In class, we gathered that the “codes of the streets” (introduced by Elijah Anderson) is a set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior, including violence. There is a cultural adaptation of a fundamental mistrust in the police and judicial system that is brought by the gangs in East Little Village. The gangs in Little Village create fear within the people in the community. Gangs enforce the “code of silence”, which prevents residents from reporting a crime or cooperating with police and their investigations. People in the community end up creating spaces and contributing to gang activity. They play part in displacing their community. There is a state of powerlessness in East Little Village because of the constant distrust and threat of danger. This makes it almost impossible for East Little Village to promote and continue seeing positive change. We see this “codes of the streets” notion Elijah Anderson is conveying. Even Though residents are often contributing to the displacement and violence in their community, we see this idea of a “street-corner society” and “street families” in East Little Village. Criminal leadership shares desires for some sort of social good. There are mutual support and encouragement for an alternative lifestyle (e.g joining a gang) that appears attractive to many young people regardless of family background. Residents value sidewalks as sites of community creation and cultural production. Street corner societies are spaces of mutual support residents of East Village tend to have, due to the mistrust of the police and other agencies.
My first question asked was: “since 1997, unlike the west side, the east side has been consistently gerrymandered, thereby stunting the development of organizational infrastructure for acquiring and distributing resources to eastside blocks. Gangs fought with police to maintain drug operations and control over residents eventually creating a code of silence. What can members of the Eastside do collectively to mitigate violence in their community?” This question was prompted by the term “gerrymandering”. Gerrymandering was never declared illegal. How are politicians doing it? Is gerrymandering something that the residents of East Village need to file suit because if that’s the case, due to unlimited access to resources, the residents can not.
My second question was prompted by the fact that people tend to look for explanations of Chicago’s violence by focusing on the residents of the neighborhoods instead of paying attention to the institutions distributing violence prevention resources throughout the city. Residents of East Little Village often rely on gangs to protect them because they don’t have equal access to the organizations, politicians, and city officials necessary to address the problem of violence.“In 2009, CPS received $260 million from President Obama’s federal stimulus legislation, of which $40 million was allocated to create one of the largest and most expensive violence reduction initiatives in the city’s history: the Culture of Calm. The Culture of Calm established a mentoring program and a crossing guard program called Street Watchers. However, nothing was done for the East. How can the government better serve the residents of East Little Village?
To answer your first question, I honestly think that there is little members of the Eastside can do to mitigate violence without the formation of trust between gangs, police and the government. The success of the Culture of Calm program came from bonds being formed between members of different groups that ordinarily might have quarreled. I also think that politicians are able to gerrymander since the people are not empowered. In these poor communities, members recounted not having any types of community meetings and are also unsupportive of politicians that seem to only be around during election season. Without unification between people and the government, the people in power are able to exert their own control.
To answer your second question, I think that the government can better serve the residents of East Village by creating similar programs to Culture of Calm. Violence prevention programs seem to target groups like gangs that cause the violence and punish them for their actions. For example, Giving money to just police or to create more surveillance to stop gang violence would just result in more retaliation. The only way to unify the community and stop violence would rather be to build trust between different groups with such programs. Although, this requires funding that the government might not be able to provide.
In order for local and state government to better serve East Village, there has to be people in the government who have the interests of East Villagers in mind. Gerrymandering has worked to dilute the voices, power, and influence of people living in East Village, and as a result, government officials can get away with meeting the needs of the residents in East Village because there is no sort of accountability (they do not fear that they will not be re-elected if community members in East Village are not satisfied with their work). There is also the issue of insufficient funding; when money was allocated to set up cameras in West Village and East Villagers asked for the same amenity, they were told that there was no money to do so. Even though we can question the reliability of government officials (if they did have the money would they spend it in East Village or use it elsewhere?), money does pose a legitimate issue when trying to find ways to protect people from violence. Thus, the only solutions I can imagine is for 1) East Villagers to organize locally or find ways to get involved in the government and secure for influence for themselves and 2) to raise funds to set up different amenities themselves. I also think that public protests may be helpful, just to bring more attention to the issues facing East Village and to put more public pressure on officials to act.
Gang members are emerging and being produced from the residents existing within the community. While the placemaking that gangs establish through the “street-corner” culture redistributes power from formal social agents in the area such as police to the residents of the community. It also oppresses the vast majority uninvolved residents, especially those living in opposing gang territory. The oppression exerted by the gangs through violence and “the code of silence” widens the means gap regarding residents’ success in achieving economic stability incentivizing them to join gangs, furthermore oppressing the existing community. The shift of spatial capital that gangs produce reveals a lack of agency in regards to the representation of the interests of the majority of the community. Pumping money into the area blindly such as through police operations did not lead to positive outcomes, effectively highlighting a lack of understanding of the struggles of the east-side. The government can better serve the residents of the east by increasing the amount of representational political platforms serving the area. In order to undermine the influence of the gangs, the residents will have to be provided more attainable pathways to social and economic stability.
Yadira, it appears the solution to your second question, “How can the government better serve the residents of East Little Village?”, lies in addressing the issues discussed in your first question. Gerrymandering, a process that involves the redrawing of district lines to favor a particular political party, disenfranchises individuals that were once the majority within previous district lines. In the case of East Village, the manipulation of district lines made it so the voices of the Latinx community within East Village were overshadowed by the recently incorporated white neighboring presence. The unethical practice of gerrymandering makes it nearly impossible for the needs of the Latinx community of East Village to be met. Therefore, the government can better serve the residents of East Village by making gerrymandering illegal.
Government interference with the participation of residents is necessary to produce effective, long-lasting positive changes in communities like East Little Village. Whether it be local government or state government programs like Obama’s Culture of Calm the people who are affected by these issues need to be at the forefront of figuring out their solutions. I think that the residents who comply with the gang’s rules are simply doing so because there is no other clear alternative option. The solution to this problem is to not give more funds to the politicians who gerrymandered the district nor the cops who seek to create hypervigilance in the area but create community institutions that are strictly for the people in the community. Giving funds to local nonprofits, churches and community leaders could put the power in the hands of the people who live and serve the area rather than those who seek to exploit it for ulterior motives. Securing these funds allows for the opportunity of community gathering, organization, and bonding which allows people to come together and fight against the groups that seek to exploit them.