We’ve got a violence problem. We’re a proud, vibrant, beautiful city, but this is our Achilles’ heel, the weak point that leaves us vulnerable, where we sadly fail. It leaves us open to attack – and Trump and his team of bullies are doing just that, using it as an excuse to invade.

Too cowardly to show their faces, immigration and border patrol agents pretend to target criminals and instead round up our neighbors – the flower vendor on the street, the landscape worker, the daycare teacher grabbed during work hours, in front of her kids.

Astonishingly, these federal agents arrive in helicopters, donning masks and military garb, overaged boys playing war with weapons that are all too real.

I’ve been incredibly proud as neighborhood after neighborhood stands up to their tear gas and long guns with steadfast defiance as every-day people shout warnings and patrol our streets with whistles, alerting others that I.C.E. is nearby.

I hope and believe we’ll still be here, standing strong, after they’re gone. Downtown, our buildings will still soar to the sky; our culture and creativity will still shine; and our diversity will still make us innovative, resilient and strong.

And yet we’ll still have our Achilles’ heel, the violence that plagues us – because Trump and his minions never really cared about that. They clearly have no interest in stopping the violent crime that has hindered some corners of our city for decades, nor do they attempt to understand it.

In Chicago’s poverty-stricken, neglected neighborhoods you often hear the phrase: “Hurt people hurt people.” It’s an apt description of a tough and vicious cycle, succinctly saying how abused youths grow up to be abusers themselves or how an angry young man lashes out, harming the innocents nearby.

In recent years we’ve emphasized the use of “violence interrupters” and program advocates point to progress in lowering rates of homicide and assault. Anything that helps is encouraging. But there’s something wrong even with that title, isn’t there? Because to have “violence interrupters” you need to first have violence to interrupt.

I remember interviewing a University of Chicago researcher who described a program that targeted hardened men just out of prison, providing them with job training along with housing assistance and behavioral therapy. The men were almost always from tough, turmultuous homes and they’d turned their anger outward at an early age, starting as juveniles and leaving a string of wounded victims behind them.

The researcher talked about how difficult it was to reach these men, but spoke with hope as he touted the program’s merits. Yet, as he described the average client’s background and repeat criminal histories, I noticed his voice hesitate. Then he said, “Makes you wonder why we let it go that far, doesn’t it?”

Yes, it does.

We have to get serious, Chicago. First we have to drive out Trump’s vicious invading army, the cold-blooded clones in camoflage who never once considered the intergenerational trauma that has lived on, hand-in-hand with violent crime, in our poorest and most desperate families.

And once we’ve driven these masked monsters out, we must turn to the task they will no doubt leave untouched: We ourselves must solve the violence that has been our weakest point.

Twelve years ago I wrote a story for The Atlantic magazine about a Chicago funeral home that buried scores of young homicide victims that year.

Not much has changed. The Leak & Sons Funeral Home buried another “100 or more” homicide victims in 2020, says funeral director Spencer Leak Jr. – and this year the pace continues.

Before that Atlantic article, for years I was a crime reporter for the Chicago Tribune and I’ve seen a lot of funerals. I’m talking about funerals of the too-soon dead. The dead from unnatural causes. The way-too-young-to-die dead.

Eventually I transferred to other Tribune beats and ended up covering war-time killing in the Middle East and Bosnia. By now you might say I’m an expert on violence, at least compared to the average person. You could also say I’ve had enough of it.

Think of it this way: Human beings can build buildings a hundred stories high, fly into outer space, and split the atom. And yet we put up with this? This parade of violent death, this constant heartbreak, the ongoing fear and pain?

Yes, it’s complex and difficult and will take a huge effort, but I believe our city’s high murder rate and low homicide clearance rates are SOLVABLE PROBLEMS.

So welcome, friends, to Stop the Violence Chicago.

Please join us!

Send us your ideas, your stories and the work you’re doing by submitting here.

We welcome input from all Chicago organizations tackling violence, from university researchers, community activists, outreach workers, and cops on the street.

We want to hear from survivors, witnesses and even perpetrators – anyone with real insight into violent crime.

Let’s examine what works and what doesn’t, and make a collective decision that what happens to one of us concerns ALL of us.

We can do it, Chicago! Let’s stop the violence.