BOSLEY'S FATHER: In the prison system, there is no deterrent. They go in and they come out and it's almost like they're glamour type. I mean everybody looks at this guy who just got out as a hey, it didn't break him. So it won't break me.
LEMON: So cool.
BOSLEY: So they don't mind. The consequences are not there.
LEMON: What would you like to see done? Is the city doing enough? Are parents doing enough? The community? I mean what...
BOSLEY: It's a combination of things. I think the community has to be outraged. And, unfortunately, individuals don't get outraged until they become a victim. Two, our president of the United States is from here. He knows. He's from Hyde Park. He knows what's going on here. And it's time for him to address this as a major issue.
MICHELE LINTON-DELASHMENT, KERMIT DELASHMENT JR.'S MOTHER: It's a combination of all of the above. Everybody's got to band together.
LEMON: Do you agree with what he says? Is this a national issue now?
LINTON-DELASHMENT: Oh, my God.
LEMON: Would you like to see the president...
LINTON-DELASHMENT: He needs to say no more. No more. Respect it.
VOICE OF CYNTHIA WATERS, CHRISTINA WATERS'S MOTHER: I mean realistically, because I'm still kind of cynical. I don't think that we'll live in an oh, I love you put the guns down kind of world. We just won't.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But weren't we like that the day he became president?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We were. LINTON-DELASHMENT: Didn't we band together and come to Grant Park and it didn't matter if you pushed me or stepped on my foot or touched me. I had no fear in the city because we finally got an African-American president. We were million strong in Grant Park. So how come we can't be a million strong for gun control?
LEMON: A lot of this is happening near schools, school age kids. Arne Duncan is from here too. And Arne Duncan is very passionate about this. What do you say to the Education secretary?
HOLT: It's viewed as a national health and safety issue, which it is because the CDC has come up with four factors as to how he can take that gun violence away. On a national level right now, it should be taught as a curriculum in certain levels of school and elementary and in high school.
LEMON: What do you say to the world who is watching this about your son and about all these people who around you who have lost or their kids were injured?
LINTON-DELASHMENT: No mother or father, sibling, grandparent should feel like we feel. It's not easy sitting here talking about somebody who you want - you can't hold. You know, most of us who have lost children, we lost our kids. We had good kids. We enjoyed spending quality time with them. And it was taken senselessly. I hope you never feel like I feel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Our conversation about the shootings in Chicago and our search for solutions doesn't end here. Tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, a special agent in charge of the Chicago office of the Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms, and Explosives. He is going to join us live along with the former chief of the Chicago Police Department.
We'll ask them where the drugs and the guns are coming from and what is being done to get them off the streets. We want to tell you a little bit about that in just a second. First, I want to get your feedback out of the way so I can talk about what we hear first. Here's what some of you are saying...
Before the U.S. saves the world, can we start in Chicago, New York, west Palm Beach, D.C., L.A.. Another viewer writes, people have become so reckless, no ethics, life morals are extinct. I pray that this show opens eyes. We must come together.
Again, we appreciate your feedback on the social networking sites. I want to share when we talk about that. We're going to have those law enforcement folks on a little bit later on tonight. And just speaking to them, taking some of the notes, we told you there were 258 homicides through the end of July in Chicago. They were saying 108 of those victims were from the ages of 17 to 25 years of age. 17 to 25 years of age. 108 people.
It is unbelievable what is going on. And ironically, you know, the children and all of this were taken to the same hospital. They mentioned the same room. I wanted you to hear this exchange I had about what they call the room.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (on camera): You said it's not the room.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were all in the same hospital.
LEMON: Where is that room?
LINTON-DELASHMENT: Well, I refused the room. It's the family room. And it's the room that they take you in when they know that your loved one is already gone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, we're going to see you back here at 10:00, where we're going to talk about this a little more as well as the rest of the news. According to law enforcement, there is a pipeline of guns that comes from Mississippi to Illinois and Indiana. And they can fix the problem by starting there. I'll see you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
"STATE OF THE UNION" with John King begins right now.
