Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the United States, made the announcement on Wednesday that he had received$ 78 million in new money for community-based anti-violence activities, which he claimed show the Justice Department is “doubling down” on efforts to reduce gun violence nationwide.
Garland, a native of the Chicago area, made the announcement at the next annual conference of the Biden administration’s Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative, a federal grant program that provides solutions to local organizations and organizations in rhythm with the requirements of particular communities.
At the Hyatt Regency resort on East Wacker Drive, Garland addressed the gathering of many hundred participants to inform them that the$ 78 million grant requests were “going life today,” causing applause and excited crowds.
” Get out there! What are you anticipating?” Garland said casually. ” Today, no one is going to listen to the rest of this”.
According to Justice Department statistics, the department received more than$ 90 million under CVIPI the previous year, so the 78 million dollar allocation was made by Garland for fiscal year 2024.
In his comment, Garland cited the significant progress made across the country since the epidemic, including a 13 % drop in deaths in Chicago over the past year and even more significant reductions in places like Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans.
” The falls are not just abstract stats”, Garland said. They represent persons, as you know they are, who are still here to watch their children develop, pursue their goals, and make contributions to their populations, as you know so well.
Eddie Bocanegra, a former Chicago-based referral employee and community anti-violence chief, who was tapped by Garland in 2022 as senior director for community murder intervention in the Office of Justice Programs, was a key component of the effort, according to Garland.
Garland recalls meeting Bocanegra on a trip to Chicago nearly three years ago, when he met him and spoke with law enforcement and community organizations, including Bocanegra’s READI Chicago, an anti-gun assault program.
The visit , came only hours , after a series of large shootings in the area, including two on the West Side that left nine people wounded and a 15- yr- older boy dead.
” I met event managers, work coaches, and outreach workers at READI. I heard from several of the younger gentlemen they serve”, Garland said. ” And I met READI Chicago’s very lively director — named Eddie Bocanegra. Eddie, thank you for your significant contributions to advanceing our society crime action that you have made and that you have continued to make, in the interests of all of us at the DOJ.
Bocanegra, who helped assemble the three-day conference in Chicago, explained to the audience that the national CVIPI system was unique because the Department of Justice has placed its confidence in those who are most directly affected by the violence and group conflicts, privatisation, and other issues that motivate it.
” Just look around you. For us, this is novel and unique,” Bocanegra said. These are the persons the attorney general has assigned to the Department of Justice. This is the philosophy that is originating at the very top.
The forum began the same day the Chicago Police Department released its most recent crime statistics, which showed there had been a 5 % decline in deaths year over year during the same time period, but that March saw 46 deaths, 10 more than in March 2023.
Garland claimed in his remarks that” there is no acceptable levels of violent offense” and that it will take much more effort to keep violence from trending upward.
” Too some areas are still struggling, and too many individuals are also scared”, he said. The “hard-fought progress we saw last year is easily sag.” Therefore, we must be focused and vigilant”.
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