A violence prevention activist says “the police have disengaged” and wants unity in the fight against crime in Chicago

Chicago activist Tio Hardiman is preaching unity in the fight to tackle rising crime rates in the city after new data reveals incidents of violent crime even as October rose to its second highest level in the past five years.

Of the 29,260 violent crimes reported over the past 12 months, Chicago Police Department statistics show the largest increase in aggravated assault cases is 6.4%, with Black residents most targeted.

“We need to work together in an organized way so that we can reach out to everyone like a safety net so that we can catch all the young men before they cross the line,” Hardiman told The Center Square. “My message is about us working together and uniting so that we can reach more high-risk people.”

As the longtime executive director of Violence Interrupters, Hardiman argued that there is a reason why at least some of the numbers show this trend.

“I really believe the police backed down,” he said. “With all of the criminal justice reform policies that are in place right now, there isn’t really a concerted effort to keep people safe, especially in the African-American community. I know good policing can work, but at the same time, policing has failed in the Black community. It’s like at night, the police are nowhere to be seen unless there is a car accident.

Then there are policies that Hardiman says are equally harmful to the cause of violence prevention.

“Most of the funding allocated to preventing violence has become political,” he said. “If you are not on the right side politically, you may not receive funding to reduce gun violence in Chicago or to reduce violence overall. We need to take politics away from the police. We need to remove politics from violence prevention services. This is where we failed. We have to stop the boys before they cross the line.

Data shows that the city’s black residents are 5.4 times more likely to be the victim of an aggravated assault compared to white residents, and 80% of all such assaults over the past year occurred on the city’s South and West sides. Most attacks are taking place in the Austin neighborhood where Mayor Brandon Johnson is located.

“Clearly, these strategies do not work when it comes to implementing effective policing strategies in the Black community,” Hardiman said. “Many perpetrators of violence know that the odds of being apprehended or convicted are probably 70% in their favor.”

As the number of aggravated assault cases skyrockets, data shows that the arrest rate in such cases remains at just 1 in 6 cases.