Chicago Holds Teen Town Hall To Address Violence

CHICAGO (CBS) — City leaders Saturday morning focused on the issue of teen violence in a special town hall meeting to give neighbors a chance to speak out and talk with each other. 

Teens who spoke with CBS 2’s Shardaa Gray say the town hall was successful because they heard from people of different backgrounds expressing their concerns of what is happening in their neighborhoods. 

Billy Hayes, a junior at Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men’s Englewood campus, said there is one main thing he wants to see change. 

“Mainly gun violence in Chicago,” he said. “Hopefully the rates will go down this summer. Same thing with carjackings, robberies, theft. Stuff like that.” 

Young people have not only been victims but offenders as well. In February, 15-yera-old anthony Brown was charged as an adult with first degree murder in the death of 15-year-old Michael Brown. He is also charged with carjacking a rideshare driver at gunpoint. 

In January, 16-year-old Emilio Corripio was charged in the murder of 8-year-old Melissa Ortega.

And an 11-year-old boy has been charged with carjacking two women at gunpoint in November in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood.

Michael Thomas is a program manager for Violence Interrupters in the North Lawndale area.

“If you don’t have the right guidance, you want to go that route,” he said. “It’s very easy to get influenced and get caught up in the streets.”

Things got heated as Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of public health, answered questions.

Michael Britton from the Austin neighborhood had a question: What is the city doing to get the youth involved in making decisions to better their community? 

“For me to be able to voice it on a higher level, it was a different experience for me because a lot of kids, we’re in the shadows with it,” he said. 

The mayor answered his question by saying the city recently started the first mayor’s youth commission, where they can talk with city council members about issues they are concerned with in their neighborhood. 

Lightfoot also said one of the conversations she heard was kids wanting adults to be more present in their lives.