Chicago radio station hosts program to stem city violence

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - After another violent weekend, a Chicago radio station held a town hall meeting to talk about solutions to the shootings.

WGCI radio hosted a program called 'Taking Back our Streets, One Day at a Time.'

“For somebody that may be on the verge of getting into some trouble or doing some things that would be a bad reflection on them, their family or the city, maybe we can come inside now and step in and point them in a different direction,” said Kyle Santillian, the host of Chicago Morning Takeover on WGCI.

On a beautiful warm night in Jackson Park, thoughts were more focused on having fun than worrying about violence. Still, for many people, those concerns are always lingering in the back of their mind.

“No place is safe in Chicago, no matter where you go, you just have to hope and pray that nothing happens to you,” said Nathaniel Norwood, a father of four who was playing basketball with friends.

And this weekend provided another good reminder of that after more than two dozen people were shot and three were killed.

As the WGCI panel talked about ways to stem the violence, they talked about the importance of family and the concept for communities to adopt the mentality of "each one teach one."

If each one of us were to take responsibility for a child, if we were to support our children, provide them with programing, resources, just care, you know just love them in the right way, I think you'd see a huge difference,” said Liz Dozier, Managing Partner of Chicago Beyond and former principal at Fenger High School.

As police look for new strategies to fight what has become a plague of violence in Chicago, there are hopes that they won't have to do it on their own and that the combined efforts of many can turn the tide before summer.

“I have friends that will actually bet on the numbers of how many people are going to get hurt over the summer, and that's how bad it is,” Norwood said.