Violence in Chicago

Floor Speech

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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. I thank you, Mr. Rush, for calling this Special Order this evening to put a different kind of light on the whole question and the whole issue of violence in Chicago, which is really the center point of America.

Those of us who live in Chicago say that: So goes Chicago, so goes America.

When I came to Chicago, it was known as the jobs capital of America. Everyplace that you looked, there were help wanted signs. You could find a job. As a matter of fact, the word was that if you couldn't find a job in Chicago, there were basically no jobs for you.

And so I agree with you, Representative Rush, that the absence of hope is a part of the formula for violence. And if you never ask the right questions, of course, you never get the right answers.

There are those who talk about law enforcement, more police officers. I have even heard people talk about bringing in the National Guard and bringing in paramilitary outfits. Those are not really the solutions. The solutions are to provide people with hope because, if they have hope, then they don't find or feel the necessity for certain kinds of action.

There used to be so many businesses in the district that I represent. Over the last 50 or more years, we have lost more than 100,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs. When Representative Rush talks about disinvestment, when business and industry decided to leave--Sears, Roebuck; Hotpoint, Motorola, General Electric--what is now Navistar--International Harvester, Allied Radio, Spiegel, Montgomery Ward--all of those entities were in the neighborhood where I lived and worked. I could just walk down the streets and see them. Western Electric was not far from where I lived. You could see hundreds of people going to and from work every morning when you woke up. Of course, things split off, and all of that changed.

Chicago used to just beckon people and jobs to come to Chicago. As a matter of fact, blues singers would have songs of going to Chicago. ``Sorry, but I can't take you.'' They were like the pied piper--people were coming. Then, as so many people came and as communities and neighborhoods began to change and as some people began to leave and others would come, there were levels of deterioration. I remember the riots that occurred after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Many of those areas that suffered the aftermath of the riots have never been rebuilt. They are the same today as they were in the 1960s when the riots occurred. Nobody has been willing to invest in the redevelopment of those communities. Not only did housing deteriorate, but the social service structure that existed also left.

When Bobby talked about disinvestment, there was every kind that one could imagine. In some of those communities, it is hard to find a Boy Scout troop. It is difficult to find the resources for a Girl Scout program or for activities that individuals can be engaged in after school. Yes, there is a level of violence, but there is an even deeper level of hopelessness. Without hope, it is like people being pressed up against the wall--pressed up against nowhere--trying to figure out how they get out.

I can tell you that, wherever darkness exists, there is light that comes, so I think that there are, indeed, solutions. What are the solutions? Job creation. Job creation. Job creation.

If we look at history, when times were difficult during the 1930s, there was the utilization of the Federal Government as a resource to create work opportunities, with the understanding that, if people are working, they are reinvesting because they are paying taxes, they are spending money, they are exchanging services and goods with each other. That also gives a boost to the economy. I never take the position that wherever we are that that is where we have to be.

Gun control legislation. Let me tell you that the people shooting don't necessarily make the guns. People who are shooting don't necessarily sell the guns. The people who are shooting actually acquire the guns from someplace and somebody else. If we could take away some of the opportunities for the guns to exist--I remember a song I used to listen to about a place called Black Mountain, and part of the lyrics said: ``I am going to Black Mountain with my razor and my gun. I am going to find that man of mine, shoot him if he stands still and cut him if he runs.'' If you have got to run after somebody, that is a little more difficult than being able to have an Uzi with which you drive by and mow him down. I don't know when we are going to get really serious in this country about diminishing the number of guns that people have access to.

I was disappointed when the Supreme Court said that people could actually carry weapons. That is one thing in some communities, in some places, but I can tell you that is another thing in other communities and other places. I would hate to go into a situation where I felt that everybody there who wanted to was carrying a weapon because he had the right to carry a concealed weapon.

I used to be on the Chicago City Council, and many of the people there were former police officers. Plus, you could carry a gun anyway because you were considered law enforcement. Sometimes, when you would go to lunch, you would see a number of people who might take their jackets off, and you would see a number of guns and weapons. You almost might be too afraid to eat. It would kind of take away lunch because all of these weapons were around.

I would urge our country to be willing to make the kind of investments that you must make. They are not spending. There is a difference between spending and investing. If you just spend, you don't necessarily get a return, but when you invest wisely, you expect a return. We need to invest in education. We need to invest in more social development activity, and we need to reinvest in urban communities like those on the southwest side and near-north sides and suburban areas of Chicago.

Congressman Rush, I thank you again and commend you for calling for this Special Order, but I have got a feeling that, where there is life, there is hope, and I have a feeling that we will arrest the violence problem, not
only in Chicago, but in other places throughout America. I am pleased to join with you this evening and share a few moments in talking about the issue.

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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. There is no doubt about it. I took 31 children to see their fathers in prison on the Saturday before Father's Day, and I can tell you that it was one of the most emotional gatherings that I have ever participated in.

We have got to put a stop to it, and we have got to start counting individuals not in the places they are imprisoned but in the communities that they come from so that the resources go back to those communities and not to the places where they are imprisoned.

Again, I thank you for shedding light this evening and for my being able to join you. We will just have to keep working on the issue, and I think we will get to the bottom of it.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the courtesy of giving me the opportunity to acquire time that had not been acquired before, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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