(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) An activist group in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood requested local gangs put time constraints on shootings so citizens do not have to live in fear as they go about their daily lives.
Native Sons proposed what they called “The People’s Ordinance,” pleading with gangs to hold daily cease fires from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to Breitbart.
“Under this ordinance, we ask that people stop associating with and glorifying ‘shooters,’ stop glorifying ‘switches,’ and stop wearing those ski masks everywhere which perpetuates you as some ‘opp,'” said Native Sons co-founder Tatiana Atkins. “When those who live a certain lifestyle try to hang with ‘regular’ class citizens, they put everyone at risk.”
Atkins expressed the desperation of the situation, begging gang members to hold their feuds until the evening and promised parents would have their kids inside as 9 p.m. approached.
“At the end of the day, 5-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, 14-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, 78-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, pregnant women are being killed by gun violence, young boys with bright futures are being killed by gun violence, fathers are being killed by gun violence, and this shouldn’t be happening,” she said.
According to its social media, Native Sons is a grassroots group that emerged as a positive and pro-active way for members of the black community to take matters affecting their neighborhoods, such as crime and drug abuse, into their own hands.
While the group uses Native American imagery, and mentions “indigenous” people and “holistic” healing in its literature, its eponymous name may be partially inspired from Richard Wright’s 1940 bestseller about a 20-year-old black man in Chicago’s South Side whose oppressive social circumstances result in him accidentally murdering the daughter of his white employer.
Chicago had 23 shootings take place last weekend, three of them resulting in death.
The city has seen over 370 deaths so far in 2023.
Violence in the city rose under the tenure of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Current mayor Brandon Johnson has done little to help the desperate situation—allying himself with radical pro-crime groups such as Black Lives Matter and pushing to defund the city’s police.
As an alternative to traditional policing, Johnson said he hopes to implement mental-healthcare programming, violence-prevention programs and greater police accountability.
Another citizen group implemented a text-alert system in order to send out warnings concerning impending “teen takeovers,” like the massive riot that took place in April.
