Transcripts For ALJAZAM Fault Lines 20160317

They shoot people too much. Have you seen that a lot . Yes. How old were you the first time you heard of someone getting killed . Seven. In the neighborhood, well, its not civilized at all. Everybody day you got to duck and dive from bullets. People actually have shootouts. Life in chicagos poorest neighborhoods can sometimes feel like a war zone. Where did you get shot . In the stomach, the back and my butt. And my leg. And you know which streets not to walk down. Always, anything happen to her. Theres no place to be safe. Children are growing up without a baseline of safety. What are the long term impacts of this continuous exposure to violence and trauma . Every day is hard, waking up knowing, you know, somebody know ill probably get shot today. Do you feel safe in this neighborhood . No. Why not . Because its a lot of killing going on. Fault lines is in chicago to examine the psychological toll of gun violence on kids, in some of americas most dangerous and neglected communities. There are a lot of other little girls like you who have experienced this. Were on our way to the south austin neighborhood in chicagos west side. Someone has just been shot. People at the scene tell us a young man named ta risk ris t arante atkinson has been shot. You got to pray first pray for your kids, pray for them to come back home to you. Tonight four shootings. Four shootings just tonight, in this neighborhood . Next door. Blew up, thats our youtube, you dont want to get youtube but you are used to it. A lot of killings here. Tarante died that night. He was 20 years old. Just in the past hour, loud reports, two gun shots, three heard near 80 ellis. Ambulance took a gunshot victim to mt. S sinai. This is just in the past hour. The body of the young man just killed was brought here to mt. Sinai. Im angry. Im tired. All our black young men, especially our baby babies, they havent really got a chance to grow up. How does this affect the younger kids in your family . They have a lot of questions. What do you tell them . Well right now i have a nineyearold so therefore i want to get back home. I have to explain to her that the bad guy came up and shot someone. So now this is enough things she has to go through. Yes, 20 years old. 20. 511 99. He wasnt even 20. Every day of my life. The babies miss their daddy, three damn kids, they got to miss having a father every day, their father gets killed chicago has struggled or the years to stem the ongoing violence but the impact goes far beyond the lives that are lost. For kids, growing up around this violence can have a profound and long lasting effect on their health and outlook on life. For a lot of our young people their development is really shaped around traw trauma and shaped around violence. We went to one of the top childrens hospitals to beet with bradley stowback. He last a program to deal with the psychological result of violence. Many of our patients would meet the diagnostic definition of ptsd. It is not the only issue. Young people who have been through ongoing repeated extreme violence, the main thing is that its not single episode kind of thing. Its ongoing so the violence and the threat of violence is everpresent. Turn it around turn it around snoatsd. Whe when you consider that this year weve had 2500 people shot, and then you consider all of the loved ones, all of the witnesses that there are literally thousands and thousands of people who are directly affected by this every day who are not offered any kind of support or help to deal with it. Three nights after his murder, tarantes family gather at the gas station where he was shot. They dont know who killed him or exactly why. Two years ago, tarantes cousin was killed on this same corner. His family says theyre tired of burying their loved ones. Are those the marbles you picked up from there . Yes. How many did you get . A lot. Yall are holding up pretty well. Its just been a few days. When i was the day he passed, i was shocked. You were shocked . You never expected Something Like this, right . Not my son, he was only 24. Do you feel safe in this neighborhood . No, not over here. No . Why not . Because its dangerous. Yeah, what does that mean . People getting killed down here. And i dont want to get killed. What is was it like going back to that same place today when you were singing . I was hurt. I was crying. So thats why he got killed, thats why. Thats a place to dance. He loved to dance. Thats the gas right there the gas station . I showed you the video, he was right there dancing. Yeah. Is that how you like to remember him . Yes. Whats the hardest part about this for you . Not hearing a voice and how he died. Im on the scene at 105317 north avenue. Probably going to be a crime lab job. A few streets away another night we heard another man had been killed. 4573, we will need a crime lab. This whole place is a crime scene now. Looks like the bodys already been moved. Swung might bsomeone might be in the hospital. Gun shot fired in the area. One after another, it seemed like a never ending stream of shootings. Male 16 shot in the lower back. Not one night goes by in chicago without gun fire. Shots fired. Inside story takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the sound bites. Were giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. Ray suarez hosts inside story. Only on al jazeera america. Our american story is written everyday. Its not always pretty, but its real. And we show you like noone else can. This is our american story. This is america tonight. The violence here is unpredictable and shootings dont only happen in the dark of night. A young man was shot and killed on this residential corner just minutes before we arrived at the scene. People here blame petty fights between gangs for much of the violence and say its only getting more indiscriminate. Shootings are most frequent in the poorest and underresourced parts of chicago, where local schools have been shut down, juvenile arrest is high, and we are thought far from inglewood, a notoriously dangerous at the end of the day. Youre not expecting it to happen dont hope for things to happen, afraid things wont. 15yearold Rosalyn Collins comes to this boxing gym to escape the violence on her streets. Crushers club is a safe haven for local kids. How many people who you know have gotten shot . Hmm plenty. Cant count them. And how many people have died because of gun violence . Plenty. That you know . Is that pretty normal around here . Yes. Like if you dont know somebody thats gotten shot or thats gotten killed, youre weird or something. You got to know someone who has gotten killed. Everyone has a shirt that says rest in peace on it. I have dreams that happen in reality dont really happen. Like in my dreams people cant get shot, you cant get shot its impossible, i dont know why it is. People have superpowers . No, you just cant get shot, theres no guns, theyre not spooking people. Flog influencing the kids to hold a gun. Most of them are not real gang bangers, they just claim a gang because they have to, you live on that block, you are automatically in that gang, if you dont gang bang, you get killed so why not gang bang . Theres no one trying to help them, trying to get them off the streets, giving them any alternative. Every day they wake up, knowing, my brother is going to die, when they are going to the gafng theyre nogangtheyre not lookig that. Do you think theres anything that can change the situation . No. I feel like weve been ignored for so long. Shots fired. We are in one of the most economically and racially racially segregated places in the united states. They have no community, no access to the services that people in other communities have. Dr. Stolbacks Program Reaches 250 kids per year. When you are constantly exposed to violence or feel like youre constantly under threat, the parts of the brain that are involved in learning get shut off. And what happens is the surviving brain takes over. And so theyre constantly in survival mode. There are functions, its not like theyre not functioning, it is theyre functioning with very little sense of a future, very little hope. One of the manifestations of that is this almost chaotic violence that were seeing. 17yearold dialante lee has bee was shot five times. He has been extra vigilant sins then. Since then. I stop let them walk ahead of me. He just finished playing basketball at the park he says when a man randomly approached him. Couple of seconds later he was reaching for something, i dont know what it was, so just froze up. He just started shooting. Once he started shooting i just ran. As i was running they was hitting me. I just kept going. I was asking myself like why is this happening to me . But the best thing for me to do i just didnt panic, i was just trying to breathe and stay calm. What were you most worried about at that moment . Dying, really. But i wasnt i dont give up that easy. So from being through Something Like this, cant really affect youre a man, you think so many things that a person my age about. This is real scary. What was the scariest part for you . I mean jumping up in the middle of the night cold sweats, me yelling and screaming. It was like just hearing the sound of the gun, you being shot over and over. Its like its scary. It really bothers you. You could actually hear the sound . Yeah. Like after you wake up from it, like your ears are just ringing. Diamante has worked with counselors at cook countys strzier hospital to deal with the symptoms of posttraumatic stress. But he doesnt always feel safe. I stepped in the spot i was shot and im lying no, i aint coming back here no more. I had cold chills, shaking, made me thinking about that night. I got to go. Just by being there . Yeah. So you dont go to that park anymore . No. When a person has been through a lot of trauma, almost anything can be a trigger, and by a trigger, that means that its something thats going to bring the trauma to the forefront. Whether consciously or unconsciously. If people are essentially Walking Around in survival mode all of the time, and they havent been given the support that they need to develop the capacity to regulate their own emotions and behavior adequately, then they are at any moment ready to go off. And do something. All that matters is, what do i need to do now to 75 . To survive . Stopping the next generation of isis recruits. Teaching the youth on the front lines. Working towards a better future. This is one of the most important sites in the century. Proudest moment of my life. Living in survival mode can have grave consequence even for 81 children. Joseph cook experienced this firsthand. He said he started carrying a gun when he was 12 years old. Gang bang, carrying guns, whole lot, be on the corners, whole lot of stuff. Why did you have guns . Protect myself. I almost lost my life like three times. I got stabbed trying to break a fight up. I got stabbed three times. I been shot at. I thought i was going to die because i had the hat on the car, this dude kept shooting kept shooting and kept shooting and there was no way, he was going to stop. Did you ever shoot at soak when you had a gun . Yes. Why do you think there is so much violence here . This isnt like other parts of chicago. Why does this keep happening . A lot of people. A lot of people ability got hope, they aint working or its hard for them to get a job so if they aint got no job im just going to start robbing people or just start shooting people, on account of i aint got anything to live for. Or their losses, all type of reasons. Joseph says too many youth like him grow up feeling like they have to carry guns for protection and could easily end up in prison or dead. I started paying attention like why a lot of people get killed for, why a lot of people get locked up for. I told myself i want to change while i still got a chance. How did you feel when you decided to stop carrying a gun . So good, got something to live for now. Many of our young people will tell us if something doesnt change, somebody is going to get hurt. They dont want to hurt people. But theyre Walking Around with rage. Theyre Walking Around with incredible pain. Loss, sadness. Grief. That is so tightly contained all the time. That when something triggers it, it can blow with tremendous a of force. Weve got to figure out ways to help them with the righteous rage and greefs tha grief that they feel day to day, in ways that are destructive to them and the people around them. Yea that i walk through valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil, thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, thou preparest the table before me. Hundreds of people came to say goodbye to tarante atkinson, the young man who was shot and killed at the corner gas station. Tress police are still investigating his murder. But his familys unsure they will ever get any answers. Last year, less than 50 of murders in chicago were solved. And residents say they have little trust in the Chicago Police or the authorities. These are communities under constant stress. Living in conditions of neglect and danger unknown to wealthier parts of the city. As the shootings continue, another generation is coming of age, traumatized and engulfed by violence, with few resources to support them. What would you say to the people who are doing the killings . Dont do that. Its a part of somebodys family. You feel like how people get dead, so dont do that to us. You think they understand that for every no. Person is killed theres like a little girl like you who misses them . No, they dont understand. Because if they would, they would stop. I just dont want them to nobody else to get killed. These people have decided that today they will be arrested. I know that im being surveilled. People are not getting the care that they need. This is a crime against humanity. Hands up. Dont shoot. Hands up. Dont shoot. What do we want . Justice. When do we want it . Now. Explosions going on. Were not quite sure is that an i. E. D. . The followers of late president and their political opponents have been in near constant struggle for a long time. Throw in the plummetting price of oil and taking venezuela main and only product for International Sale a currency melting down and you get a country on the brink. Of what . Tough times in venezuela. It is the inside story