Chicago Murder Rate 2012: Heaven Is the Latest Victim
Changing behaviors involves teaching gang members and former gang members to resolve conflicts. Today, so many youths are quick to pick up a weapon rather than talk, Hardiman said.
“Right now, shooting is the new fad,” Hardiman said. “They get instant credibility. People go to sleep thinking who they are going to victimize the next day. It has to be addressed as a public health issue because you have younger people growing up with the same mindset.
“Eighty percent of the homicides in the city are black-on-black homicides,” Hardiman continued. “People don’t know how to get along. Some of them have low self-esteem. They resort to killing when they feel intimidated. We’re teaching them to talk to one another, how to say, ‘I didn’t mean to look at you crazy.’ “
Indeed, CeaseFire has worked closely with Heaven’s family and within the community to prevent further violence, said Banks, who has three remaining children, ages 18, 15 and 11, all boys. Tensions ran so high after her daughter’s death that there was a fear that someone would retaliate for the taking of such a young life, Carl Bell, the violence interrupter who has been with the Banks family since the shooting, told The Root.