This week, I welcome Matt Rosenberg to TGS. Matt is a journalist who grew up in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood and the author of the recently published book What Next, Chicago?: Notes of a Pissed-Off Native Son. The book delves into the causes and effects of the city’s recent, alarming rise in crime and also chronicles those who are trying to address the problem. As a native of Chicago’s South Side, I share Matt’s concerns, and I highly, highly recommend that everyone read his book.
Glen, catching up on missed podcasts and I really enjoyed this one. Just wanted to say thanks for doing this. I’m interested in how we get better officials elected and make some course corrections on the process dominated by two parties that seem to be captured by the fringe. I’ve been tracking Andrew Yang and the rank choice voting as a measure to counteract the effect of domination by the most extreme. He would be an interesting guest
Great interview! I’m also really happy Matt and you highlighted the work of Pastor Corey Brooks and Project H.O.O.D., and also The Woodson Center. Pastor Brooks definitely “walks the talk.”
In the words of Kyle and Stanley: "You know, I learned something today."
Humans are not accountable for murder until age 25 because their pre-frontal cortexes are not fully developed.
Who said that, a stoned Antifa rioter setting fire to a police station?
No. That wisdom comes from Judge Timothy C. Evans, the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois and also one of the largest unified court systems in the world.
MATT - Right on! Addressing accountability for nonprofit gun violence prevention programs is KEY and its either not happening or done using the false equivalency of yearly crime stats. I live in Champaign-Urbana and the Champaign city council just approved $6.5m for a plan to address the city's skyrocketing gun violence. A big chunk of that money is going to an array of non-profits that claim to engage in violence prevention; but policing and technology to address gun violence are simultaneously being ramped up so there's no way to disentangle effectiveness of the nonprofits from better and more policing.
Instead, as Matt points out, we have to know how many people are participating in these programs and the individual outcomes. I am also concerned at what happens when the initial, 3-year funding for these programs (from Covid stimulus funds) dries up and the programs start asking for more money, which they will. Then, how are we to evaluate which programs actually reduce gun violence? A recent News Gazette article (Matt, check this out below) reports that a person recently convicted of facilitating murder for instigating a robbery that resulted in his friend being killed. The person had participated in several outreach programs for at risk individuals and the leader of one such program, the faith-based mentorship and jobs training FirstFollowers spoke on behalf of him at his sentencing, citing his participation in these programs as evidence of his character. However, upon cross examination it was revealed that FirstFollowers had no idea that while in the program the teen was high on drugs almost daily, and then, he went on to rob someone at gunpoint resulting in his friend being killed. Clearly the "intervention" from FF was not effective for this individual. FF is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funding to expand their programming, but there is no evidence that there programming "works," nor is there a clear metric in place the city will use to assess effectiveness of FF and similar programs. The gun violence prevention industrial complex is here.
Glen, catching up on missed podcasts and I really enjoyed this one. Just wanted to say thanks for doing this. I’m interested in how we get better officials elected and make some course corrections on the process dominated by two parties that seem to be captured by the fringe. I’ve been tracking Andrew Yang and the rank choice voting as a measure to counteract the effect of domination by the most extreme. He would be an interesting guest
Great interview! I’m also really happy Matt and you highlighted the work of Pastor Corey Brooks and Project H.O.O.D., and also The Woodson Center. Pastor Brooks definitely “walks the talk.”
In the words of Kyle and Stanley: "You know, I learned something today."
Humans are not accountable for murder until age 25 because their pre-frontal cortexes are not fully developed.
Who said that, a stoned Antifa rioter setting fire to a police station?
No. That wisdom comes from Judge Timothy C. Evans, the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois and also one of the largest unified court systems in the world.
MATT - Right on! Addressing accountability for nonprofit gun violence prevention programs is KEY and its either not happening or done using the false equivalency of yearly crime stats. I live in Champaign-Urbana and the Champaign city council just approved $6.5m for a plan to address the city's skyrocketing gun violence. A big chunk of that money is going to an array of non-profits that claim to engage in violence prevention; but policing and technology to address gun violence are simultaneously being ramped up so there's no way to disentangle effectiveness of the nonprofits from better and more policing.
Instead, as Matt points out, we have to know how many people are participating in these programs and the individual outcomes. I am also concerned at what happens when the initial, 3-year funding for these programs (from Covid stimulus funds) dries up and the programs start asking for more money, which they will. Then, how are we to evaluate which programs actually reduce gun violence? A recent News Gazette article (Matt, check this out below) reports that a person recently convicted of facilitating murder for instigating a robbery that resulted in his friend being killed. The person had participated in several outreach programs for at risk individuals and the leader of one such program, the faith-based mentorship and jobs training FirstFollowers spoke on behalf of him at his sentencing, citing his participation in these programs as evidence of his character. However, upon cross examination it was revealed that FirstFollowers had no idea that while in the program the teen was high on drugs almost daily, and then, he went on to rob someone at gunpoint resulting in his friend being killed. Clearly the "intervention" from FF was not effective for this individual. FF is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funding to expand their programming, but there is no evidence that there programming "works," nor is there a clear metric in place the city will use to assess effectiveness of FF and similar programs. The gun violence prevention industrial complex is here.
https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/courts-police-fire/i-never-intended-for-this-to-happen-urbana-man-gets-28-years-for-role-in/article_4209cbbb-089f-5c60-b0fb-d3ea54d0c10d.html