Pfleger calls weekend shootings a “national emergency”

Seeks end to ‘genocide,’ wants NATO to return to South Side

 

By Chinta Strausberg

 

CHICAGO, IL – With nine people lying on the front yard of Saint Sabina representing those who were killed over the weekend and scores of others wearing mock blood stained T-shirts indicating the wounded, Father Michael L. Pfleger Monday called the shootings a national emergency and begged shooters to lay down their guns.

When Father Pfleger sent out the call earlier today for supporters to meet him at Saint Sabina, more than 170 showed up including Anthony Sarpy an Afghanistan and Iraq Army veteran who left his Riverdale home at 4:30 p.m. and arrived in time for the 5 p.m. press conference.

Referring to this bloody weekend, Pfleger said it was “full of violence in Chicago. The Wild, Wild West is coming to the Midwest. Chicago is becoming another place, a poster boy for violence around this country,” he told a bevy of reporters.

Condemning the escalation of violence, Pfleger said, “We saw people gather downtown last week about the violence in Samaria. This is not Samaria. This is Chicago. This is not a Third World Country. This is the United States of America, and we’re here to condemn the violence and to express our outrage to it,” he bellowed.

Pointing to the nine people feigning death who laid on the grass and others standing wearing mocked blood-stained T-shirts representing people who were wounded over the weekend, Pfleger said, “We’re wearing these today because we want to represent the people who were shot and these nine people are those killed this weekend….

“This is a national emergency. This is an epidemic. There is genocide going on in the United States of America and in Chicago. These are not just statistics. These are human beings…. They are United States citizens who deserve to be protected, and they are citizens of Chicago who deserve to live.

“I am tired of hearing about children terrorized. They can’t go on their front porch. They can’t go in their yards. Can’t go on their playgrounds to play.”

Referring to the recently held NATO summit held in Chicago and was he upset over the resulting Red zone, Pfleger said he wants a return of NATO. “I just wish it would go all the way to 87^th Street. Control the whole city and have no violence. I’m all for that.”

He told of a conversation he had with teenager who saw a news report about a veterans returning from Afghanistan who was met and honored with a big parade. “That’s good and they should, but the teenager said to me, ‘I feel there should be a parade every time I make it home from school.’

“What kind of craziness is that?” asked Pfleger. “There is a war here in America, and there is a war here in our streets of Chicago. These are citizens who deserve to be protected. I want NATO to come back, but let them come back to the South Side of Chicago and let’s protect our communities here.”

Sarpy, 28, echoed similar sentiments. He just retuned from four tours from both Iraq and Afghanistan for a total of nine-years in the military. On the violence, Sarpy said, “It’s outrageous. The self-hatred that is going on among black people has to be corrected. A lot of the violence is unwarranted and uncalled for.

“Everybody can talk about it, protest about it, but nothing gets done without action,” Sarpy said. “If you get other strong black male positive figures such as myself and other brothers that I know personally to come out here and talk to these children…, you can see the decrease in crime and violence.

“But, you also have to realize that a lot of these gangs ain’t got nothing to do. There is no opportunity, no hope, and when you are deprived of an opportunity, you choose other opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t do,” said Sarpy. “We got to go back to the grassroots level and make a change for yourself.”

He said people must have a greater presence in the community and like in Afghanistan “when you build schools and community centers, people don’t want to do violence or hurt others….”

When told that some people feel rebels and not gangs are committing the violence, Sarpy disagrees saying it’s more like a family structure. “You got kids basically raising kids. Mothers becoming mothers at 14, 15, 16. They’re still not grown. They are still adolescents. There’s a lot of anger and frustration. You got a lot of these kids growing up without fathers, without resources, without an opportunity.

“It’s less of a gang because most people who join gangs join them out of a sense of that fatherless….” Saying he was born on the West Side and grew up in the Roseland area, Sarpy said, “It’s not the fact that these kids are rebels. They don’t have nothing to do. They don’t have that figure around them to mold them….” Asked how can the community reduce violence, Sarpy said, “One person at a time.”

Referring to the increase of police on the street by 1,000 officers, Pfleger said, yet, crime is up 50 percent in murders. Police are not going to solve this thing alone. What we want is for people to break the code of silence.

“We want to beg every person in Chicago (to) lay down the guns. Guns are not the way to solve problems, arguments, and outrage in our community. Lay down the guns. Man up and woman up and talk with your mouth and use your minds. Punks use guns,” said Pfleger. “We’re begging people to lay down your guns, and we’re begging people to be outraged.”

Referring to the two men who were attacked by a mob of young people on North Michigan Avenue, better known as the ‘Magnificent Mile,’ and media attention on the protest over the killings in Syria held at the James R. Thompson Center, Pfleger said, “I want Chicagoans to be outraged about 9 people killed and 46 or 50 who got shot.

“This is not a South Side problem. This is not a West Side problem. This is not a North Side Problem. This is not a South suburb problem. This is a Chicago problem,” he said. Pfleger said those who were shot over the weekend “are our family…. We are begging Chicago to get bad, get outraged, rise up and decide you’re not going to tolerate this genocide going on in Chicago. It’s unacceptable.”

Looking again at the 9 bodies laying down, Pfleger said, “They are real people…. Don’t get immune to it. This is sickness in America,” asking a woman to sing, “We Need Thee.”

When asked by reporters what should people do, Pfleger said, “They should stop being silent. Get rid of the guns. Legislators, where are you? Why are legislators in Springfield scared? They can cut money from poor people, but they can’t stop guns from killing. To the statehouse and the state senate, get some backbone.

“Register guns in the state of Illinois like we asked them to do,” he said. “Get rid of guns that are illegal on the streets and people come out of your houses.”

Referring to critics to claim if one person stands up he or she becomes a target to more violence, Pfleger said, “If 20 people stand up, there is no target. We want everybody on every block. You pay rent there. You pay mortgage there. Own your block.”

“I am not looking for the police. I’m looking for residents, neighbors. I’m looking for young people. This is murder,” and for those who remain silent, he warned, “It’s coming to your door, and when you come here crying because your child was shot, my first question is where were you when the other children were shot”?

Asked if it’s time for a summit, Pfleger said, “I’m for a summit if there is an action after a summit. If there is not an action after a summit, no, I’m not for a summit. We need action. We protected the world downtown. Let’s protect folks out here.”

Pfleger had activist Camiella D. Williams to read the names of those who were killed over the weekend. As Williams called the death roll, Pfleger’s eyes turned to the 9 people lying on the grass. “Rashaun Stephany, 22, Kenneth Jones, 21, Derrick Wilkerson, 21, Joseph Briggs, 16, Donnell Smith, 50, Johnathan Duncan, 22, Shondell Adams, 21 and Dante Kyles, 21.” Pfleger whispered, ‘Babies.”

Looking at the children present at the press conference, Pfleger said, “They deserve to live….” He walked over to the 9 people who were pretending to be shot. “They represent nine real people murdered on one weekend.” Pfleger said these bodies represent the pain of the families of the deceased.

Asked if people have gotten to complacent about this violence, Pfleger said, “I don’t know how people could be complacent about murder….”

“Stop the violence. Stop the silence. Stop the shooting…, Break the code of silence. Silence kills. No more funerals…,” the crowd chanted. Pfleger said, “The communities have to stand up.”

Pfleger told his supporters to be the voice on their block to make sure they are safe. “I’m tired of these statistics every weekend. I think we are used to it, and I don’t want to get used to it. I am going out every Friday night,” Pfleger said vowing to keep the heat up about the increased violence in Chicago.

Asked about the Governor signing a new lat that allows prosecutors to treat street gangs like federal officials took on the mafia, Pfleger said, “Sometimes there is some order…and there is a whole lot that right now is not about gang control or gang leadership. It’s about rising up and taking control. Who’s the baddest guy this week? It’s about a freelance shooting or who has the baddest reputation on the street.

“I’ve talked to some gang leaders about some stuff going on…. They are doing this on their own.” Pfleger said one youth told him, “We don’t have any recognition from society so our recognition is on the block. So, I like to be control of my block….’”

“I think if it (the new law) helps with the gang when the gang orders direction, fine. It’s sad we had to come to this, but I also think we are going to find out a whole lot of it is not directed from some leader. It’s someone mad on the block. Somebody bumped somebody on the block or somebody who decides that day who wants to be king of that block and that is what is so scary as hell to me right now that guns are the first line of offense of anger, of hating somebody, of who is stronger. Guns have now become the way we get back at one another and it’s frightening,” said Pfleger.

David Atwood, who wore a bloodstained T-shirt, strongly supported Father Pfleger’s labeling the weekend shootings a national emergency. “We need to work together. We need to build community….” He blamed the violence on “a lack of access to education, to health care.

“I grew up going to school in Lindblom High School in Englewood. I’ve seen what has happened to that neighborhood and while it is turning around somewhat, but they don’t have the same access to services,” said Atwood.

“The city closed mental health clinics. I’ve got a problem with that. I don’t think that is the right thing to do. I don’t think that is the right way to treat people. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of veterans who are coming home from Afghanistan and where are their services going to be? They’re going to be stuck,” said Atwood.

Andrew Holmes, director of No Guns, No Violence, said, “These are humans. We’re not statistics. The code of silence must end on the streets and in the homes. There are a lot of fathers who are quiet. They are not talking about gun violence. They are not trying to stop it, and a lot of kids don’t have fathers at home…..

“If some of the fathers would come back home and reach out to their kids and talk about this gun violence, that would help too because children are finding fathers on the streets who are not their fathers and they are looking at these guns as being their fathers…,” said Holmes.

Pfleger said he heard someone on the radio saying the shootings will hurt tourism in Chicago. “I don’t give a damn about tourism. I care about people living. Our kids are hostages in the summer time.” Pfleger said two of his members told their children not to come home from college but rather stay in school or get a job. “We have more guns in this neighborhood than we have computers. Something is wrong with that,” said Pfleger.

Referring to the gun-turn in which is being held Saturday, June 23, 2012 at Saint Sabina, 1210 W. 78^th Place, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pfleger said, “There is never a more important time to turn in guns right now. Get them off the street. Get them out of your house…out of your basements….”

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.