Some question effectiveness of violence intervention, jobs programs in
state budget
Send a link to a friend
[June 28, 2024]
By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – An analysis of the Illinois state budget set to
begin July 1 shows about $180 million will go toward violence
intervention and youth summer jobs programs. Some question whether that
will move the needle.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Surgeon General labeled “gun violence” a
“public health crisis.”
“Firearm violence has become the number one cause of death among
children and adolescents,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said
earlier this week, pointing to a chart that includes adults 18-19 years
old.
“The Surgeon General’s advisory lays out the approach we can take to
address firearm violence as the public health crisis that it is,” Murthy
said. “This includes implementing community violence prevention programs
and firearm risk reduction strategies.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker praised Murthy’s message. He said Illinois is doing
what it can by putting more tax dollars into violence intervention
programs. The new Illinois state budget that begins Monday includes
about $180 million in taxpayer funded grants to violence intervention
and youth summer jobs programs.
“We think that it’s very important to track and trace, you know, what
happens with the dollars that we put into those programs and it does
prove to work,” Pritzker said at an unrelated event earlier this week.
“And then you see the reverse of it in the years prior, take the money
away, violence increases.”
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski questioned increased money toward
such programs without making stronger deterrent to crimes.
“We’re not prosecuting and we’re actually handcuffing the police when it
comes to doing their job, whether it’s we’re not doing foot chases,
we’re not doing car chases, we’ve got the [end of cash bail statewide],
which is allowing more criminals to be out on the streets,” Dabrowski
told The Center Square.
Dabrowski said addressing crime on the streets must be paramount.
Addressing the root causes of crime will take more time.
Earlier this month during the budget signing ceremony alongside Pritzker,
state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, praised the budget for
including millions for violence intervention and youth summer jobs
programs.
[to top of second column]
|
Surveillance video of an armed robbery suspect in Chicago - Chicago
Police / YouTube
“From Chicago to Cairo, from Pembroke to Peoria, and ensuring that
our communities are safer because of the investments that we’re
making and programs like youth employment,” Gordon-Booth said.
Dabrowski said while such funding could have a short-term positive
effect, it’s not sustainable long term.
“The money would be better spent creating real opportunity, rather
than just tax people and send it to programs which are unproven,”
Dabrowski said. “When we’re a six year high in violent crimes right
now, it’s not about money. We don’t have the right strategies.”
Another issue Dabrowski points to is the high rate of police being
unavailable in Chicago to respond to high priority 911 calls. A
Wirepoints report found in 2023, of more than 1,800 calls made to
911 in Chicago of a person being shot, only about 800, or fewer than
half, were responded to immediately by police officers.
“Firearm violence is a public health crisis,” Murthy said. “Our
failure to address it is a moral crisis. To protect the health and
wellbeing of Americans, especially our children, we must now act
with the clarity, courage and urgency that this moment demands.”
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Chairman Alan
Gottlieb responded to Murthy’s message, saying “gun ownership is not
a communicable disease, it’s a constitutional right.”
“This is just one more effort by the Biden administration to
demonize guns and the law-abiding citizens who own them,” said
Gottlieb. “The problem with violent crime is not that it is a
disease, but a symptom of failed leadership, from the White House on
down. From the day he took office, Joe Biden has treated gun owners
like social lepers. He considers us second-class citizens who should
be ostracized as though we are spreading a plague.”
|