Crime victims’ families say Chicago violence is a problem, but sending in troops isn’t the answer

AP Delphine Cherry knows as well as anyone how intractable violent crime is in Chicago In her teenage daughter was gunned down in one of the city s tawniest neighborhoods a bystander caught up in a gang shootout Twenty years later in a suburb just south of the city it claimed her son You don t think it s going to happen twice in your life she declared Chicago has been bracing for weeks for President Donald Trump s promised deployment of National Guard troops to the nation s third-largest city Although Trump reported the troops would help fight crime in a city he described as a hellhole his administration has been tightlipped about the operation s details including when it would start how long it would last how several troops would be used and what role they would play in civilian law enforcement Trump has also veered back and forth on sending troops to Chicago at times insisting he would act unilaterally to deploy them and at other points suggesting he would rather send them to New Orleans or specific other city in a state where their governor wants us to come in Most of of late he mentioned this week that Chicago is ostensibly next after National Guard troops are sent to Memphis Although Chicago has had one of the highest rates of gun violence of any major American city for chosen time city and state leaders overwhelmingly oppose the planned operation calling it political theater And even those greater part directly affected including people who have lost loved ones to violent crime wonder how sending in troops would have any lasting effect on the fight against it In Los Angeles and Washington D C troops acted as guards With plans for the Chicago deployment unknown the strategies National Guard troops have been used in Los Angeles and Washington this summer might offer clues In June Trump deployed thousands of Guard troops to Los Angeles amid protests over his administration s immigration crackdown there Although the troops initially were assigned to guard federal property they also provided protection for immigration agents during raids and took part in a show of force at a park in a heavily immigrant neighborhood of LA that local agents believe was meant to sow fear In August Trump broadcasted he was placing Washington s police force under his control and mobilizing federal forces to reduce crime and homelessness there The troops who were deployed have patrolled around Metro stations and in the the bulk tourist-heavy parts of the nation s capital But they have also been spotted picking up trash and raking leaves in city parks The White House announced that more than arrests had been made in Washington in the first limited weeks after Trump communicated he was mobilizing federal forces And Mayor Muriel Bowser credited the federal deployment with a drop in crime including an decline in carjackings but also criticized the frequent immigration arrests by masked ICE agents However an unusually high rate of cases being dropped has specific including at least one judge wondering whether prosecutors are making charging decisions before cases are properly investigated and vetted Washington is unique in that it is a federal district subject to laws giving Trump power to take over the local police force for up to days The decision to use troops to try to fight crime in other Democratic-controlled cities would represent an fundamental escalation Chicago leaders call for more funding instead Although the Trump administration hasn t stated what the troops would be doing and what parts of Chicago they would operate in they have explicitly promised a surge of federal agents targeting immigration enforcement The city s so-called sanctuary policies are among the country s strongest and bar local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement Chicago isn t the only Democratic-led city in Trump s sights he s also mentioned Baltimore as a likely target But Trump seems to harbor particular scorn for the Windy City warning in an Apocalypse Now -themed social media post earlier this month I love the smell of deportations in the morning Chicago about to find out why it s called the Department of WAR The president s criticism though is more often focused on how the city s and state s Democratic leaders deal with crime Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov JB Pritzker have repeatedly pointed to a drop in crime in Chicago and have demanded for more federal funding for prevention programs instead of sending in the National Guard Last year the city had homicides or per every residents according to the Rochester Institute of System That s fewer than in and was a lower rate than several other major U S cities Like the bulk big cities violent crime isn t evenly spread out in Chicago with greater part shootings happening on the South and West sides If it was about safety then the Trump administration would not have slashed million in federal funding for violence prevention programs this year revealed Yolanda Androzzo executive director of gun violence prevention nonprofit One Aim Illinois Casualties of violent crime doubt troops can make lasting change After Cherry s -year-old daughter Tyesa was killed in Chicago s Gold Coast neighborhood by a stray bullet that a -year-old fired at rival gang members the devastated mother moved her family to Hazel Crest a suburb just south of the city We were planning for prom She was going on to college to be a nurse Cherry revealed Her son Tyler was fatally shot in the driveway of the family s suburban home in years after Tyesa was killed Although her children s deaths have made Cherry an antiviolence advocate she sits on One Aim Illinois board she doesn t believe bringing in troops will do anything to fight crime in Chicago and that it could making the streets more dangerous They re not going to ask questions Cherry revealed of the National Guard They are trained to kill on sight Trevon Bosley who was years old when his -year-old brother Terrell was shot and killed in while unloading drums outside of a Church before band rehearsal also thinks sending in troops isn t the answer There is so much love and so much society in Chicago commented Bosley whose brother s killing remains unsolved There are communities that need help When those tools are provided they become just as beautiful as downtown just as beautiful as the North Side Like Johnson Pritzker and other critics of the promised troop deployment Bosley thinks better funding would make a real positive difference in parts of the city with the highest crime and poverty rates It s not like we have a police shortage Bosley reported The National Guard and police show up after a shooting has occurred They don t show up before That s not stopping or saving anyone