Gov. Pritzker says public safety is 'under attack by Trump administration'

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker lambasted the Trump administration Thursday for eliminating or threatening to end a range of anti-violence programs, saying "public safety is under attack by the Trump administration.”

At a South Side event celebrating research on a publicly funded anti-violence program in Chicago neighborhoods, Pritzker rattled off a litany of cuts and proposed cuts by the administration. They included the dissolution of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, threats to slash funding for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the repeal of “zero tolerance” for “rogue gun dealers.”

“They're making it easier for guns to fall into our communities and harder for us to fight back,” Pritzker told a crowd in the Pullman neighborhood.

Pritzker, whose name has come up among potential presidential nominees, has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, going on the offensive about cuts in many areas, including health care and education.

The governor also referenced a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services memo that he said he saw Thursday “that proposes eliminating entirely all federal violence intervention funds.”

Pritzker did not mince words about the potential impact.

“People will die if we cut violence and prevention,” he said. “Why is [Trump] doing this? So that he can give massive tax cuts to wealthy people in America.”

The Health and Human Services Department did not respond to a request for comment on the proposed cuts to federal violence intervention funds.

The event drew hundreds of anti-violence violence workers from around the Chicago area to highlight research showing steep drops in shootings over the last two years in parts of the city where a Peacekeepers Program has focused.

The program, which launched in 2018, hires neighborhood people — usually young and part-time — to mediate conflicts. It’s an extension of what has come to be known as “community violence intervention” or CVI. It now operates in 27 Chicago communities and eight Cook County suburbs.

The study focused on peacekeepers assigned to 201 violence “hot spots” — typically a handful of blocks — in 14 Chicago community areas, mostly on the South and West sides. The peacekeepers mediated 2,172 conflicts with potential for violence in 2023 and 2024.

The hot spots had a 41% reduction in shooting victimizations during the two years, the study found. The community areas that include the hot spots had a 31% drop in victimizations.

CVI is “making a big contribution to public safety in Chicago,” said Andrew Papachristos, a Northwestern University sociologist who led the research. “The fact that people are carrying guns less, going to prison less, that’s a huge win for everybody.”

Papachristos said the research did not prove that the Peacekeepers Program caused the violence reduction but that there was a strong correlation.

Speakers at the event included Jacqueline Gamble, 43, who has been a peacekeeper for the nonprofit Chicago CRED since 2022. That’s one of many organizations, including Project H.O.O.D. and UCAN, that hire these apprentices.

She is usually stationed on a corner just two blocks from where she grew up in the Roseland neighborhood. She said her experience includes a 1997 shooting in which she was struck by 13 bullets and, later, two years in prison.

“I once was the one that started the fires. I’m the one that’s quick to put them out now,” said Gamble, who is also studying to be a clinical medical assistant.

Gamble’s corner includes a liquor store, a 24-hour convenience store, a restaurant and a vacant lot, where neighbors bring lawn chairs and play cards and chess.

“My hot spot ... is always alive and vibrant,” Gamble said. “Never a dull moment.”

The corner also attracts a lot of “riff-raff,” she said, describing folks of all ages who are seeking booze, cigarettes or food — and loudly stirring up conflicts.

“I ask what I can do for them,” Gamble said.

“Being a peacekeeper makes a big difference, because we can gradually step in,” Gamble said. “We can diffuse. We can mediate.”

Sitting near the governor was Fred Waller, who worked 34 years as a self-described “old-school” Chicago cop before serving four months of 2023 as interim superintendent and, lately, as a civilian leader in Supt. Larry Snelling’s office.

“Through the years, we didn’t have that layer of CVI to reach out to,” Waller told WBEZ. “Now, it amazes me how the commanders reach out to these [civilian violence interrupters] immediately after having a violent incident. It’s not the end to it all, but it’s another layer that you can reach out to to help prevent some crime and help prevent violent acts.”

“We have to trust that these people have changed their lives and we have to trust that CPD has changed — to accept them for what they are now, not what they were in the past.”