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Motive Season 5
Motive Season 5

An up close look at anti-violence work in Chicago

   

More than 16 hundred people have been shot this year in Chicago. Increasingly, the city is leaning on anti-violence workers to try and bring that number down.

There are hundreds of these workers - many of them former gang members. As part of their job, they step into the middle of intractable gang conflicts to try and prevent further shootings.

WBEZ’s Patrick Smith spent a year documenting their work for the most recent season of our Motive podcast.

The Latest
“We are not a weak community. We are a strong community,” says Highland Park resident Ashbey Beasley.
There were 635 burglaries reported at restaurants last year, the most since at least 2001, and the city is on pace to surpass that number this year.
A coalition of community organizations says the policy still fails to draw a line between crowds protected under the First Amendment and those engaged in illegal activity such as looting.
Robert Crimo III backed out of deal in court Wednesday after prosecutors say he agreed to plead guilty to seven counts of first-degree murder in connection with the mass shooting in 2022. “It’s heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t be happening,” activist Ashbey Beasley told reporters afterward.
The plea deal, if it’s accepted by Judge Victoria Rossetti, could bring closure to the criminal case against Robert Crimo III sooner than expected.