A large-scale coordinated burglarizing of stores from River North to the Gold Coast left Chicagoans stunned. It followed the shooting of a 20-year-old suspect, Latrell Allen, who fled a confrontation in Englewood over the illegal possession of a firearm. Allen allegedly fired at officers during the course of the pursuit and was then shot in his shoulder. Rumors sprung up from the event like wildfire. The 20-year-old shot by the police became a 15-year-old shot 15 times and killed in a particularly unpleasant game of telephone. Businesses still reeling from the lootings amid the protests following the killing of George Floyd, not to mention the COVID-fueled economic disaster this year, were hit again. Macy’s is reportedly planning on leaving their position in Water Tower Place they have occupied since its opening.
The damage should not be discounted. It will likely be felt for months to come. Still, we also must put this into context. These grimes are not happening in a vacuum. Violence, the likes of which we have not seen in decades, plagues the South and West Sides. Unemployment in low-income neighborhoods has hit depression-era levels. Working from home is not an option for many low-income occupations.
This pain, while particularly acute now, is nothing new. People everywhere want dignified lives with the prospect of upward mobility and safety. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for many of the communities from which these burglars came (I say burglary and not looting because this did not come during a natural disaster or a protest). These communities are starved for any trust in our institutions because they have not seen the benefits come their way. They feel they have nothing to lose. We have even seen the Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter encouraging this distrust. A press release posited that Latrell Adams was right to run from the police and that ‘looting’ was a form of ‘reparations.’
Not everyone feels this way. When protesters gathered in Englewood, a group of local residents protected the police station from vandalism. Many of them fear the aftermath of the destruction of their communities. The police, after all, were called when people feared for the safety of a playground when a man was seen with a weapon on that playground. Adams was the man the police found. So many children’s lives have been lost in the crossfire of violence this year, so this was particularly concerning for them. Although police could not possibly have known this, Adams had also been charged with multiple violent crimes in the past. This was not a man innocent of wrongdoing. Without bodycam footage, we probably will never know with complete certainty what happened, but I would place a higher likelihood of the police’s story landing nearer the truth in this case. A gun found at the scene looked identical to one Latrell Adams had posed with in social media posts as well.
Kim Foxx, the Cook County States Attorney, does not have a record of much enforcement. Many crimes go unprosecuted. Retail theft (shoplifting, for example, has been intentionally ignored. Unsurprisingly, it rose somewhere around 25% after she took office. Although she claims the data support her decisions, she does not do much to elucidate that claim and reporters have found information conflicting with her claim. The probability of a person being caught for a crime is already far from 100%. Lax enforcement turns it into a running joke. Foxx means to solve the issue of an unduly harsh prison system, but a States Attorney is meant to prosecute. She needs to do that job and lobby for prison reform using her clout in that position or modify the severity and type of sentence sought for various crimes if she wishes to create lasting and productive change.
She is correct that harsh prison systems and dehumanizing conditions do nothing to help and could, in fact, increase recidivism, or the rate of released prisoners being charged with new crimes. Data from European countries ranging from the UK to Norway show it’s the likelihood of punishment and not its severity that determines the level of deterrence for a given crime. Norway’s method of treating prisoners humanely brought their recidivism rates down by half. The key, other than treating prisoners with dignity, is showing them another path. Those that found jobs were less than a quarter as likely to commit new crimes. It may even make economic sense to cut prison sentences and instead spend a fraction of what we would have to subsidize wages paid to former prisoners. We can help businesses in high-crime areas get on their feet and create better neighbors at the same time.
The keys to creating a better, safer city, then, are going to be enforcement, rehabilitation, and investment. Enforcement discourages crime. A higher chance of getting caught means less people commit crimes. Rehabilitation, including educating prisoners with new skills and treating their mental health, will help mold them into contributing members of society. As a bonus, this helps build institutional trust (which also helps with enforcement – a virtuous cycle!). Finally, investment helps a community develop by increasing employment while making a productive path more attainable and more attractive. Details need to be fleshed out, of course, but the first step is focusing on the right things.