 Good afternoon. Welcome to McLean Center and the Chicago Trauma Center's lecture series on ethical issues in violence, trauma, and trauma surgery. Today's speaker is Dr. Lori Lightfoot. Not a doctor. Ms. Lightfoot, in fact, is an attorney with great experience in government roles, as well as in civil and criminal litigation. She earned her JD at the University of Chicago Law School, is a partner at Mayo Brown, a renowned law firm here in Chicago. In the past, Ms. Lightfoot has served as a civil litigator and as an assistant district attorney in the criminal division of the district attorney's office in the northern district of Illinois. Ms. Lightfoot later served as general counsel and chief of staff at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications of the city of Chicago, as well as serving as chief administrator of the Chicago Police Department's Office of Professional Standards. At the Office of Professional Standards, Ms. Lightfoot managed a team of 100 people who were charged with investigating alleged misconduct by Chicago police officers, including officer-involved shootings and allegations of excessive force. In 2015, Ms. Lightfoot was appointed by Mayor Emanuel and approved by the Chicago City Council to be president of the Chicago Police Board. The Chicago Police Board is an independent civilian body that provides oversight for certain activities of the Chicago Police Department. Ms. Lightfoot was the chair also of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, which was created in December of 2015 and was charged with investigating and developing recommendations to improve the Chicago Police Department, both in the short run and the long term. Ms. Lightfoot's talk today is entitled, Facing Hard Truths, a Necessary Reckoning for Addressing What Ails Chicago. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Laurie Lightfoot. All right, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming, and thanks so much for the McLean Center for inviting me to be a part of this incredible series of discussions that hopefully will lead us all towards a series of solutions to address some of the most pressing issues on the South Side of Chicago and elsewhere. I want to begin by reflecting on today where we mark an infamous anniversary in our shared history. It is, as I think many of you know, the 50th anniversary of the death of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As we reflect on the legacy of Dr. King's life and works, I think we can honor him by also reflecting on the issues that he fought hard to illuminate, particularly in the last years of his life. It seems remarkable now, but Dr. King's time on the national and ultimately international stage was a mere 14 years. And over the arc of that time, he moved from fighting what we'll call and eliminating de jure discrimination to recognizing that freedom of movement means little if one is enslaved in a different kind of bondage, and namely, the bondage of poverty. In the last year of his life, in particular, Dr. King and his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC, committed to shining a light on the plight of poor people from all races across all regions and spoke in terms of creating a revolution premised on the demands that the government had an obligation to provide for basic human rights for all of its citizens. In one of his last sermons, Dr. King said, and I quote, we are coming to demand the government address itself to the problem of poverty. We read one day, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But if a man doesn't have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility of the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists, end quote. Dr. King sought to highlight the plight of the poor through the so-called poor people's campaign. Of course, we know, sadly, that he was felled by an assassin's bullet before the campaign that he envisioned became a reality. But we should ask ourselves what remains of Dr. King's call to action around the corrosive effects of poverty? And what lessons can we learn from Dr. King's efforts to shine a light on a pervasive and systemic poverty that robbed individuals and towns and states and regions of ever realizing their God-given potential and sharing in the best that this country has to offer? Dr. King understood that as a nation, we could never truly reach our full potential when so many were being left behind. He never shied away from using his platform and position to shine a light on the hard truce, the ugliness and the underbelly of American life, even when his colleagues counseled otherwise, or when public sentiment turned against him, or even in the face of death. He knew that he was called upon to be the voice. For those without the ability or the words to articulate their plight and demand action, he was truly their drum major for justice. I believe that we too are called upon to serve a higher and nobler purpose. I personally feel that calling and responsibility every day. But none of us can adequately respond to Dr. King's clarion call that continues to echo across the decades unless we face some hard truce as he did. For answers, we need look no further than our own backyard. The conditions on the ground in this city and others across the country tell us that we have not yet learned the lessons of history. The cries of the needy among us are deafening. But we are often not listening. It is only in facing these hard truths that we will be able to carafe holistic solutions to so many interlocking problems that plague us as a city and as a nation. So let's begin by laying out the problems and the issues in a candid and unvarnished way. Many of you in this room know all too well that for far too many individuals and communities in this great city, people are suffering. You see it every day in hospital wards and emergency rooms and in the grim, vile statistics that get reported like the box scores of a ballgame. Recently, the Atlantic magazine ran an article entitled, Chicago's Awful Divide. And the premise of the article is that while in many ways Chicago has made laudable strides, particularly when it comes to attracting businesses in the downtown area, whole swaths of the city remain untouched by this prosperity. Too many of our citizens and neighborhoods are isolated and trapped by their circumstances. And let's talk about some numbers. And these numbers that I'm going to cite to you were compiled by the Heartland Alliance that puts out an annual report based upon census data perspectives, census data from the US Census. And I'm going to focus on, for this part of the discussion, four neighborhoods. And you'll understand why these four in a moment. Austin, Roseland, North Lawndale, and Inglewood. In those four areas, let's first take a look at the percentage of people that are living in poverty. And that's below 100% of the federal poverty level. In Austin, that number is 30.6%. In Roseland is 26.9%. In North Lawndale, it is 47.4% of the people living below the federal poverty level. And in Inglewood, 46.3%. In those same neighborhoods, we also, I think, should look at unemployment. In Austin, the unemployment rate, based on the census data from 2011 to 2015, the average was 19.5% of the able-bodied adults were unemployed. And the percentage of the population in that neighborhood that were not in the labor force, 44.7%. In Roseland, unemployment, 25.3%. The percentage of the folks that are not in the labor force, 46.3%. In North Lawndale, 23.4% unemployment rate and 50.9% of the people able to but not in the labor force. And in Inglewood, 36% unemployment and 46.2% not in the labor force. The number of households in these same areas tell another group that are receiving snap or some other kind of food assistance also tells a grim story. In Austin, 35.5% of the households receive food assistance. Roseland, 33%. North Lawndale, 53.3%. And in Inglewood, 51.4%. If we look at educational attainment in these same areas, the percentage of folks who don't have a high school degree or equivalent in Austin is 21.6%. Roseland is 14.8%. North Lawndale, 25.1%. In Inglewood, excuse me, 24%. On the other end of the spectrum in Austin, the number of people that have a bachelor's degree is only 8.2%. 12.3% in Roseland, 7.9% in North Lawndale, and 4.7% in Inglewood. Not surprisingly, these same neighborhoods also suffer from a lack of other important resources that many of us take for granted and are important assets to uplift the quality of life in neighborhoods. Things like good neighborhood schools, community anchors like safe parks, community centers, movie theaters, and other forms of safe recreation for children are absent in these neighborhoods. Few small businesses exist in these neighborhoods that could provide stable good jobs for neighborhood residents, grocery stores that provide affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, and the list goes on and on. Now, when I think about these statistics, they are personal to me because looking at them and meeting the people affected by this lack of investment in these dire circumstances takes me back to my own growing up years. I was lucky to have two parents that loved me and struggled, but we struggled my whole life. My father consistently worked three jobs, one full-time and two part-time every week. My mother also worked in a series of low-wage jobs. And I understand completely from that experience the trauma of worrying whether a landlord or a bank is going to throw you out of your house. Not having enough to eat and worrying about that, utilities being turned off, and all the worries that come with living at the margins. So these numbers are not just data points. They are part of my life experience, and that's why I feel so animated by them. I stand here today with full recognition of the fact that I have been very fortunate in my life. Some would say lucky. But also with the recognition that for most of the people that live in these four neighborhoods and others across the city, they live in dire circumstances where luck is just not nearly enough. We need to do more for them. And that is especially true when we look at what is happening in these same neighborhoods from a crime perspective. It will surprise no one that these very same neighborhoods with these bleak economic statistics also suffer from profound violence. In Austin, looking at 2017 numbers, the homicides there numbered 83. And the non-fatal shootings, 384. Roseland had 36 homicides, 94 non-fatal shootings. North Laundale, 41 homicides, and 212 non-fatal shootings. In Englewood, 49 homicides in 2017, and 201 non-fatal shootings. Now it's important to say that some progress has been made on these grim numbers already in 2018. But frankly, in context, we are on pace to improve from historic unacceptable highs to simply unacceptable highs. And one of the reasons that many feel like no progress is being made is because the police department's inability to solve violent crimes once committed remains abysmally low. And let's talk about that for a moment. A real problem that challenges the legitimacy of the Chicago Police Department is the abysmal, and I'll say it again, the abysmal homicide clearance rate. This is not a new issue. But to my surprise, it is one that has not ignited the kind of impassioned debate and calls for action that I wouldn't expect under the circumstances. And I think this is so in part because the reality of these numbers, the homicide clearance rate in particular, is not something that is widely known, but it should be. And so here are the numbers. In 2017, the homicide clearance rate was 17%. That means that our police department was only able to solve 17% of the homicides committed during that year. Compare that with national averages between 60% and 70% elsewhere in cities like New York or Los Angeles. And if you have the audacity to live after being shot, the clearance rate for those violent crimes is in the single digits. This means that if you commit a murder in the city of Chicago, you have an 80% chance of walking free without ever being brought to justice. And if you shoot someone and they live, the prospects of you being footloose and fancy free are even higher. And we know that in many instances, the people who are the shooters are victimizing people in the same neighborhoods where both the victim and the shooters live. Imagine knowing that the person who is a demonstrated threat to you and your family walks free in your midst to cause more harm. Now, let me put this problem in further context. We are losing babies and young people every year at an alarming rate. In 2017 alone, 55 children, 18 and under, were lost to gun violence. That number balloons to 171 if we count people 22 and under. And these statistics don't account for the thousands of young people who are shot every year but live. I recently attended the March for Life here in Chicago. It was both heartbreaking and hopeful. Young person after young person took the stage and expressed his or her experience with gun violence. The fact of the proliferation of gun violence is not new and certainly not to me. But to witness firsthand their trauma and to see the effects and the impact on their young lives, my friends, was frankly haunting. What gave me hope, though, in the face of such an outpouring of pain, was the kids themselves. They were accomplished and smart and simply remarkable. We owe it to them and their peers to do better as a city. What I heard from the stage and what I know from my work is that increasingly the ability to escape your teens without being victimized has become increasingly difficult for kids in neighborhoods in the city. We are having a parkland here virtually every month and have been for years. We need to empower our kids to find their voices and not be afraid as adults to speak for them and their families in the midst of this horrible crisis of gun violence. And we know that there are all kinds of costs associated with this violence. The monetary costs, which are significant, pale in comparison to the daily human toll that way too many of our fellow Chicagoans experience and must endure. Because of these grim statistics, the reality is that families in the most crime plagued neighborhoods must plan for and around violence. This is on top of the desperate situations that they live in because of poverty, high unemployment, and low educational attainment. Imagine those of you who are parents teaching your kids to duck and cover before they learn their ABCs. Think about whole legions of kids in neighborhoods on the south and the west sides who cannot access the best that the city has to offer because they are literally pinned down in their homes by violence. In such an environment, do you have the luxury to dream, to imagine a life in which you are the hero of your own story, or to conjure your own destiny where you can think about possibilities that are larger than yourself? Do you have the ability to think about your neighbor, or do you live in a constant state of isolation, limitation, and fear without trust or generosity? Trauma and fear in that environment replaces love and hope in such dire circumstances. I have a friend who lost her only child to gun violence. Malcolm was his name. He was 33. A father, a former Coast Guardsman. He was the unintended victim. And how often do we hear that narrative? My friend did everything she could to raise her only child, her son, the right way. And she succeeded. So concerned was she about the streets claiming her young son that she did everything conceivable to keep him out of harm's way so that he could be a child to live his life without the fear of violence? Malcolm had found love and was planning for marriage to the mother of his child. And then one day, four years ago, on Memorial Day weekend, he let a friend talk him into going to a party. When 10 PM rolled around, Malcolm decided to leave so he could get home to his family. And as he walked out of the building where the party was held, at just that instant, a bullet struck him. Intended for another, but it claimed him. No one saw the shooter or so they said. And the case has gone cold. And still no one has been held responsible for Malcolm's death. My friend, as you might imagine, is devastated. Her broken heart will probably never mend. She functions as she must. But the cloud of sadness that surrounds her is palpable. The daily pain that she endures is made all the worse because she feels like the police have given up and that her son's murderer will never be brought to justice. My friend's story represents the hundreds of stories every year of individuals and families and neighborhoods devastated by gun violence. That profound pain they experience is exacerbated each and every day when people responsible for violence are not brought to justice. Each of these data points that we've been talking about is someone's life that has ended or otherwise been profoundly and irrevocably touched by violence, an immeasurable sadness that ripples across their family, their neighborhood, and our city. The homicide clearance rate is not merely a number. It is a barometer of our values. It speaks not just to the quality of policing that we allow in the city, but our collective value on the sanctity of life. And if we do not demand more accountability and change this important statistic, it will speak volumes about all of us and the kind of communities that we can and hope to build in the future. Another hard truth that we must grapple with is the lack of a comprehensive plan to uplift and invest in neighborhoods like Austin, like Rosalind, like North Laundale, Inglewood, and others across the city. And let me use another example to illustrate this challenge. As some of you know, last year, Mayor Emanuel announced a decision to build a new police and fire training academy. The announced cost is $95 million. It is scheduled to be located on the west side in Alderman-Mitts Ward, near Orr High School. Austin, as we've been talking about, in which this new training academy would be located, is one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in our city. The medium income in Austin is $34,000. We've talked about the high unemployment that plagues that neighborhood, the percentage of people that are not in the labor force, and the percentage of people that live on food assistance. From the perspective of many, the plan for the new police academy is flawed. And I share that view. Let me be clear. The department desperately needs a new training facility. As an aside, back in 2016, when the task force was doing its work, we spent a fair amount of time at the police academy that's located on the near west side on Jackson Boulevard. In the wake of the killing of Quintonia LaGreer and Betty Jones, there was another emphasis placed on making sure that all officers in the department received training and how to use tasers. That training was ongoing when we were doing our work. Now imagine an old elementary school with those Florida ceiling metal lockers. That's what the first floor of the training academy looks like right now. Officers were lined up on either side of that hallway conducting their taser training. And every few minutes, the training had to stop because police recruits were doing their PT training. They were jogging through the hallways of the academy. Not ideal and not surprising that when the Department of Justice came in and did its assessment, it determined that the taser training was woefully inadequate. I don't think anybody who's spent any time looking at training and working with the police department can argue that a new training academy isn't necessary. But the problem is that in its current form, the plan is ill-conceived. Think about putting this edifice to policing in this high crime impoverished neighborhood where the relations between the police and the community are so fraught without a clear plan for community engagement. That is a mistake. There also must be a plan to use the academy as a community asset. The community should be part of the planning. And in a community so asset poor, this facility needs to be accessible to the community in as many ways as possible. But that's not part of the current planning. And also the construction of the facility should be part of a larger plan to spur economic development in Austin. And also, we have to ask ourselves as taxpayers, where is the rest of the money coming from? To date, less than $10 million has been allocated for the cost of land acquisition. So where are these remaining funds coming from? There's no answer. But in the context of today's discussion, the allocation of the funds for a police training academy, and certainly one that is likely to exceed over $100 million, when all is said and done, is viewed by many as further affirmation that the needs of the people will never be prioritized over those of the police. There is, and some of you may know this, a very determined movement among young people of color to stop this police academy from ever becoming a reality. They have it organized around the Twitter hashtag, hashtag no cop academy. They are smart and organized and determined. They have been holding teachings throughout city schools. And they are rallying increasing numbers of folks to join their cause. They're going on CTA trains. They now have a website and a video. They are not going away. For these young people, every dollar spent on policing is a dollar not spent on the needs of their community. Needs like the things that we talked about, good schools, affordable housing, community centers, parks, grocery stores, job training, economic development, the basic community anchors and programs that make a difference in the quality of life in a vibrant neighborhood. In this zero sum game perspective, bluntly, they believe that every dollar spent in support of the police is another example of disinvestment in their neighborhoods. And why is this such a powerful narrative? Because the grim economic statistics of Austin exist in many other neighborhoods in our city. Unemployment and poverty rates that resemble those of third world countries. And there is a perception that gets reinforced by mistakes that only certain neighborhoods are worthy and only certain interests get investments. It feels like a zero sum game, but it doesn't have to be. This conflict, and I've only picked one example, and there are many others that we could point to, this conflict is not just an economic divide. It is a divide of hope and possibility. And let me give you another example. Remember in early February, there was a big snowstorm that hit the city overnight on a Thursday and into Friday? Now for our now 10-year-old, that was a joyous occasion because it was a snow day. She donned her snowsuit. Went sledding, I should say, with some neighborhood girls. And when they came in from the cold, they drank hot chocolate and toasted some ores in our fireplace. It was all very idyllic. But there was another storyline that same day which caught my attention. It was just a flicker in the news, but it struck me very deeply, particularly when compared to my daughter's experience on that snowy day. There was a story in the news that concerns were raised that the closing of Chicago Public Schools would be a problem because so many kids depend on the schools for their daily meals. For these kids, a snow day had the potential to be catastrophic because how would they be fed? This divide that I'm talking about represents a crisis. And it is a crisis that the police department faces every day. The manifestation of our neglect of far too many neighborhoods and the absence of a comprehensive plan to address these substantial needs falls heavily on the men and women of the Chicago Police Department every day. These are challenges that the police department is simply not equipped to address. But it must be cognizant of because they are so pervasive and manifest themselves in many of the calls for service every day to which the police are called to answer. For many, the police who interface with people every day are the personification of a government that takes and takes and takes and gives little benefit and in some instances actually harms people with seeming impunity. Now, in the remaining time that we have left, and before we get to questions, I want to talk about some solutions. As I've alluded to, the city needs a comprehensive plan to address the drivers of violence. We need much more compassion and to address all public policy from my perspective with an equity and inclusion lens. Such a comprehensive plan must be based on listening to the needs of the people and making sure that all of the relevant stakeholders have a seat at the table. I have been impressed with the early work of West Side United, an initiative started by West Side residents and Rasch and Sinai to band together to better understand and address life expectancy issues on the West Side. Shockingly, the initial work is uncovered that while the life expectancy of residents in the loop is roughly 85 years, just a few train stops away on the West Side, it plummets to 69. West Side United reflects an array of community stakeholders and resources banding together to change this grim statistic to understand what is animating and causing this huge disparity in life expectancy and to come up with a plan created by the community to uplift the community. It seems like a model to me that could be successful in other places in the city. That's a big hint for you folks that are here on the South Side. The truth is that we have an array of incredible resources in this city. But they must be tapped into to help drive for changes in the quality of life for our residents. Positive things are happening everywhere across the city. But these efforts are either too siloed or not to scale to make enough of a substantial difference. That's why, in my view, it is critically important for the city to be a catalyst for change, to be a convener of these different experts and resources, to come together in a comprehensive way, to move forward together and address the hard truths and to come up with specific solutions. For example, I'm sure that you've been reading with great interest about the 600 people who have been recruited to land Amazon's second headquarters. 600 talented and influential people going all in for an important goal. Imagine if the mayor and the governor convened a similar set of people focused on solving some of the root causes of poverty and violence in our city. Imagine if the best and brightest of the city united in a common purpose to address this crisis. Now, I hope that we win the Amazon Derby. But I am also painfully aware that many of the people who need those jobs the most will be ill-equipped to get them because of our lack of investment in their basic education, job skills, or because we still have way too many barriers for ex-offenders to start anew and become something other than yet another recidivism statistic. And on that point, at any given time in the city of Chicago, we have almost 10,000 people who are returning citizens, people who have come back from the IDOC, going into the same poverty-stricken high crime neighborhoods that are ill-equipped to absorb them and provide them with the kind of support and resources that they need. It's not popular to talk about the plight of the ex-offenders, but it's something that I think is critically important. I have a brother who spent most of his adult life incarcerated and is now out after his latest 17-year stent in federal prison. And as a 62-year-old man is trying to figure out how he can get on his feet without the kind of job skills and work experience, my brother's experience is duplicated in the thousands across Chicago. And it is an issue that we have to talk about, that we have to face, and we have to come up with some solutions, both on the front end to ask why are we creating this pipeline of mass incarceration that puts people on a conveyor bell where very few ask the questions as to whether or not an arrest or prosecution is just. But absolutely, we have to equip these folks with resources and skills so when they come out, they can adapt to the realities of the world that they face. That's a policy issue that we absolutely have to take on. And so what we need, I think, is leadership and a comprehensive plan to address these challenges. But what about the rest of us? Now, as I said, there are good people of goodwill in every neighborhood in our city, no matter how challenged the environment. We need to identify ourselves, each of us, any other, and the good work, and shine a light on what we are doing and take the best ideas, bring them to scale, and replicate them everywhere there is need. Now, I speak to you today not to bash the police department. I want to be clear about that, quite the contrary. I worked at the police department and I cared deeply about its success. But I care just as deeply about the success of the young kids who know and grow to accept violence and fear in their earliest years, of violence that envelops them like a blanket, of violence that becomes the primary organizing tool and factor in their young lives. We don't want our children to be indoctrinated in this environment of fear that robs them of so much. We simply can't afford to have a generation of mostly black and brown kids literally robbed of their childhood or worse their lives because of raging out-of-control violence. There is a path forward, but we'll take a recognition, in my view, of the multiple facets of these complicated and interconnected problems. It will take a willingness to face them, facing these hard truths without a guarantee of political success and a commitment to listening and being present where people are. The path will not be easy or comfortable, but in my view it is essential for us to take these steps if we truly want to move forward. And let me dip my toe while I'm at it, perhaps a little further into politics. Over these last few years in particular, many of the conditions on the ground in our neighborhoods have gotten decidedly worse. It is no coincidence, in my view, that the violence in our city started to pick up in 2015, right about the time that the Springfield reached a budget impasse and those social service agencies that were doing the Lord's work and many neighborhoods across our city in the most crime plague and economically distressed neighborhoods were forced to withdraw or substantially curtail their service offerings. No amount of philanthropic largesse or crowd sourcing can replace the hundreds of millions of dollars disinvested in these neighborhoods during that budget impasse. Now, I'm the first to say I don't think the government can solve every problem, but it does have an appropriate role to play and choking off the lifeblood of poor communities, in my view, is completely immoral and can never be allowed to happen again. Now, I raise this issue today because in some circles, there is rising speculation that we are headed toward another season of dysfunction in Springfield. It's an election year after all. Now, I mentioned earlier about learning the lessons of history. Let's hope these rumors about an impending budget impasse are wrong, but we would all do well to let our representatives and our senators know that we are watching and we expect them to do better. I urge you, write them, call them, and do not be silent. Our silence too often gets taken as consent. Now, I speak to you today with a strong sense of urgency and passion to hopefully ignite in you a sense of urgency. I sincerely hope that each of you leaves here today and ask yourself, what can I do to make a difference? There are people and organizations all over this city that, as I said, are doing the Lord's work every day and could greatly benefit from even the smallest investment of your time, your resources, your talent. We all need to have a sense of urgency that will not go away and that, I hope, will keep you up at night as it does me, a sense of urgency that will drive you to demand more of yourselves and accountability for elected and appointed leaders. People like all of us who have found our voices, have the luxury and ability to speak, and we simply must do so. We cannot remain silent in the face of so much desperate need all around us. I hope that you will have a sense of urgency that will lead you to conclude that, as a community, we need to chart an entirely different course. Thank you. I think we have some time for questions. Yes, sir. I think there's a multitude of factors. So his question was, what accounts for the difference in the homicide clearance rate between Chicago as compared to other cities? I think there's a multitude of factors. This has got to be one of the most challenging times for policing, probably in the history of policing in the US. There is, to state the obvious, a significant lack of trust between the police and the communities that they serve. But I don't think that accounts for the entirety of the problem. One, like in any organization, you have to measure and hold people accountable for the things that you value. I think for far too long, this was not an issue. And frankly, I'm embarrassed to say this and disheartened to say it. I still think there's not a sense of urgency around this issue. I think that the detectives who are not nearly as diverse, frankly, as they should be, are physically segregated from the communities in which they are investigating these most serious crimes have very little and limited relationships in those communities. I think that they, and this may be too much inside their baseball, but the patrol division, which is the largest division within the police department, those are the officers that are in uniform, typically, and on the street every day, they spend a huge amount of time, as much as they can, trying to develop relationships in the districts in which they police, in the beats in which they police. The detective division does not do that. I have been told that conducting a canvas, meaning going door to door to find out if there are any witnesses, in the light of a homicide or some other serious activity, is sufficient. Well, it's clearly not. So one is making this a priority. Two is getting better strategies and techniques for the detectives to forge lasting relationships with the communities in which they are serving, so that when there's something bad that happens, there's a goodwill that they can tap into to get information. And I also think, frankly, the communities, we have a responsibility as well. Some of you may remember, I think it was about a year ago in the spring, maybe early summer, there happened to be three murders within a few days of each other where children were killed, two preteens, and then a two-year-old boy who was in the back of a car who was hit by a stray bullet. For an initial period of time, there were no leads in connection with either of those three homicides. And I recall that Father Mike Flager was quoted as saying, our faith has to overcome our fear. And what I took that to mean is, even though the relationships between the police and the communities it fought, when something bad and traumatic happens, we have to trust that we will be protected, but that is incumbent upon us and it's a value to the community to not provide safe shelter to people who are perpetrating violence against us. Now, that's a tall order in this environment. I mean, I've had people tell me stories that, for example, on the west side, a shooting happened, and an individual resident saw somebody crawling over their back fence, and there was a glint of a gun that caught on the street lights. But they really had to stop and think about whether or not they wanted to call the police to come or wanted to risk that person being in their backyard. People should not have to make that kind of calculus. And I think, frankly, the police owns primary responsibility for repairing that relationship. But we've got to do a lot better, because that number is so awful, it totally undermines the legitimacy of the police department when they can't perform and are not performing their core function, which is to keep us safe. And when something bad happens, do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to justice? Yes, ma'am. Oh, sorry. Hi, thank you for your talk. I really appreciated you driving home the issues of disparity and inequity and the consequence of that. And also talking about some of the zero-sum game conversations we have about very complex issues. Along that line, I'd like to hear you talk about that dichotomy that's often in the public domain between safety and social justice. And safety is an immediate issue if your 10-year-old child can't walk to school safely or have a childhood, as you pointed out. That's the reason to answer now. Where a lot of the issues around the social justice are entrenched systemic issues that have built up over generations and are going to take a long time to fix. And also the fact that many of the perpetrators of violence have been victimized by violence. So can you talk about that balance between safety and social justice and how we get that right as a city, both policy-wise but as a conversation where it's not just either or all the time? Well, I think where we start is rejecting what I would call false narrative that you can't be safe and engage in constitutional policing. That's just nonsense. And it's disproven all across the country. But that is a prevailing narrative that's perpetrated by those who think that the only way that you can actually keep community safe is by preying upon communities in ways that further victimize residents in a neighborhood. So I think that's where we've got to start. But I also think that we have to, as I said, have our faith overcome our fear. These are difficult times, difficult conversations, and particularly for people of color and Black folks. The relationship with the police who in our history have been used to perpetuate horrible, unconstitutional, brutal Jim Crow. That's a tough relationship. And you'll have many young authors say, what does that have to do with me? And they may not be the ones who are doing it, but they own responsibility for what has come before. And there has to be an acknowledgment of that history and that past in order to get beyond where we are now and get to a better place. So I think that's part of it as well. But as I said in answering the gentleman's question, I also think that we have to ask ourselves what our role is in making our community safe. We have this incredible opportunity right now because I think everybody's heightened awareness and sensitivity around issues related to policing, in part because of social media, to really ask some fundamental questions that we don't typically ask as a community. What does policing look like? And what should it look like? What does that mean for me in this community versus another? What's the actual job description of a police officer? Are we asking them to do too much? Are we asking them to be the social worker and the teacher and the drug counselor? What can they do? What are the things that they should be aware of but not responsible for? I think we fundamentally have to be asking ourselves those questions and demanding that policymakers give us the opportunity to articulate our views. Some of that I think will play out in the context of the consent decree that will hopefully be entered later this year. And if you're not and haven't gone to one of the community forums organized by the Illinois Attorney General, the dates are listed on the Attorney General's website. I'd encourage you to go and to listen and to participate. But we have to have that community conversation in order for us, I think, to get past this very dark place and not be pitted one versus the other. I'm pro-police and therefore I'm anti-reform. I'm pro-reform and that's a silly discussion that leads us nowhere. Other questions? Yes, sir. One of the things that always amazes me when you were telling your personal story and hopefully, when I ask my question, you'll share it with us. But when I hear stories of my mom worked three jobs, my dad worked three jobs, my mom worked. And if I hear that story told, you know, Caucasian in rural Pennsylvania, usually that's a tract becoming a senator or something like that. But more often I hear that story that in the same household, as in your case, literally you both ended up on both sides of the law. So what do you think or what do you think the divide is? Because oftentimes we talk about the African-American female, outstrips the black male. And here in the same house, you have two different, very dichotomous futures. Any thoughts on as to why that continues to happen in our community? I've asked myself that question many, many times over the years. I mean, my brother is just six years older than me. We grew up together. You know, look, I mean, I think for some people, the allure of the street is like, every bit as attractive as a narcotic, it's addictive. I think he would say the same thing. The fast, easy money, when you're, he's a smart guy, I mean, he's a guy that took Latin, did very well in school. But he chose a very different path. I can't completely answer that question because we were raised close enough in age, I have two, even older siblings, but we were close enough in age, we were raised together, same household, same circumstances, and we took completely different paths. You know, I mean, some of it, I think, frankly, probably is birth order because I am the youngest. And seeing what my brother put my parents through, I never wanted to do the same thing. And there was a, something in him kind of rejected the legitimacy of education and systems and rebelled against that to his detriment. You know, and the great irony that I don't often share, but I will hear, is when I was a federal prosecutor, I prosecuted gang members in Chicago that were doing harm all over the South and the West Side. Many of them went to a prison just over the border in Michigan where my brother was. And Lightfoot's not a common name. So it was strange for me, and worrisome, frankly, for my brother to be locked up with some of the same people that I helped put in prison. And there's lots of different weird kind of intersections over the course of our life together. We're now, he's out, and we're kind of coming back together. But I think our story is, frankly, not unusual that that happens in African American families all over. But it's a point that I've reflected on many, many times over the years. And people who know my family history have asked me that question. There's no easy answer. But what it says to me is, as a parent now, you work really hard to show your kids the right way to inculcate them with the values that you think are important to challenge them, to give them the space to grow. But my mother said then and now, if it's a child, you feel like somebody else loves you more than I do, that's gonna be better to you than I am, then go find it. And that's tough medicine, right? Makes sense given my mother, who is one of the toughest people I know. But my parents, I think, sacrificed a huge amount to put all four of us in a position to be successful. But individual initiative and ownership of self is critically important. And you can lead the horse to water, so to speak, but you can't always make people drink. And some folks I know from kind of my larger family story are content with chaos and unhappiness and seem to thrive on it in the same way that we people thrive on happiness and joy. And it's hard to account for that. And I look at it and shake my head, but it is absolutely a constant in many families, unfortunately. Yes, sir. Attorney Lightfoot, I wanna thank you for both sharing your personal narrative, but also this powerful perspective given your position. History is pretty important in many ways. And today celebrates Martin Luther King's assassination on this day. I learned today, just listening to WBZ, that Martin Luther King actually lived in Chicago, specifically North Laundale, to highlight the important, proximate cause of many of the issues that we see still today, 50 years later, of poverty. So how can the collective governmental, non-governmental schools, law, all the dimensions of our society think more aggressively about having a plan to address that proximate cause of violence than many of the other challenges we see that get perpetuated over and over again in our society where we have life expectancy and lost opportunity for so many of our citizens driven by that one common denominator. And what recommendations do you have for us as a group to think about how can we tackle that seeming intractable problem that goes back 50 years plus? I think we have to start with not believing that it is intractable. And I don't mean to trivialize it, but I think what I have seen from my own experience and looking across the breadth of Chicago is that there's just an acceptance in some ways that this is just how it is. And that that mindset drives policy, the absence of activity and investment, the lack of a sense of urgency. I mean, it truly is unfathomable to me all the way around. And I don't mean to be critical of elected officials policymakers, but it's hard for me to understand how the conditions of many neighborhoods in the south and the west side are just treated as the way it is and acceptable. I mean, I tell the following story often because it was just so remarkable to me. When I first came to Chicago, I lived in Hyde Park, of course, because I was going to the law school. And one of the first times I drove west on Garfield Boulevard. Again, I'm as a kid from a small town, so the big new city was a totally new thing to me. I was pretty fearless, but driving across Garfield Boulevard in 86 was not for the faint of heart, right? Lots of abandoned buildings, trash everywhere, folks hanging out on corners. I didn't know what this new environment was. And I had my little crappy car that I prayed wouldn't break down as I drove to Midway Airport, but then suddenly I got to Western Avenue. And it was like the scene in The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy is going into Oz and suddenly things that were black and white become this amazing technicolor. That was the way I experienced crossing that Boulevard, Western Avenue, going west and seeing beautiful little houses, garbage picked up, trees, plants, parks. And it made me wonder, what the heck is going on in this city? How can neighborhoods that are so proximate to each other be so radically different? And it's not unlike Hyde Park and Washington Park, right? It's what we allow to happen. And that's why I speak so urgently and passionately about these incredible disparities because I think a lot of people, frankly, don't even know. I mean, I would guess if we took a little pop poll that the statistics that I read today about the quality of life in these neighborhoods probably many of you never heard before. I know I've spoken to audiences all over for the past couple of years in particular and people are like, what, unemployment at what, that high? How's that possible? It's the reality and we accept that reality. So I think where we begin is laying the facts bare and changing our mindset that with all the incredible resources that we have here, literally world-class institutions and resources, I mean it when I say we all need to be invited to a seat at the table and figure some of this out. But it takes the leadership, and frankly, it takes the leadership of the city that has been lacking, in my view, to get us around the table without a guarantee of success and say, we have to do better, we have to do better by our people, let's take this, the West Side United example, and how do we replicate that? How do we take on this challenge of, pick the issue, right? Healthcare, the provision of mental health services that are desperately needed all over the city. Issue after issue that all roll up to be drivers of violence, if we care about these issues and we say we do, then we have to start thinking in a very different way about how to take them on. Because they're tough, they are decades in the making, no question about that. There's not enough resources available to solve every problem, but we can do a lot if we actually start facing these hard truths and coming up with solutions, not just venting our spleen, not just being angry, standing on the tallest ladder with the biggest microphone yelling and screaming, but really having a sense of purpose that we want to move the needle and improve the quality of life. I'm 100% confident that in a very short period of time, we can make an enormous difference. But it starts with changing the mindset and the leadership and the determination to do better. Harold. What do you think is happening right now in some ways in this area? Of course it's the reaction to the Parkland shooting and the way that young people in Parkland have been trying and the young people in Chicago have been trying to connect with each other. And I'm wondering how you are hoping that they and we use this moment when there really is an attention to the problem of gun violence and potentially a shift in the conversation about it and just how you are, what you are hopeful for if anything about how this moment might be used? Well, I'll tell you the chant that was resonating at the march that I heard, which was throw them out. I just think we have to be intolerant of elected officials who refuse to listen to the cries of their constituents. It is completely unacceptable to me that after Sandy Hook and Columbine on and on and on, right? And the number of mass shootings that have already happened this year in schools that we have way too many elected officials that just refuse to do the right thing. I don't know if you follow David Hogue or Hog, I guess his name is, who's one of the Parkland students. He's got a fairly direct and salty way which I find refreshing. That's really surprising to me, yeah. I'm talking about these issues but the NRA cannot constantly be the tail that wags the dog when we are facing so much violence. There's got to be a way that we can meet in the middle but we won't do that when the NRA becomes so powerful. I think also in the Atlantic, there was an article about a woman who's the chief lobbyist for the NRA in Florida. I think it's the Atlantic. A woman named Lassim Hammer, ironically. If you haven't read that article, I recommend it. But I think, frankly, we've got to participate at much higher levels than we do. I mean, one of my other causes is redistricting reform. I mean, part of the reason that Congress is so indifferent to what's happening in poll after poll after poll is because both on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, they have hyper-gerry-mandered partisan districts. They rarely face any primary or general election challenges and so they don't care. What they care about is their own incumbency and sustaining that and I think that's a fundamental problem that we have to tackle, we have to change. But again, if we have participation rates, voting rates of 25% or 30%, we're never gonna get there. So I think we have to stand and be accounted for and not let our legislators, whether at the state level, whether at the city level or the federal level, think that they get a pass on these critically important issues. Yes ma'am, back there. Talking about the Parkland, I actually was coming to work late the day that the students were supposed to be out protesting. And I drove straight down state from the South Loop to here and I passed two high schools and one high school had about 40 kids standing out front and the other one had about three. And these were mostly minority high schools on the south side of Chicago and as I drove by, I went, they don't even feel empowered to stand outside. Because I'm sure that they would have been allowed to. And I found that really- Let's hope, let's hope. Let's hope, okay, I guess I should say let's hope. And I just, I got depressed just driving down thinking these kids don't even feel like, I mean, because these are the kids that are living through it and these kids don't even feel like they should go out and protest because I got the feeling that they, when the numbers were that small, when the lab school had probably most of their student population, they've just lost all hope. And that's the piece that I don't know how we can change. Well, it's not a coincidence, right? That the kids from Parkland look and have a very different experience than a lot of our kids in Chicago, right? And again, I'm not a social scientist, but I would venture to guess that if you grow up in an environment where there's so many challenges, including the daily threat of violence, by the time you're in high school, what's that done to you? Where do you put that? How do you navigate that in 14, 15, 16, 17 years? That's a different experience. Like the Parkland kids had an expectation of safety. They didn't expectation that they were going to go to school to learn and be nurtured and thrive. Do our kids have that expectation? I'm not so sure, but they should. And we should demand that for them. But there's so many cross currents that are hitting these kids from day one, that it doesn't surprise me that their expectations are different than what we would hope. And that's what I was talking about when I said, I know I'm lucky. Most of the kids that I went to elementary school with, some of whom I'm still friends with, they haven't had my experience. Most of them are white. I went through most of my elementary school years being the only black kid in my school. And the difference is my parents for sure. The difference is my ability to learn and my love of knowledge, absolutely. But the difference also is I grew up in a household that wasn't constantly in turmoil and certainly wasn't surrounded by violence. When you throw violence into the mix with all the other social ills, it is a toxic, toxic brew. And that's why, aside from the other obvious reasons, it's critically important that we have to get a handle on this because we're losing, literally losing, generations of our community. And we want them to find their voice. We want them to be strong and smart and able. And many kids are. I mean, that's the one thing, big takeaway for me and my spells from the March is that it's easy to forget that we have some really remarkable, awesome kids that are in our schools. I mean, if you haven't, I think there's a video of the March. I'd highly recommend you take a look at it because there's some remarkable things that were happening on that stage that day. You know, the National March, of course, eclipsed it, but right here in Chicago, some great things, kids that are organized and smart and able. And we can't forget that. Other questions or comments? I just, let me ask you a question. What has New York City and its police department done that Chicago has not, in order to change the level of our general homicide? Well, New York is, I think one big difference is New York is not nearly as segregated as Chicago. I don't know New York nearly as well as I do Chicago, but I also think that they're, while they have poverty like every large urban area, it's not as widespread and profound as Chicago is. I think that makes a big difference. And frankly, I think that they've invested in smart policing, both from a training perspective, technology perspective, and investment in their human capital and talent in a way that Chicago just hasn't. I said this in an earlier discussion today. One of the things that was most profound to me and shocking, and I think my friend Alexa was in the room when we heard this, the Chicago Police Department, it's not unusual for officers to come on the job when they're in their late teens, early 20s, and stay their entire careers. So that's 30 to 40 years in some instances. What we found is that after they graduated from the academy, they had no other mandatory annual training other than firearms qualification. So imagine being in an institution where you devote literally your whole adult life to, and you have no continuing professional development. That's the Chicago Police Department. And it's a little bit better than 2016, but they still have a long way to go. That doesn't happen in New York. The head of the police academy in New York is a PhD psychologist. They have a huge professional staff that focuses just on training. It's not episodic, it's not reactive, it's well thought out, same in LA. Same in, frankly, every major municipality across the country except for here. And that makes a profound difference in the quality of policing that we experience, that we get. And frankly, the success in the tools that officers have to be able to do their jobs well. I mean, I really truly believe that most officers come on the job and stay on the job for the right reasons. They really want to make a difference, they wanna help. We've done a terrible job in providing them with the tools that they need to fulfill that ambition. And we've got to change that. You've ascribed some of that deficiency to political leadership. I mean, look, most mayors know very little about public safety. They hire the police chief and they outsource that responsibility to the police chief. I think that's a mistake. And I think it's a mistake because police officers, well-intentioned are often captives of their culture. Somebody has to be around a policymaker who is looking at a bigger picture and frankly can call, I'll say in polite company, nonsense on some of the stuff that happens. How is it possible, for example? Well, I won't tell a lot of tales out of school, but there are things that are going on within the police department that just don't make any sense and that shouldn't happen. From accountability measures that should be in place that don't exist. And one of the things we didn't talk about today and I'm very agitated about is we spend $16 million a year in settlements and judgments related to police misconduct. And when we do that, we have to go and float bonds in the bond market at our terrible interest rate to pay for that. And so we end up, we, your kids are gonna end up paying twice as much for those settlements and judgments. 400 to 500 cases every single year in federal courts that dwarfs what we see in other jurisdictions across the country and no one is saying, how is this possible? How did this happen? I mean, that's insanity at the highest level and yet it is common, fair. That goes back to the doctor's good question. It's not just how it is. We can change that, but we have to have the will to do so. Imagine, folks, what your hard taxpayer dollars, 50, 60 million every year, almost a half a billion in the last seven years, what could that do to make a difference in the quality of life in our city? Even a fraction of that amount, right? So that's a big difference maker. There is, in every city that I've looked at that we can compare ourselves to and we do compare ourselves to on a lot of different metrics. They just have a completely different mindset about what risk management means, what policing means, why it's important to have an important institution, a $2 billion a year asset that actually is well-managed and thoughtful and we're not doing that in Chicago. Could political leadership be improved if someone had 15 or so years of experience working with a police department? You know, that's an interesting question. I'm going to avoid the obvious and point to that. Look, I just think that we have to think differently about these issues. We have to challenge ourselves and demand more and no matter what the future holds, I'll say, I'm going to keep fighting for these issues because I think they're important. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you.