Hey Chicago! Can We Talk About The “Youth Disturbance” That Happened Downtown Saturday?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the events that took place Saturday in downtown Chicago, that resulted in the death of a young man, others injured and several arrests. After watching the press conference today by the Mayor and city leaders on the event, I just wanted to offer a few thoughts:

I find it very troubling at the large swaths of people who don’t want black youth to be a part of this city. Whether thinly veiled in coded (racist) language, or overtly stated, far more than troubling, I find it disgusting.

However, it is not new in the tale of two Chicagos. Throughout my life, the city has always signaled that particularly black youth are not welcome downtown. You are too loud, too unruly and I’d venture to say too unsightly for tourists to have a sanitized Chicago vacation experience. I grew up experiencing that signaling first hand, and as an adult have also seen firsthand how CPD react and treat black youth who venture downtown in even the smallest of groups. The messaging always feels the same, “Not Welcome.” Let’s also keep in mind that the city has an ongoing contract with C3 Presents for Lollapalooza for youth (predominantly white) to descend upon downtown Chicago and get high and drunk and lay around on the sidewalks (literally) for 4 days undisturbed. But that’s a discussion for another time of course.

This is the tip of an iceberg made up of a litany of problems, including people seeing black youth as nothing more than a threat. A large group of black youth as an untenable threat. And as I’ve seen on more than one occasion, the police interact with the aforementioned youth aggressively, getting them all riled up, and then you actually do have a problem on your hands. As a friend said in a discussion yesterday, “these youth aren’t fools and they aren’t dumb. They see the disparities between their neighborhoods and downtown, and can smell the discrimination and racism and they are sick of it.”

That’s why they’re descending downtown. They’re pushing back at a system that has told them, at least for the entirety of my lifetime, to “stay in your neighborhood.” And in the biggest inside joke ever, these youth have to hop on the “red line” to get to the overly resourced side of town. Go figure.

As for the press conference today, I was appalled at the elected and appointed officials who parroted the idea that “there are programs for these youth in their communities.” It’s summer? Who wants to sit on the four or five same blocks? The youth go places like the Cloud Gate (the bean for the uninitiated) so they can see something different. And I’ll be the first one to say it, though overpriced, the Bean is beautiful. I have spent evenings sitting and looking at it for literally an hour. And of the large number of youth that went downtown on Saturday, the majority of them was doing exactly what tourists do on any given day, standing around gawking.

The city needs to figure out that the city is for everyone, and rather than trying to divert certain demographics away from the high profile parts of the city, we need to figure out how to provide them open, safe access. No, youth should not be allowed to damage property or create unsafe conditions for others, but isn’t this where we should insert the few bad apples argument we always use for police officers?

This is another situation in which we should be engaging in conversations both inside and across communities, with all stakeholders in the discussion. Not to only discuss this isolated incident, but to discuss root causes and solutions, which really means diverting resources from all those beautiful tulips blanketing downtown, to neighborhoods that don’t even have a basketball court, or a grocery store, or community centers and YMCA’s with actual hours that are useful to todays youth (I'm a middle aged man, but a community center that closes before 11pm Friday-Saturday ain't got s**t to offer me).

Finally, I am so glad that at least Mayor Lightfoot realizes that “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” is not the answer to this problem. I also bite my thumb at those people who think it is. You are gross.

At the press conference, the city talked about their ongoing “summer kickback” series they started last year for youth. Upon looking at the location list, it’s all in the places where the youth live. Hey Mayor Lightfoot, I have a great idea, how about you schedule at least a few of the kickbacks in places like Grant Park, and along the lakefront, and Navy Pier. Prep for a large turnout, and train your officers (the ones you know need it) how to actually chat up and engage with the youth to help them through the etiquette of places where some youth in the city have actually never been, are going for the first time, and for which they deserve to have access to like any other Chicagoan.

Just my two cents.

What are your thoughts on what happened on Saturday, and more importantly, what should the city do in response? Let me know in the comments. Please save the “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” for the WGN-TV Facebook comments. \

Thumbnail photo by Benjamin Rascoe on Unsplash