Illinois Legislative Black Caucus addresses justice and violence

Posted on October 7, 2020
State Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago). (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Senators looking for solutions about violence in Illinois have plenty of material now.

Saying shared safety is better than mass incarceration, Chicago victims advocate Aswad Thomas says things were different in the early nineties.

“My best friend, Reuben Elder, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting just days before we started the fifth grade,” Thomas said. “We went back to school as if nothing had happened. There wasn’t an assembly at school. There weren’t dozens of grief counselors. We barely talked about it at home.”

The committee chairman, State Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago), said the testimony had him thinking of Frederick Douglass: “It’s easier to build stronger children than it is to repair broken men.”

This was part of a series of hearings convened by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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