Warning to NYC After Two Children Shot in Chicago Youth Violence

I have been warning people in New York City and right now what is needed most is a plan of action for today. I am sure that there are urban plans that have been on the table and possibly even recently, plans rejected over politics and costs. This is the moment for the best leadership to shine across the city (and other cities). Nobody listens to me!

I believe that more than just words from a mayor elect of Chicago or the mayor of New York City that there should be a conference of the entire city immediately. I called for a world conference for Jews in 2019 and that finally happened last year to fight the violence and hate in communities. And I have done things over the last decade or more to help. Nobody listens to me!  Nobody listens to me!

This problem was created by youth and the media, and we could benefit greatly from a conference on social media instead of listening to another report from people at City Hall. Eric Adams recently told US that the mayors are in communication about common problems. And I repeat that for emphasis. And keep in mind from the reporting that Chicago police were overwhelmed by what happened. I have seen this coming by watching developments in Philadelphia over the years provided to me mostly by the late Malik Aziz who I collaborated with on two events to battle gang violence in New York and other events.

But I was doing even more as an educator pointing out major problems that would lead cities to where they are now.

Let’s go back again to this. Youth decides to study for GED instead of sell drugs or join a gang. That was almost 13 years ago.

We could go back four years ago to Jewish Business News where I was given the opportunity to share my vision and I presented information about Baltimore and a mother who made world news keeping her son away from trouble. Here are key details. Believe it or not!

In Chicago where Paul Vallas intends to be the next mayor of Chicago, we only have to look at police records of people committing crimes in the zip codes with the highest crime rates, see their educational attainment when Vallas was in charge of Chicago’s public schools and make a determination of where Vallas failed.

Now Vallas, as a mayoral candidate, wants to give the police a license to do what he says they know how to do. Wrong! Especially wrong as this rhetoric comes from a man who was involved in the education of the entire city and his failures have to be made part of the mayoral campaign.

Arne Duncan, for example, took personal responsibility for all the lives lost in Chicago when he retired as U.S. Secretary of Education. See the difference? I know the Chicago police and it wants all the help it can get.

And in Chicago in 2023, Vallas just lost again.

And I continue with this.

Trump has done nothing right to ameliorate the violence in our cities. Even his criminal justice law is a small effort by a party that doesn’t want to do a lot. That’s what Republicans and conservatives today are mostly about. Trump’s small hands and his humanity have failed us all except those people that sustain him. National safety has been sacrificed on the altar of so-called national security.

And now in 2023 I add again that Trump could have given our nation’s cities the funds needed to fight crime as Bill Clinton gave Giuliani’s New York back in the day. And Secretary Betsy DeVos should have been able to figure out that a learning loss in educational attainment was going to take place and accelerate as I knew before and during the pandemic. Nobody listens to me, not even at City Hall.

This was also in the article.

More students can pass their state exams and it takes expertise to accomplish that in a school district. We can discuss ways to make improvements well beyond what the State can accomplish.

African-Americans, Hispanics, and White people can unite, but it takes the right leadership to accomplish that. In a school district, there are people of all colors and of course people get underrepresented or worse in school policies. I’ve seen that over the last 50 years. Here is a video that I made a decade ago about my friend Bud (the video was not inserted in the article).

His real name has reverberated around the world and Bud and I have attended meetings in various places. I do the driving and he takes care of the business. Bud’s last name is Bell and his son was shot at 54 times by the NYPD and killed the night before his wedding.

And today in 2023 I think of my friend William Bell. The years have passed, but I think about him and the things he has gone through.

And here is more from that article in 2019.

I am going to keep this brief (October 1, 2015), I sent this to former Chancellor Carmen Fariña of New York City. Toya Graham made front page news and she was contacted later by Oprah.

Toya Graham and Baltimore have made national news. Did she fail her son? Did the school fail him? Did her son’s church fail him? Did her son’s friends fail him? Or was he just a David taking on Goliath?

And for the other youth who were arrested, the school to prison pipeline is full of special ed students and yes a much better parent involvement is needed to help. We need the Toya Grahams of our nation to become parent leaders in our schools. We have to train them and train them well. Keep this in mind. Her son did not belong there with a ski mask and a rock in his hand without his mother’s knowledge.

I later sent information to make sure that parents were engaged in the schools in addressing the opioid addiction, but I was writing about reaching parents in Skype (Facebook) meetings where every parent could participate. But nobody listens to me.

When I was involved in helping parent involvement in NYC schools and made my presentation at NYCDOE headquarters not a single parent leader was concerned enough to contact me. Chancellor Carmen Fariña and I had a brief encounter at that meeting, and she did not contact me. The parents who listened to Gina Otto at headquarters about her book Cassandra’s Angels were absorbed so much in her presentation that lasted longer than it should have, barely had a chance to listen to a man who wanted to make the city safer through education and parent involvement. I was told that I would have the chance to “say a few words” by a DOE staff member. At that meeting I learned that 100,000 children in schools in NYC were the children of incarcerated people (former and current).

I just read this part of Gina Otto’s bio.

For twelve years, Gina worked in film, television, and fashion with talented visionaries at Lucasfilm, NBC, CBS, and Viacom. She became disheartened by the damage that mainstream media was having on the hearts, minds and self-perception of America’s youth.

So whose media would be better? My own blog? You tell me!

Let’s US give her credit where credit is due, and I am sure that she has inspired lots of children. But what is going to be done now about this problem before US?

I am always watching the violence and crime taking place across our nation. Red states are full of violence right now and crime.  I am a New Yorker and I know that the solutions must be brought forth quickly and that is what prevention, real prevention that shields US like a laser beam. I know that the mistakes have been made and this is no time for just general talk that is expected to convince the general public that our leaders know what to do. And I am ready to participate in that “conference” and listen and learn from others. I know just how it feels when someone says “nobody listens to me!” How can we prevent hundreds or more youth from joining together in NYC and other cities right now?

About fifteen people were arrested because of the lawlessness and violence in Chicago. And I would like to share my thoughts about what has to be done.