Reggie Yates: Life and Death in Chicago

-POLICE RADIO:

-'Shots fired, 36-7...

-Shots heard in the area...'

America,

2016...

SIRENS BLARE

-RADIO:

-'She heard approximately 15 shots fired in the area...'

..a country that's become increasingly plagued by gun violence...

GUNSHOTS

..and allegations of police brutality...

..forces that are tearing the country apart.

GUNSHOTS

Oh, my God! I don't believe this!

One of the worst afflicted places -

Chicago.

America's third city

and President Obama's adopted hometown.

GUNSHOTS AND SHOUTING

'There have already been over 350 homicides in Chicago this year.'

GUNSHOTS AND SCREAMING

Gun violence in the city is spiralling out of control,

while controversy rages over police shootings.

-POLICE RADIO:

-'A person down, our ticket says male.'

And the majority of victims?

Young black men and women.

GUNSHOTS

WOMAN SCREAMS

As Chicago struggles to cope with the carnage,

the question is,

who is responsible?

They have no respect for our humanity.

Those of us who have been kissed by the sun,

-there appears to be a target on our backs.

-Always.

The police are killing our women and children.

The police are killing our women and children.

The Chicago Police Department is under siege.

Here and across the US,

outrage of black deaths at the hands of cops is at boiling point.

In 2015, 306 African-Americans were killed by police in America -

eight in Chicago alone.

We want the city to know that we're coming together as a community.

We're against neighbourhood violence,

we're against police violence in any shape or form.

We've come here today to make that be known to the city.

The monthly police review board -

a chance for citizens to air their grievances.

It's fairly obvious that people are not only impassioned

but also personally connected to the issues at hand.

This isn't a group of weekend warriors,

this is a group of people who've been personally affected by an issue

that is being discussed by the entire country.

The Chicago police, they do not get to be judge,

-jury and executioner of our children.

-That's right.

Let's wrap this up.

Hey, look, we've got to go in a board meeting today...

APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Mr Russell?

Mr Russell?

At every board meeting, we go through the same thing,

but no solution's ever come out of it, that's the problem.

-Has there been any change, in your experience?

-No.

-Nothing?

No, not yet. When you grow up in these neighbourhoods,

when you see the police culture, when you witness it first hand,

you get pulled over for no reason, when you see people getting shot,

when you see our neighbourhoods looking like Third World countries

and no resources, no opportunities, no jobs, it's regular.

It's nothing...you know, you live in it so long, there is no hope,

so...

I'm going to make my comment on my knees although I bow before no man,

because it was on bended knee that Latisha Jones,

she was on her knees in a puddle of blood,

holding her mother as she took her last breath after Officer Rialmo

blew a hole through her chest

and Latisha Jones cried out to the Chicago police officer,

"Why did you do this to my mother?"

And the police officer's response was,

"Your mother's dead, get over it."

-CROWD SHOUTS

-I'm on my knees for Latisha.

-CROWD CHANTS:

-We want justice! We want justice!

We want justice!

Hey, what do we want?

-ALL:

-Justice!

-When do we want it?

-ALL:

-Now!

-What do we want?

-ALL:

-Justice!

-When do we want it?

-ALL:

-Now!

-What do we want?

-ALL:

-Justice!

-When do we want it?

-ALL:

-Now!

-What do we want?

-ALL:

-Justice!

-When do we want it?

-ALL:

-Now!

I don't know if I've really emotionally prepared myself

for what's going to happen while I'm here because...

..as a black man, when you look around the room and you see people

that look just like your family members telling stories

about horrific interactions with the police,

I have no choice but to imagine my mother's face,

or my auntie's or my grandfather's or my grandmother's.

And then suddenly it becomes so much more real.

Chicago police killed nine people in 2015,

all but one were black.

African-Americans account for a third of the city's three million residents.

They mainly live in the south and west of the city,

areas that have some of the highest levels of poverty.

'Areas like Gresham where, in 2013, preacher Catherine Brown -

'a volunteer working to improve relationships with the police -

'was driving home with her two children.'

-How old are your children?

-One year old and eight years old.

-OK.

We were getting ready to come into our driveway here at this house.

The police and I, we met bumper to bumper.

The passenger jumps out of the car and says, "Bitch,

"move that effing car back!"

And begin to come over towards me in a rage.

So, immediately when we heard the "B"...

..my daughter begins screaming at the top of her lung

and it scared me. I locked the door, let the window up

and just grabbed my phone and dialled 911.

The one that was standing in front of me pulls his gun out, says,

"What the F are you reaching for?!"

And I'm thinking, "Oh, they're going to try to kill me."

And the only thing I could think of,

"You better get you and your kids to safety,"

so I put that car in reverse and went as fast as I can

out of that alley, trying to go on the front to get witnesses.

I said, "If they kill me,

"they ain't going to kill me and my kids in this alley,

"they going to kill us front of everybody."

-CATHERINE ON THE PHONE:

-OK, my children are in the car and it's...

CHILDREN SCREAM

SCREAMING CONTINUES

Oh, my God. She's crashed into you.

Absolutely. And you know it's me and my two little babies in the car.

WOMAN SCREAMS

I'm asking for help, so y'all come look.

SCREAMING

She sprayed us.

-Spraying the baby?

-He's laughing about that.

SCREAMING

They've just thrown you off the bonnet onto the floor there, right?

They dragged me across the car.

-Just unbelievable.

-When you talk to your children about it now,

particularly the eight-year-old, what does she say

about what happened to you all?

She wants to move out of Chicago.

She hates Chicago.

And she's afraid of the police.

The last people you should be scared of are the police,

they're there to protect you.

You would think so. Especially the type of person I was

in the community. I was a volunteer liaison between the community

and the police to bring unity and support,

try to help both sides understand one another

and get along, but in that role...

..I got treated like nothing.

'Following the incident,

'Catherine was prosecuted on charges including aggravated battery,

'assault and two counts of attempted murder.'

She was found guilty of reckless conduct.

All other charges were dropped.

Cases of police brutality have been hogging the headlines in Chicago,

and after an official request,

the Chicago Police Department declined to take part in this film.

But there might just be a way in.

Across town, in a white area of the city,

some bikers are gathering.

But these aren't Hell's Angels...

..they're off-duty cops.

I'm not going to pretend as a young black man growing up in London,

I've had the best experiences with the police, because I haven't.

You know,

I've done all right for myself since I was quite young,

and when you're a teenager driving a nice car in London and you happen to

be black, things aren't fun.

So my experiences with the police aren't brilliant.

So, going into this...

..I don't feel massively comfortable.

I don't feel that I'm going to be particularly welcomed.

And I'm a little paranoid, if I'm honest.

This is where my nerves go up to a ten at the moment.

Kind of outnumbered.

-Hello.

-How you doing?

-How you doing, sir? You all right?

Nice to meet you. This is a pretty impressive set of wheels you got here.

Thank you. Well I'm a Wild Pig, which is a 100% police motorcycle club.

Just how safe is it policing a city like Chicago?

It depends on the area you're in.

I mean, it's got its dangerous areas,

I mean, anywhere in any part of the nation,

being a police officer is dangerous.

-Of course.

-You know, we all do the same job. There's bad guys everywhere.

You never know who you're pulling over.

A lot of people criticise us,

especially what's happening with the shootings that have happened here

in Chicago, the police-involved shootings.

Hey, how you doing, man? How you doing?

That's OK. How you doing? Hello.

Well, we're a team, yeah. Nice to meet you, guys.

So, we've been here for about three or four minutes

and were quite quickly approached by a couple of officers

who've asked us to stop shooting and sort of establish our reasons

for being here now.

We've been allowed to continue shooting because the guys are aware

that we're trying to get their story and their experiences

to what it is to police a city like Chicago,

but we've also been asked to stay away from some of the more sensitive

subject matters such as police brutality and the things that might

have come up in the press.

The event is a memorial for cops killed in the line of duty.

In the last ten years,

nine Chicago police officers have been fatally shot.

Sandy Wright's father - a cop -

was shot and killed while working in Gresham.

He was actually...

Just got off...

off of work and

he saw some kids...

..out in front of a store where he used to patrol,

and he was talking to one of the gang bangers and telling him

to disperse,

and two kids who were at a funeral that day, seeking vengeance,

and another gang banger shot...

Went to shoot the kid next to my dad,

but they ended up shooting my dad.

So my dad was six foot three, white,

and Gresham's all black, so...

It's so devastating that it rips families apart,

because it's so tragic and...

It's not like they were sick,

they went to work and you just expect that they're going to come home.

Do you think that the police have been misrepresented by the news

-and by the media over here?

-They don't go to work, saying,

"Today I think I'm going to shoot somebody."

That's the last thing that they want to do.

But it's so violent now and no-one's really supporting them.

They only show portions of what actually happens,

they don't show you that that kid was a career criminal,

and eventually they would have died...

..if not by the police's hands, by their own kind - the gang bangers.

So, it's not the police.

The police are outgunned right now.

We hear the news, we see their pictures.

Correctional officer Adam Conrad.

Sergeant Jason Goodding.

Deputy Sheriff Derek Geer.

Trooper Sean E. Cullen.

Officer Nathan Taylor.

Police officer Gerald Wright, Chicago PD.

So, at this time, I wanted to thank her and everyone...

At this time, we'd like to release the balloons

and honour those fallen.

It really does feel as though there are people dying on both sides

of this argument, this debate, whatever you want to call it.

I think the problem is everybody feels like they're the victim

of this situation, and I don't think enough people are actually asking,

"Well, what role do we play in the problem?"

Police brutality in Chicago might be in the spotlight,

but there's a much bigger problem when it comes to the overall number

of shootings in the city.

Last year, 23 people were shot by police, nine fatally.

At the same time, there were almost 2,500 black-on-black shootings,

of which over 350 were fatal.

-NEWSREADER:

-'In Chicago over the weekend, eight were killed,

'55 were wounded.

'These are numbers that sound like a war zone,

'like Afghanistan or Syria.'

Most of the shootings are in the African-American areas of the city.

The majority of the victims are young black men.

With someone shot on average every two hours,

the daily news in Chicago is full of stories of gun crime.

I'm trying to find a gentleman by the name of Peter.

Now, he is a journalist.

He goes out searching for the story,

and the stories that he's searching for are...

..are the stories of gun crime, the stories of violence and...

..generally the sort of thing that you don't go looking for.

But he's the sort of journalist who does.

I think this is Peter now.

-Peter.

-Hey.

-How's it going?

-OK, how are you?

Very good, thank you, very good.

So, what's your night looking like, then?

Do you know what you're about to get yourself into at any time, or...?

No. So we're just going to listen to the scanners and see what happens.

Cellphones, you know, Twitter. Find out a lot of stuff on Twitter.

Oh, right, so you're basically using things that just anybody can get

-their hands on.

-Yeah. It's just a little hand-held radio.

-OK.

So what channels are you plugged into here?

-Is it police channels?

-Yeah, there's fire, too, we can listen to that.

-Is that legal?

-Yeah.

-You're allowed to...?

-It doesn't transmit, it's over public airwaves.

So what we do is, like,

we listen for shootings and it's plain English,

they don't speak in Tan codes like they do on TV so much.

-Right.

-So they'll say, like, we got a person shot,

a person with a gun, or a gang disturbance, whatever it is,

and we just kind of listen to what's going on,

and if something happens, we'll go to it.

-I guess I'm rolling with you tonight.

-All right.

-Shall we make a move?

-Yeah, let's go.

Chicago has some of the strictest firearm laws in America.

There are no gun shops in the city

and yet, in 2015, police seized over 6,000 illegal guns,

smuggled in from neighbouring states.'

-RADIO:

-'Shots fired, shots fired.

'Get an ambulance over here.'

I've been with you for all of two minutes

-and there's already shots fired.

-Yeah.

-RADIO:

-'Do you have fire rolling over there?

'We've got numerous calls with fire rolling.'

-What does "fire rolling" mean?

-It means...

RADIO COMMUNICATION

It means they're sending paramedics.

So, that's police getting to where they've got to go to.

-Are we going to the same place as that car?

-Yeah.

-RADIO:

-'How many people do you have?

'How many GSWs do you have over there?'

She's saying, "How many GSWs do you have over there?"

-RADIO:

-'Only one person shot.'

Cos their first calls were saying, people shot,

-there's people shot in the alley.

-SIRENS BLARE

I can't tell if there's more coming up behind him.

And there's been shots-fired calls there all night, so...

-There's a lot of officers.

-There is.

By the time we arrive,

the victim has already been rushed to hospital in critical condition.

All that's left at the scene are cops.

And they're not talking.

There's no way of knowing what actually went down here.

This is clearly a shady bit of town.

And if something shady was going to happen,

I mean, this is the perfect place for it.

I think we might now be in a...

Am I now officially in a crime scene?

-We're just going to make it a little firmer.

-Oh, right, I see.

So, it looks a like a lot of the officers have started to leave.

So, all they have right now is that this kid got shot.

Man, just like that, they're all gone.

-I mean...

-Yeah, exactly.

-..no-one's here, we're the last ones here,

-and it's been five minutes.

-Right. It's still really fresh,

like, I don't even think they have the kid's DOB yet, so...

-I don't know.

-Would you expect there to be some sort of retaliation

-tonight?

-It doesn't always happen that quick.

Sometimes it does, but...

-..it's not regular, it's not something you can bank on.

-Mmm.

You can't. I mean, you can probably bank on retaliation

-but not necessarily tonight, cos they have long memories.

-Yeah.

Anything on the scanner?

-RADIO:

-'Shots fired in the area.

'Person down. Our ticket says male, head is busted.

'Fire rolling.'

News came in over the scanner that the victim of the shooting

died at the hospital - a young black man, just 18 years old.

How has the way you see the city changed?

Because your mental map is littered with crime scenes...

-Yeah.

-..and incidences of people being involved in violence.

Do you see the city in the same way?

You know blocks by shootings and gunshot victims,

or you know pockets of a neighbourhood by what groups

are into it with each other.

You can't let violence define a location.

I've been trying to make, like, a conscious decision of going

to places that I've been for shootings and stuff,

when other stuff is going on.

Are you ever really able to switch off?

I'd like to slow down maybe a little bit,

but we're at 1,400 gunshot victims this year

and every Monday, everybody's like, "Damn, that was a bad weekend."

No, it was just the weekend.

You expect three dozen people to get shot.

It wasn't a bad weekend by city standards,

that was a normal weekend by city standards.

I don't know, like, it's hard to feel a difference between, like,

three dozen gunshot victims and four dozen gunshot victims, right?

Like, you can only get to so many shootings and it's hard that, like,

at a certain point, busy is just busy.

Like, if somebody said, "Well, no, I think things are getting better,

"it feels like it's getting better," I would ask for evidence to support

that, and there's not any evidence to support that.

More people are getting shot.

I mean, more people are getting murdered, you know?

It keeps happening.

Like, whose responsibility is it when it comes down to it

at the end of the day, right? Like, you talk about, like,

shootings keep happening,

and I recognise that I have probably a more bleak outlook

than a lot of people but...

..but when you start looking for solutions or even if you look

to assign responsibility, like, where do you begin?

So it is 25th May and according to this website...

..there's been

54 homicides this month...

..and the month isn't even over yet.

There's still six days left of May...

..and 54 people have been killed.

But the slightly scarier stat here

is that this month, on 25th May,

in 25 days, 252 people have been shot and wounded.

54 killed.

That...

I mean...

The numbers are so unreal, it doesn't feel real,

and it's quite hard to have a natural reaction to that, because...

..it just doesn't... It doesn't compute for me.

In 1933, with the help of God, my grandparents -

Reverend and Mrs AR Leak -

founded the AR Leak Funeral Home.

We would like to thank all of Chicago for 75 years of your trust

and support.

Behind every statistic, every killing, is a story.

And many of them end here.

-Hello.

-Hi, how are you?

I'm very good, thank you.

-Reggie. Nice to meet you.

-Hi, Reggie.

-Nice to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you.

I didn't know what to expect on the other side of this door,

and these are bodies that are waiting to be...

Dressed, casket and cosmetise.

-OK. Are they...?

-So they've already been embalmed.

I didn't think that I would see this many...

This many bodies. I don't imagine that all of these bodies are victims

of gunshots, but I'm sure a few of them are.

-Yes.

-How many gunshot wounds are you seeing come through your door?

Every other day, we'll have somebody here from the medical examiner

who's been shot, and it's not just how, it's multiple gunshot wounds,

so...

When you see them coming in here, you're seeing a body,

you take them and put them on the table, you finally open up the bag

and... You really don't know what's going to hit you,

and then when you see all these holes just everywhere,

and violence is just so in your face...

It's raw and you have to deal with this and, you know,

a lot of questions are going through your head, like, "Why?"

You know, "What could this person possibly have done

"to get you so angry or get whoever those individuals are so angry

"to want to cause this much harm, that they want to see them dead."

And I have a three-year-old. I do have a three-year-old boy,

and my concern is I don't want to see him...

..wind up on this table and it's me opening his bag up and here's my son

to some violence, and it may not have been for him being in a gang,

he could just be on the wrong side of town and

they decide, "You know what? Let's just

"take our frustrations out on him."

Death is a strange thing to somebody of my age

because I'm in my early 30s now and more and more my friends

are losing their grandparents or losing their parents

and to be here and to be surrounded by death and to be surrounded

by stats and numbers that sort of talk about people dying...

..it's...

It's just that, it's stats and conversation until you actually

see a body.

Do you mind if take a minute outside?

Is that all right?

-NEWSREADER:

-'22-year-old Lee McCullum was shot

'and killed last night.

'After a troubled period in his teens, Lee ended on top.

'He was an honour roll student, was crowned as prom king,

'and was looking forward to college.'

On average, the staff here bury two to three gunshot victims

every single week.

Lee McCullum Jr was murdered on 12th May,

making him the 29th person killed that month.

Lee had been found in his mother's car

with multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

Among the mourners is Michael,

a family friend who acted as a mentor to Lee Jr.

For someone who is on the right path,

I'm just really struggling to understand

how this can happen to him.

Why have the family come in white?

Son, as you leave this world...

..you will be missed.

No matter where you go, I want you to know your father loves you.

If I could...

..I would give my life...

..in order...

..to have yours back.

I just wish whoever did this...

I'm going to pray for them in a different type of way.

APPLAUSE

If all those prayers out there mean anything,

may it follow back...

-..cos I can't do no more funerals.

-APPLAUSE

I thought it was going to be easy

for me to say what I want to say, so just bear with me.

That don't supposed to be...

That don't supposed to be...

Ain't no way in the world that's supposed to be.

I've been out here in these streets all my life, shooting, gang banging,

I got 21 years invested in prison, I've been left for dead,

going through garbage cans...

That don't supposed to be! That's supposed to be me!

This don't make you no man!

This don't make you no man!

This don't make you tough!

These make you tough.

Being a man!

Be a man!

Be a man!

APPLAUSE

-It was amazing to hear you speak.

-Oh, man...

When?

And what is it that might happen? What are we talking about here?

Well, that's heartbreaking.

After everything that we've witnessed today,

all of those amazing speeches that were given and statements

that were made, it feels as though

there are a lot of people that are so...

so heartbroken by what's happened to Lee

that they feel the need to do something about it,

with the same level of force

that put Lee in a coffin in the first place.

Two weeks after Lee's murder, there have been no retaliation attacks...

..but no arrests have been made either.

Lee was the 221st person fatally shot in Chicago in 2016.

He was the 154th African-American killed.

-Hey, Mike.

-How you doing?

-How you doing, man?

-What's going on?

I'm good, thank you. Where shall I put the car?

-You want to go down there.

-OK, cool.

His grieving father, Lee Sr,

and his friend Michael have agreed to talk about their loss

and the young man he was.

He was enthusiastic, free-spirited, easygoing.

Loved life.

Lee loved basketball, he's always got trophies.

He always tried to outdo me.

-Can I see his trophies?

-Yeah.

Sure can, no problem.

So what happened to your leg?

I was breaking up a fight.

Got shot...

..and they had to amputate my leg.

Wasn't doing nothing.

Wasn't bothering nobody.

Got into a fight, breaking up a fight with my nephew.

And they amputated your leg? I mean...

Yeah, cos I got shot, they had to...

Lost circulation.

I also got shot in the head,

in 2008, picking my son up from a Halloween party.

Right here.

I wasn't doing nothing.

Somebody was shooting at somebody else,

I turned the corner...

..caught a bullet.

You don't even seem angry about it.

-Are you? Or have you just got past that anger?

-I was angry.

-Right.

I'm angry about my son.

That's what I'm angry about - my son.

Now, this the one - basketball, yeah, but I went cross-country,

cos I told him he could do it.

I say, "You got the stamina to run up and down that court,

"you can win cross-country."

-Yeah.

-Never trained for it or nothing and won it.

Wow.

So, with him being so naturally gifted at sports,

do you think that that could've been a part of his future?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yes.

Yes.

He gone.

And none of them dreams can be fulfilled.

I got a little grandbaby I've got to take care of.

And I'm going to miss him so much.

It just hurts that he gone.

And I feel like I failed...

..because he lost his life.

It hurt, it's going to always hurt.

It's going to always hurt

and I'm just trying to change some of the stuff

that's going on, cos I can actually say and go on camera and tell you

that Lee Sr and Senior are good parents, good fathers, role models.

They ain't been the best, but you've got to do what you've got to do

-for your child.

-I just wish... I just wish I...

I just wish I was there.

He could've called me up, anything,

cos I don't, you know, I don't know...

..what his last moments were.

Was he still alive when he was laying on the ground?

None of that.

The last thing you want is retaliation on your son's behalf,

but you can't stop these kids from doing something,

-you can only tell them what you'd like.

-No, you can't, you can't...

You just hope and pray that no retaliation happens.

You let the police do what they need to do.

They're going to do their investigating, they do what they've got to do.

So you think the kids won't listen to you? Lee's friends?

I hope they listen.

But if they don't, you know, that's a road they've got to go down.

So how has the violence got to this level?

You got so much going on, it ain't just one issue.

It's not no one issue.

As far as the police problem, there ain't no trust there.

Ain't no trust with Chicago Police Department.

There ain't no trust there.

They done hurt the black community so bad,

you can't put a Band-Aid on that.

What's wrong with the system, do you think, Michael?

It's broke, it always been broke!

You can't fix something that's broke.

You've got to replace it.

It's over with, it's broke.

Ain't nothing you can do.

People don't want to hear this but it's the truth.

Well, there ain't no more colleges, ain't no more money,

ain't no more money for nothing. We all know who got the money,

who took the money, but there ain't no more money for nothing.

You can look around.

People ain't got money, people depend on the government

to help them out, but if the government hurting you

and making you do certain things

then you've got to go by what you get from them,

cos you asking them for help.

You know? So...

It's the law of the land or the other man.

We just pawns.

We just pawns.

Can't do nothing about that. The system broke.

Damn broke.

This place keeps throwing things at me that...

..I'm not prepared for.

Just before I left the house, Lee's...

Lee Sr showed me, erm...

..a picture of

Lee Jr...

..on the, er... I don't even know what you call it -

the autopsy table, the doctor's table?

I don't know what it is because I've never had to deal

with anything like that before. Basically, I was shown a picture

of his son...

..riddled with bullet wounds.

And the last picture he showed me was his face

with a huge bullet wound here, here,

and all manner of...

How do you protect that kid?

If you live here and that's your boy riding around on some girl's pink

girlie bicycle, how do you ensure that that kid stays safe?

You can do as much as you want to or as much as you are physically able...

..but if this is your block, this is your street,

no matter how much you instil in that child,

you still have to let him go to school.

They still have to, at some point,

be outside of your watchful eye.

And just because of where you live...

..that might be...

..the reason why your child doesn't live to see adulthood.

Cos you let them go to the shop on their own.

Or, even worse, one of their friends is involved in something

they shouldn't be, or someone they go to class with is involved in

something criminal,

and by association, they either end up shot or...

..or worse.

You know, we're on a main street that has potholes all over it

and every other shop is closed down.

There's a building over there that's blocked up.

This is a place that is sending signals to kids

that no-one cares about this area,

and I guess it sends the signal that no-one really cares about you.

So what does that lead to?

If you're a child and you're continuously being told

by everything you're surrounded by, that you don't matter...

..by the time you're in your teens or early 20s,

why are you going to care about your own life,

let alone somebody else's?

What hope is there for Chicago?

In a city plagued by police brutality

and the chaos of black-on-black violence,

who'll speak up for the next generation?

CHANTING

A group of fathers, fraternity brothers,

are taking to the streets of Englewood,

where almost 250 people have already been shot this year.

-Put the guns down!

-Put the guns down!

-Put the guns down!

-Put the guns down!

-Put the guns down!

-Put the guns down!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Stop the violence!

-Stop the violence!

It seems like the way the fraternity are going,

they're getting a reaction...

It's kind of emotional, really.

You've got people in cars honking their horns, shouting along.

People are coming out to their windows and they're joining in.

I guess it's a real simple message

and it seems to be resonating.

-Stop the violence!

-Stop the violence!

Put the guns down!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-How old's your son?

-Six years old.

What's his name? What's your name?

Tys.

Tys? Nice to meet you, little man.

So, what's it like bringing up a boy in this environment?

-I'm on top of everything...

-Yeah.

-..you know?

I keep him involved with sports, activities,

to raise him to be a man.

-Well, he's only six years old.

-He's only six years old.

Him being on a march like this sends what kind of message to him,

-do you think?

-Oh, it's going to stick with him, I think,

-for the rest of his life.

-Yeah?

-This message here.

You can only imagine, you know,

things that you've experienced at six years old, you still remember.

Right.

THEY CHANT AND SING

While we was walking... While we was walking, approaching 67th Street...

..a guy just got shot,

and it shows that we have to have a greater presence.

Maybe they didn't hear us when we was saying,

"Put the guns down! Stop the violence!"

They didn't hear that. So we've got to be louder next time,

because there's a brother on Loomis fighting for his life right now.

And we just walked past it.

We have to get ahead of the problem.

That's the key.

Get ahead of the problem, get our youth while they're young

and cut the source off

that's feeding this violence in this community.

All of us are here because something was said or done for you

to save your life and get you to this point.

Do the same things that saved your life.

Do it for not just one kid, not just for two kids, do it exponentially.

-Yeah.

-And if each and every last one of us standing out here today

do those things for more than just one kid, more than just your kid...

More than just your kid...

Do it for mine. Well, I don't have any kids, but...

-I'm sorry.

-It's all right.

The protest is in honour of Mike,

who lost his daughter Tiara to the gun violence.

23 years old, an innocent young woman killed by a stray bullet.

I was at a funeral. The kid that was in the casket had been shot

-by black-on-black violence.

-What was his name?

-Lee.

-Lee McCullum.

-That's correct.

You want to know something? That was the boyfriend of my daughter

that was killed.

-Wow.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Wow.

-He was shot and killed three weeks after her.

After she passed.

People think it's not their problem until the problem knocks on your door.

See, I work as...

I work law enforcement, Deputy Sheriff.

I risk my life every day...

..for the citizens in this city, in this county, in this...

Everywhere. I risk my life daily...

..and I did everything that I thought was right and possible

to raise my daughter, to give her a chance,

to shield her from the violence,

thinking, "Oh, my daughter, she went to college,

"she's got her life together,

"she doesn't have to worry about the violence that's happening here."

But it still touched my door.

And I tell people all the time,

"It's going to touch your door if you don't get up and do something.

"It will. It will get to you.

"Sooner or later, it's going to come to your door."

Put the guns down!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Save our youth!

-Stop the violence!

-Stop the violence!

Stop the violence!

THEY CONTINUE CHANTING

Tiara and Lee Jr were two young connected lives lost

out of hundreds on the streets of Chicago -

victims of the deadly combination of guns and deprivation

that's fuelling segregation and prejudice.

Tensions that are ripping the country apart.

I think in a... in a city like Chicago,

you see that separation and that division not only in terms of

racial groups but in terms of wealth,

that you really start to understand what America is really all about.

The realisation is that, for many,

the American Dream is now just about survival.

To be in Chicago, particularly here in the South Side,

I think the toughest thing to have...

..is hope.