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“It’s time for a cultural shift right now,” Hardiman told The
Center Square. “Violence is a normal way of thinking. There
needs to be a cultural shift where all the academic people
organize together to design a curriculum we can push to change
the way we think about one another.”
In a string of deadly incidents, 16-year-old Senn High School
student Daveon Gibson was pronounced dead at St. Francis
Hospital after being hit in the chest when gunmen opened fire on
a crowded street.
Just days earlier, 17-year-old Monterio Williams and 16-year-old
Robert Boston were both gunned down in a Loop shooting near
Millennium Park as they left the nearby Innovations High School
they attended.
“Violence has become the norm,” Hardiman said. “The more brazen
and the more outrageous the crime may be, it gets them some type
of brownie points in the neighborhood in which they come from. A
lot of young guys are being hunted down by individuals that
stalk the social networks to find out where they’re going to be
at one time or another. It’s all a part of the cycle of
violence.”
In just the last month while working in several alternative high
schools across the city, Hardiman said Violence Interrupters
mediated at least four other conflicts that could have led to
even more bloodshed.
“We specialize in stopping the killings,” he added. “We’re
willing to work with anybody. I’m willing to collaborate.
Chicago is my hometown and it’s time we reduce the homicide
rate.”
Hardiman, who is also pushing for funding to be able to hire up
to 1,000 teenagers across the city to join his group in working
for peace, said he wishes Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson would
have taken the time to consult with more people in the community
before publicly throwing his support behind a plan to end having
uniformed police officers in CPS high schools. With violence on
the rise as it is, Hardiman said an all-hands-on deck approach
is needed.
“We’re dealing with a gun violence epidemic,” Hardiman said.
“When you have kids being shot right outside in front of the
school and murdered like that it puts me in the mindset of how
the mafia used to hit people in the old-school mafia days back
in the 1930s when they ride up and kill people. I believe that
decision to take the police out of the schools was not a real
good decision.”
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