just what is the role of gangs in
chicago's violence problem
a spate of shootings of young people in
recent weeks has put a renewed spotlight
on the issue
the city has had gangs as long as it has
been incorporated but the structures
have evolved over the years
leaving more fractured and perhaps a
more violent system
than ever before and joining us are
jervon hicks a former gang member who
spent time in prison he is now a life
coach at the youth peace center of
roseland
miguel cambray director of strategic
partnerships and initiatives for ready
chicago at heartland
alliance and beneth lee also a former
chicago gang member who spent 15 years
in illinois prisons
he is now an instructor in criminal
justice studies
at northeastern illinois university and
co-founder of the national alliance for
the empowerment of the formerly
incarcerated
we did invite the chicago police
department to send a representative to
join us tonight but they declined
we do appreciate all of you being here
welcome to chicago tonight
thanks for having me all right i'll
start with you javon so help me
understand
the allure of gangs in chicago for
so much of the city's youth um i just
know
off top social media plays a large role
um
a big part of the influence um i don't
necessarily call them games because
there's really no structure
they're more like clicks factions um and
just groups just like radicals
so um we just try and engage those guys
we deal with hot spots
um high crime areas uh key individuals
just trying to get them to buy into the
system by building relationships
and building a bond and showing them
something different by providing them
services that can help them
become better men as they grow within
them and javon back in the day can you
describe what drew you
uh into that kind of life um i think i
was more intrigued by
um you know to be honest uh it was it
was a blue devil jacket they had a
pitchfork on it um and i kind of
levitated to that
um and then i was just really interested
in the laws and policies so i was i was
really
more into teaching guys how to be better
at what we were as part of
organization but um and then i just
found myself having a love for guns
and i started getting myself in a lot of
trouble and
that's what landed me here today and
we'll we'll talk about that in a moment
uh ben if
uh you heard javon talk about how gangs
have changed there's no real former
structure
what is this structure right now
compared to what it was 10 20 30 years
ago
well um you got some guys
that that honor the nation they part of
you know like the vice lord nation the
disciple nations donation
because some guys claim those names but
they don't honor the nation itself
and that's what a breakdown that you
know like javon was saying
you know since they done broke down that
hierarchy and put them down not as
state prisoners but took groups of these
so-called areas of organization put them
in a federal
system to break down communication and
the ability
to communicate so now you've got a lot
of clicks like i said you got some guys
that might be
vice lords but they don't honor the vice
lord nation
they renegade and then you might see a
clicker guys on one block but it might
be five vice lords two disciples
and one stone and they getting money
together their husband that's how they
move in there so it's kind of hard to
say
this is a street gang specifically that
did this act
so with prosecution in rico cases it's
kind of broken down into more scattered
system more anarchic system
miguel cambrie when you counsel young
kids how much of the violence that you
see the trauma that you see is a result
of
of gang-related activity versus just
simple interpersonal conflict um so just
to be clear ready chicago provides
cognitive behavioral therapy and group
sessions for individuals and the idea of
the cognitive behavioral therapy
is to disrupt impulsive behavior so i
think when we're interacting in terms of
our participants and the communities
that we serve we think about the the
impact of sense of community and the
community's
disinvestment so criminal opportunity is
sort of a derivative of that
from the disinvestment that we have
lived for hundreds of years in
in our spaces so um i i don't know to
to the to a gentleman's point on sort of
the deconstruction of gangs today and
back then
i think a lot has changed from back then
i mean at one point we were party crews
and then we were picked up by a fraction
right
or they were sort of just neighborhood
corners specifically that represented
sports alliances that turned into bigger
fractions
um so i agree that there's been sort of
a change in the evolution of the way
that folks
affiliate or associate um but again in
terms of the recklessness that you asked
earlier
it's a continuation um of of our
environment and our environment
impact on us um and our resilience to
survive
um and to be relevant in our communities
and speaking of survival a big part of
that is guns jarvan you were talking
about how you became really drawn to
guns
i've heard you say that you were
addicted to guns
at what point uh can you just talk about
that addiction and why guns are just so
prevalent um even even even
when i when i began carrying uh firearms
i just i just know it was a power move
um
i don't think there's nothing to be
handed held in your hand that's more
powerful than
a firearm unless you have a large bank
account and lost all the money
however the addiction came from seeing
fear in another's eyes
um did i know i was doing wrong
absolutely did i know it was illegal
absolutely
um but the thing of getting caught was
far from my mind
um and just like right now today they
running around here with 50 round drums
and
100 round clips and switches and things
that's that's like futuristic
right and so that's that's more
intriguing than them um and like i told
you earlier it's more like
you know we have a vaccine for for for
coving i'm trying to find a vaccine for
a trigger finger
something that i can inject in that
finger to make him stop using it and uh
until then i'm not and i'm not gonna
stop uh until we figure out
something else to add to the tool bill
besides the weapon and benefit you know
kids at a young age can be drawn into
this and even if someone offers them an
alternative or says stay in school get
good grades or
come to my peace circle that allure is
still very powerful so how do you combat
that for young people
well most young people uh they get drawn
into what's happening in the community
you know the average high school a young
brother in chicago goes to is
outside his neighborhood so he might
meet some friends at that high school
that might be plugged with a certain set
and they become friends and then all of
a sudden he claiming that set
or he just might be in the area where
it's a prevalent
uh street organization there and because
he lived there
now he's labeled as that and sort of
like i can't beat him join he get pulled
into it
so i think what really needs to happen
we need to get on these blocks in these
communities
build relationships you know get them to
like talk to each other
because if i got a relationship with
javon it'd be hard for me to shoot you
behind
right if the man javon got a
relationship and he got buddies i got
buddies
uh i might be talking crazy about doing
something to him
one of his own guys could tell me he
said man you need to sneeze with that
man let me holler dude
you know but those relationships got to
happen that's what the work we do
and now about is getting on these blocks
and help build relationships
get brothers to look at things a little
different you know again
together in a room that might be part of
different clicks have you seen
detentions diffuse
yeah i mean i'm from the austin area you
know we had a situation where there was
two guys
two groups we was at it we brought them
face to face see what they
all had in common they came to an
agreement and then one brought up the
fact we need to get this other group in
here
because that's their allies and then we
got them in the next no we had
nine little clicks together talking in
the beginning yeah they came strapped up
with they pilsen but after
maybe the third or fourth meeting you
didn't see that anymore you didn't see
the security of that they would ask each
other for a short on this
cigarette afterwards it's just building
those relationships and then
uh incidents might happen in the
community right today they'll call each
other let's
investigate that before we react to it
and that's because we don't set up a
safe environment
for them to have that dialogue and look
at all these variables that lead to
tension
interfacing seems to be so important to
miguel comrade what about the work that
your organization does on an individual
level
cognitive behavioral level how do you
how do you reach
some of these youth well similar to
banning i mean we some of our sites up
we we have been able to engage over 700
individuals throughout four
neighborhoods in the city of chicago
and in one of our sites we have about 12
mobs right 12 clicks um in one site
so we we we work to build similar to
benny's point build a sense of community
a sense of purpose and a sense of
self-worth
and that happens through relational
building and intentional building and
that happens over a duration of time
um obviously a lot of folks carry guns
for assessing safety or a sense of
perpetration but
building a sense of hope and a sense of
community helps sort of de-escalate that
tension that you're referring to
and we start to see one another as
humans right and the trauma behind our
violence
and the self-hate you know from one to
another um that sort of we've been
that's been built in us over the years
such important work uh to be done out
there and such important work that
you're doing
and we thank you all for uh sharing your
views here thanks for joining us
thanks for having us thanks for having
me