(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson and community leaders gathered on Chicago's South Side Wednesday afternoon, calling on the city to address the recent rise in violence.
"Easy access to guns is a problem, easy access to drugs is a problem. We need a federal intervention in Chicago, we need help," said Rev. Jackson.
"There's been 158 killed and 679 wounded in Chicago since January 1," added community activist Father Michael Pfleger. "The CDC said, last week, that number one cause of youth death in America is guns."
Both Jackson and Pfleger say Chicago needs to have preventative measures in place before the summer, when the city typically sees a surge in violent crimes.
"There's a storm coming toward Chicago this summer, what are we going to do? What's our plan?" Pfleger asked. "How are we going to be preventive instead of talking about the bodies in our streets?"
Both Jackson and Pfleger said there needs to be more programming for Chicago's youth during the summer and that the city, state and federal government need to crack down on illegal weapons coming from neighboring states.
They also said violence prevention starts in Chicago's neighborhoods.
"We've got to reconnect phone trees, meetings, turning lights on, whatever we're going to do on our block, every block ought to have a plan for its block, looking out for one another. we need to have a neighborhood that looks out after each other again," said Pfleger.
Last week, the Chicago Police Department said it is pivoting away from a "crisis model" initially adopted to manage civil unrest and focusing instead on patrolling 55 police beats in the city's most troubled areas.
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