The Interrupters Page #12

You guys can tell me

these things too, you know.

Yeah?

No? No?

Eddie's a little bit more

equipped to deal with it.

'Cause I've got a cousin

I'm afraid of.

Because his mom's

in the hospital

and he started drinking

and smoking.

And he wears a lot

of bad colors.

So, yeah, I just wanted

to talk to you about that.

I think he's

gonna get shot or get killed

because of all

the bad stuff that happened.

My cousin, I know he has

a gun like in his bedroom.

Like, um, I don't know, it's

like I'm really afraid for him,

because, like, I don't know,

he might like, um, I don't know.

You know, I mean your cousin

probably right now

feels kinda hopeless,

feels probably like he's alone.

Why not do these things?

You know.

"Nobody cares if

I get locked up.

Nobody cares if I get shot. "

I think he still can change.

Like, how I know,

like how you told us

about how you were in a gang

and stuff, and how you changed.

But you know also

it takes time.

It took time for me.

It took a long time for me.

You tell me like where he's at,

I'll go, I'll go, I'll go to his

house and I'll talk to him.

I mean, I wish

your cousin was here

just to listen

to what you're saying,

because I'm sure he'd probably

be touched and moved

by how you feel about it, and

how concerned you are about him.

And them guys would love to have

you, you know, in their circle.

But when they see you doing

right, they see you doing good,

it's like they look at that

and they envy that,

because they wish they were

in your shoes.

And these guys keep messing

with you, man,

just call me, bro, call me.

All right?

Yeah.

All right, cool, bro.

All right, man.

We were waiting for you

for the complete set.

It looks great.

So who's doing the

honor of hanging them up now?

Fit sort of in there

and be careful not to poke

a hole through the canvas.

Very creative.

So, yes, what do you think?

Right here?

Line it up?

The words that I painted

are words that they themselves

came up with.

Wounded,

dragged down,

painful, lonely,

shattered, destroyed...

That expressed

what they felt about violence.

Revived, repaired, recovering,

fixing, curing...

And about moving forward.

Rejoice, hope, healed.

What I see

through these paintings is

they actually have a lot

of hope for the future.

The same thing

that we've done in Iraq,

we could do this right here

in our own backyard.

Politicians

say Chicago's a warzone

and they want the military

to fight back.

Some lawmakers

want Governor Quinn

to deploy the National Guard

to Chicago's most dangerous

neighborhoods.

And my conversation

with the National Guard was,

"Is it possible for you

to come in

and assist the Chicago

Police Department?"

"Shoot to kill"

back in '68.

You endangering the lives

of all of us!

He comes to the meeting to talk

about gangs, guns and drugs,

but there's no talk of jobs,

contracts and opportunities.

We got to defend our own people.

We gotta solve our own problems.

He has CeaseFire

and their models

to stop the violence

and in essence, that's just

a band-aid to this big issue

that's going around us.

Every single day,

man, they asking for jobs.

They're like,

"I'm stuck right now, man.

"Like, I don't even know

what to do.

"Like, I'm feeling the pressures

from everywhere.

I'm pretty much gonna be

homeless. "

All these things lead

to violence.

Reducing the violence

is not a band-aid,

it's actually the essential

pathway to a neighborhood

being able to develop,

for the schools to be able

to get better,

for the kids to get rid

of their stress disorders,

for businesses to feel

safe enough and well enough

to be able to come into

these neighborhoods.

We don't have

enough resources to go around,

so the doc really just wants

to change the conversation

around violence.

Let me finish, all right?

If you can't feed

these young guys,

they're not going

to listen to you.

Bottom line.

Look, the

African-American community

and the Latino community

have been beaten down so long

with poor schools,

lack of jobs,

hopelessness, despair.

A lot of people

can't stick with peace

if they don't have a stick

that they can hold on to.

Break the window, that's on you.

Break it.

You going to go to jail.

I'm not worried.

Ain't nobody putting no fear

in my heart.

Get the f*** away

from my window.

You ain't got no life.

This is f***ing for real.

This is an everyday,

this is what they do.

This is what they do

everyday, all day,

and me being at this site

and being the only female,

it's not working.

It's not working.

Okay, this what happened

at the site.

He called me a b*tch,

and I spit on him.

And he came to my window

and spit on me.

They, they wanna fight me.

They trying to fight me when

I come back to the site.

But I think I'm gonna just go...

I'll call the house right now.

Yes, sir.

You promise me?

Well, let me go ahead and call

my little people from the Greens

and you know, we could go ahead

and do this,

because I'm not worried.

Caprysha, shut up.

He not funna scare me.

And you know, I'm funna hang up,

'cause I'm funna

hang up this phone.

I'm funna hang up.

He's not gonna be good

until I see you.

I'm gonna come out there.

I'm not, I'm not, you know

I'm actually gonna fight them

without no problem.

But why?

Why you gonna risk bustin',

getting cut, all of that,

scratched and all that?

Why?

You too pretty for that.

My baby.

You gotta be tired.

You gotta be tired

of that fighting.

You, they, you,

they 18 and 19, I ain't.

But you can't

spit on nobody.

That can start a war.

That's why I be telling...

Did you know that?

That's why I gonna be telling

people I know you.

But can't be spitting

on nobody though.

So what,

knowing me or not.

Them knowing that you know me,

that don't, it's your actions.

You understand

what I'm saying?

For real, Mommy,

do you for real?

Caprysha has

been through hell and back.

It's tough.

Caprysha.

Trying to process emotions

about not having a mom and dad around.

I have a vision in my head

of my dad on this white horse

riding through

Me getting shot in the game

was God telling me,

you got to make

your own choices.

My family knew exactly

who did it,

and I got a phone call from my

dad while I was in the hospital,

telling me how sorry

he was, he apologized,

it's gonna be some answers

for it.

And why?

Why, Dad?

Leave that boy alone.

That was the last encounter

that I had with the game.

And as I look back,

that was my first mediation.

How's that thing been

doing with you, job searching,

everything else?

It's been hard.

I ain't found no job yet.

But I ain't gonna give up.

I been working

with Lil Mikey for a while.

Even while he was in prison,

he kept stressing

he wanted to apologize

to them people he robbed

at the barber shop.

We don't know how this might

turn out.

We going to talk to them.

If they accept it or not,

it's still like...

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