You might have been tempted to believe that the entire "defund the police" movement had largely fizzled after people got a look at how society operates after the law and order situation fell to pieces under the Biden administration. But that's not actually the case at all. It's true that many cities have been moving to "refund the police," but certain activist groups have simply altered the language they use and continued to try to "reimagine policing." That's been the case in Chicago, where a group called the Englewood First Responders have been sending out "violence interrupters" with clipboards in an attempt to break up potential gang conflicts without involving the cops. That sounded like a rather unsafe idea to me and it turns out that it was. Dennis Green was one of the Chicago violence interrupters. I mention his name in the past tense because he was shot and killed last weekend while attempting this new form of "policing." (CBS News Chicago)

A Chicago man who volunteered as a violence interrupter was shot and killed in the Englewood neighborhood this past weekend, and those who knew and volunteered alongside him vowed days later to carry on his mission.

Dennis Green volunteered with the Englewood First Responders. Charles McKenzie, the founder of the organization, said Green's death only makes him even more motivated to do the world.

"We be out here so people can see the presence," McKenzie said.

Dennis Green was just one of 44 people who were shot in Chicago last weekend, with eight of them dying. As of yesterday, no arrests have been made in Green's killing, nor are there many leads in most of the other shootings that took place. Keep in mind that this didn't take place in the dark of night during prime drug-dealing hours. Green was shot at 8:30 in the morning. It was just another weekend in the Windy City and Dennis Green wound up being another statistic.

The founder of the Englewood First Responders who was interviewed for the linked article claims that the loss of his friend only drives him to keep going in Green's memory. He says that he spends most of his days roaming that neighborhood with a group of teenage volunteers who work to intervene in tense activities and de-escalate violence. I will be the first to admit that it's an admirable goal, but these people live in a very dangerous area. Are an unarmed group of teenagers with clipboards really in a position to jump in between opposing groups of gangbangers, most of whom are almost certainly armed? The fate of Dennis Green would suggest otherwise.

Englewood is located on the South Side of Chicago. It is ranked among the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city, with an average crime rate of 9,551 victims per 100,000 people. That's twice the overall crime rate of the entire city of Chicago, already one of the more dangerous places in the country these days. It's "famous" for its open-air drug market and a delivery driver was just shot in the head there three days ago during a robbery. A woman named Trinity Boswell was murdered in her Englewood apartment for no obvious reason the day after Dennis Green died and an 18-year-old male was killed while sitting in a parked car nearby the following day. 

The point is that Dennis Green's death, while tragic, wasn't an aberration. For someone who spends that much of their time out on the streets milling about with the locals, it was probably almost inevitable. That's particularly true for people who intentionally go out of their way to seek out the troublemakers who appear to be ready to engage in violence. The goals of Charles McKenzie's group are admirable, but sometimes we just need to let the police do their jobs. That's what they are trained to do and they show up carrying more than clipboards.