We Need Interrupters
By Albert B. Kelly
Growing up my parents would admonish me if I interrupted
people while they were speaking which was consistent with the “be seen and not
heard” philosophy that prevailed at the time for children. As an adult,
etiquette dictates that interruptions are generally seen as negative or
unwelcome things. But it all depends on context, in some cases interruptions are
simply a break in the flow of something- a temporary or permanent stop- which
can be a good thing.
That’s what I thought as I read about the people who serve
as violence “interrupters” on the streets of Chicago, a city that had just over
3,500 shootings and 650 homicides in 2017. I came across Chicago’s violence
interrupters in an article by Ann Givens discussing urban violence,
specifically gang violence. In the article, she interviews an outreach worker
named Francisco Sanchez who is a violence interrupter in southwest Chicago.
What should make this individual effective is the fact that
he has credibility (i.e. street cred) as a onetime gang leader on those streets
being plugged-in and knowing the players and the sensibilities, the slights
both real and imagined, and the unwritten code involved with saving face or
losing it. The other thing that should make him effective as an interrupter is
the fact that both sides trust him because he isn’t involved with police and he
won’t be reporting back. He is not there to judge, but to stop the cycle and he’s
neutral.
One potential downside to the program is something pointed
out to me by local outlets in submitting this article- which is that Mr.
Sanchez was later convicted of firearms offenses and apparently was still
involved with gang activity. Such is the lure of the streets. But I still
wonder if the concept is worth trying to preserve.
Thinking about it, the idea of “interrupting” makes a lot of
sense. I say that because the majority of gun violence in our region is
generally part of a bigger cycle and it always has a context. This is what
often gets missed in headlines, news stories, and crime stats and why
communities, including mine, get perceived as dangerous. Stereotypes
notwithstanding, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The gun violence I’ve encountered as an elected official is not
random, but confined to a small cluster of individuals, whether gangs or in
some cases families. The currency among them is mostly settling scores, payback,
and revenge. Here the role of victim and perpetrator gets kicked back and forth
as one violent act begets another violent act which begets yet another violent act
in a cycle of begetting that reads like biblical genealogy.
But it’s precisely in this cycle of begetting where the idea
of an interrupter comes into play and where interrupting is at its most useful.
How many of those caught in the heat of the cycle, if given a way to back out
gracefully or save face would take it? How many of those that end up continuing
the cycle of follow-on gun violence do so because of outside pressure and a
twisted sense of “reputation”?
There’s no way to know for sure, but if anyone is going to
interrupt the cycle, turn down the heat, or provide a face-saving alternative
before it becomes a homicide investigation, it’s likely to be someone who knows
the streets and the people involved. If anyone has a chance to alter the cycle
of follow-on violence that demands a response on the street, it will be someone
who’s lived the life and knows what it means to break the cycle.
According to the article, Chicago’s program is on life
support because those who fund it decided they had to cut funding whether out
of necessity or because it was politically expedient. That’s unfortunate
because my guess is that whatever was being spent was probably less than the charity
care in that city’s ER’s and the dozens of secondary costs that accrue when the
cycle is unrestrained and uninterrupted.
As I consider my own community, which is worlds away from Chicago,
I wonder if our state might grow such a program and help fund it- perhaps with
some safeguards against temptation. To find out, I’ll explore this idea with
various leaders including those on the street. As I do, I’ll listen and I’ll
try my best not to interrupt.