Rahm has a plan for more social programs to help integrate the newly arrived illegal alien children into the community as a precursor to stopping the violence.
Shortly after the Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy announced an 18-year-old teen had been charged in the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Shamiya Adams, Mayor Rahm Emanuel got a grilling from teens on the South Side.
The students, who are upper classmen at several Chicago public high schools, are participating in Greencorps Youth Program, a violence prevention summer employment program.
Greencorps, sponsored by the “Leave No Veteran Behind” non-profit organization, has an innovative bike repair project and a program that teaches young people about urban agriculture.
After viewing a garden project on the corner of 76th and Saginaw, the mayor sat down Thursday with 20 students to a Papa Johns pizza lunch held in the basement of the Windsor Park Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Not surprisingly, several questions from the teens had to do with ongoing gun violence.
One teen asked what could the mayor do to expand a Chicago teen’s life expectancy?
Another asked what could be done to get more gangs off the corner?
In each instance, the mayor rattled on about the benefits of the city’s summer jobs program, building community trust in law enforcement, and the role the teens themselves play in reducing the violence.
“There’s certain things I can do… I have a role to play… You have a role to play. A big piece of that is what you are doing this summer and what you are doing next year because that has a big impact… What you do with your life is a big piece of it,” the mayor said.
But the tragic circumstances surrounding Shamiya’s death made the mayor’s response sound hollow.
Tevin Lee, the teen charged with firing the gun that sent a bullet flying through a slightly open window, killing yet another innocent, apparently worked with an anti-violence program.
In fact, a man who worked with Lee described him as “very humble” and “eager to learn.”