The holidays were missing the gang photo (op-ed)

During the Baltimore riots of 2015 a gang photo circulated online. It featured rival gang members with members of the Nation of Islam. Underneath the picture was a caption that said: Unity

Gang apologist suggested the rivals united to ensure safety and prevent looting, but it was just a truce to show solidarity with those “rebelling” against police brutality, making the gang photo a display of the old adage: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

After the riots “the enemy” retreated and, within a month, Baltimore’s crime rate skyrocketed. Homicides rose by 33% and non-fatal shootings increased by 60%, compared to the previous year.

Since this surge of violence wasn’t inflicted by an external enemy, it wasn’t a photo op for gang unity. But the black mayor fired the black police commissioner for not doing his job and that photograph went viral.

At that point I realized there was a missing gang photo.

Months later a 9 year-old-boy was assassinated by a gang member in a Chicago alley because of his father’s rival gang affiliation. In response I wrote an op-ed titled “The missing gang photo”. I described and dismissed the Baltimore gang photo as fraudulent and suggested the only gang photo that has validity is a historic photo depicting young men making a permanent departure from gang culture because the assassination of a child makes gang participation in itself depraved.

But the photo op was missed. The father of the boy didn’t cooperate with the police, retaliated, and ended up in jail. (I describe that incident in another op-ed titled “The gang photo is still missing” and after that there’s another op-ed about gang violence titled “The missing gang photo matters”.)

Chicago’s police superintendent called the boy’s assassination “the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime” that he witnessed in 35 years of policing. I’m suggesting the boy’s assassination should be remembered like the most infamous shooting in Chicago -- The St. Valentine’s day massacre.

In 1929 Al Capone’s men, disguised as police officers, gun downed seven rival gang members. This hit eliminated Capone’s chief rival and made Capone ruler of Chicago’s underworld. But the publicity of the massacre made Capone “public enemy number one”, and two years later Capone was convicted and sent to prison for 11 years. (It was for tax evasion, but it satisfied the public demand, which was getting rid of Capone.)

Recently, over the Christmas weekend, Chicago’s Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters there were 27 shooting incidents and 12 of them were fatal. Johnson said, “The violence primarily occurred in areas with historical gang conflicts … These were deliberate and planned shootings by one gang against another.

They were targeted knowing fully well that individuals would be at the homes of family and friends celebrating the holidays. In one Christmas night incident, a man walked out of an alley, opened fired on people partying on a porch … Two brothers 18 and 21 years old died and five people were wounded.” Ninety percent of those killed had gang affiliations, but what about the other 10 percent?

In 2016 Chicago had 753 homicides and 3,495 shooting incidents. (10% of those figures are how many?) Even wars have rules against killing civilians and those that violate them are charged with crimes against humanity.

But Chicago’s Police Superintendent complained that criminals feel empowered and emboldened by recent criticisms of police. “When they feel the public will speak out for them and not the police officers, that’s giving them the power to go out and do what they did.”

President Barack Obama is a former Chicago community organizer maybe after his presidency he can return to Chicago and become a photographer.

First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 1/4/17