look at chicago. what the hell is going on in chicago? >> i don't know what they are doing. >> what the hell is going on in chicago? >> this is the story of america's third largest shooting and how it became a punching bag for a president. >> vote for donald trump. i will fix it. >> for the next hour our special report on the cycle of violence and trauma in the city of chicago. >> i know i have ptsd. it's just off the charts. >> trying to understand the causes. >> around here you ain't nobody until you kill somebody. >> even if the guns are here

somebody has to pull the trigger. our job is to get them not to pick the gun up. >> this is all in america chicago. crime was actually down this year in the city of chicago. shootings were down, murders were down. no one can say why that have though it is obviously good news. better numbers are only so much comfort when you're talking about more than 600 people dying. returning to the city again and again to talk to the people who actually live there. people suffering and people trying to do something to stop it. through the reporting and analysis i hope we can add some context, a place so much more vbrant what the president reduces it to. >> what the hell is going on in chicago? what the hell is happening there? chicago is out of control. this is not like it's the united states of america.

>> what the hell is going on in chicago? >> attacking chicago has always been a big hit with donald trump rally crowds. >> more than 3,000 people have been shot in chicago since january 1st. that's worse than the war torn nations that you're looking at. give donald trump a chance. i will fix it. what do you have to lose? you have nothing to lose. >> when he became president the people of chicago became his constituents. >> you tweeted about the murder rate saying if chicago did you want fix the horrible carnage going on i will send in the feds. what do you mean by that? it. >> is carnage. it is horrible carnage. afghanistan is not what's happening in chicago. i want them to fix the problem. i want them to straighten out the problem. it's a big problem. >> it soupded like a threat of invasion.

>> raise your hand if you hear send in the feds it feels like a threat? >> a few weeks after that we held a town hall knowing just how complex the situation in the city is. >> i also know if we do one of these town halls every night for an hour for 365 nights there could still be five years worth of shows to do before we scratched the surface of what's going on in chicago. >> there was no simple take away from the town hall. what was evident is that emotions were running very high. >> please listen to me. >> chill. >> everyone there cares deeply about what is happening in the city. >> the unemployment rate is the highest in chicago than it is around the country. when you talk about violence you have to talk about the economics, not police. >> the trauma that folks are seeing inside the road but also people are wound up and

traumatized. >> i know i have ptsd. it's off the chars. there's no help for us. >> if you personally feel like you have trauma. >> you're wearing the button of someone. >> yes. he was a person i lost within a week's span. >> people are hurting. >> i am joined by laura washington, long time columnist, jamal green. he joined us in february. you saw him in the clip there as did demetria roberts who grew up on the city's south side. when the president said send in the feds thing that's three days into the administration. there is something he may be in campaign mode.

he is the president of chicago. >> he did you want take any ownership of chicago. he uses chicago. one is because it's a major democratic stronghold. number two is the city of emmanuel who he has made an arch enemy. number of three is because it's a city of people of color. none of those folks are his friends. >> he put the resours in the places he mentioned but he has not shifted the resources to chicago to actually address the problem. >> what do you think about that? >> he talks about afghanistan. if belook at how much money has much has been sent to the southeast and asian regions and how much has been focused then we have real statistics to look at and hold donald trump to some

of his campaign promises. >> it should be clear it was a campaign promise. we should be building up back here. chicago is part of america. >> what i don't understand is why chicago is even in his mouth especially when he hasn't even walked these neighbored hoods. >> yeah. >> and i work with these families every day. i know what's going on. i know what's going on with schools, mental health. all president trump has to do is call us and say let's do a tour. this is an open invitation right now for donald trump to call up community actiists and say let's figure out how we can replace the politician there.

>> there is no mistake in this messaging. itshorthand. it is dysfunctional, dangerous and dark. it is not by mistake to send a message to a certain segment of his supporters but also america outside of these major cities. >> it feels like the city of chicago among many other places is kind of written out of the story. >> it is written into the story. it is written in the wrong way. >> right. >> we are putting the people of chicago in the context of foreigners, of people that are enemies, of people that don't deserve each other. >> who are they? they are american people who went out to vote for you and are now needing and wanting your full support to make chicago and put chicago in the highlight in the greatest city. >> he wants to show the american cities are not part of the world.

>> right. >> these folks are the other. these are the folks who don't deserve your support. >> right. does it surprise you that he still talks about that? >> he is holding tight to the folks that elected him. he'll talk about how he is very popular in the polls among that group. he is still campaigning as though he were in a presidential race because i don't think he knows how to be president. >> someone who has served in a civil role and grew up in this same city it surprises me we see politics say a lot of rhetoric and hype up their base. they transition in saying i'm here to help people. we want to reinstate some of the

principal and we don't see that. >> and these are regular people in these communities that actually need some help. >> right. >> the fact is he is the president whether we don't like it or not. >> he should do his duty as a president to come and sit with community leaders, use federal funds to help us fund some of these things that are so vulnerable. we have 3,500 people that were shot this year. so while the numbers are down from last year there is still a problem here. >> all right. my own personal theory has to do with what happened in the heat of the 2016 campaign. >> days before the illinois primary donald trump scheduled a primary. thousands showed up. trump suddenly cancelled the event. >> after meeting with law

enforcement has determined that for safety of tens of thousands of people that gathered tonight's rally will be postponed until another day. >> inside the venue pandemonium. and in one moment a young activist rushed the empty stage. he told us about that day at a town hall we held in chicago. >> we saw what donald trump's campaign was doing across the country. we seen black bodies getting pushed around, people getting punched in the face. i department shut down the rally, he did. trump never successfully held a rally. instead he attacked the city constantly.

it was his threat to send there the feds that brought us there for the town hall. >> trump, bring your rump into chicago. i don't know what trump means when he says bring in the feds. >> the back and forth, the twitter war did you want mean anything. >> we have a lot of people committed to making it a better place to live. >> there are a lot of people here that have the heartbeat of this neighborhood. >> he met me again last month in chicago. we had a chance to talk about what came after. >> it was the first time a lot of us came in the same space. all of the people who are frustrated and fighting each other in causes, we are all in the same space. it was intense. >> people have been through it. people have lost people close to them.

they are survivors themselves. there's a lot of that. >> i'm no strapger to the realities of depression or ptsd. a lot of times you're dealing with your own need to survive in this environment. as an advocate i'm responding to death and crisis and poverty and pain. you kind of gone auto pilot. there is no way you'll see the amount of death in the city and not be effected. one of the biggest things is that it finally gave the every day of chicagoans a voice. >> it was a room full of people crying for help. >> three days after the town hall brown himself was crying for help. >> the relationship i had i lost it because i was too busy fighting for y'all. really.

i'm only lost because of y'all. forgive me, lord. i'm so sorry. ♪ >> this is my first time looking at lake michigan in this spot since that day. i drove my car right down to the side of where land ends and i sat there contemplaing taking my life and driving into that brake. i had my foot on the brake, car in drive and gun in my hand. my intend was to shoot and be in that lake. >> and the police came. >> police came. they had these two militarized

police vehicles that had pretty much cornered me where i was at. they actually rammed the car, both sides. >> what did you think? >> you know, so many things went through my head. it was very intense for me. i had on hand i'm ready to give up on life and on the other hand here come these police again. i have to fight them back. it highlights the disconnect between the community and the police. i thought i will kill myself or they are going to kill me. it really intensified everything i was dealing with at that moment. there is a lot of plen mental illness going on because we don't talk about it. i'm glad i went through it because i recognize it's okay to get help. there are so many people i was classified as ticking time bombs

because they don't know it is okay to have someone to talk to. you're living below the poverty line. you're seeing dead bodies throughout your entire summer. your family members are being killed. your government is not responding to your needs. it is okay to say i need help. >> people that have money and privilege in america, they get a lot of mental health support and not going through one tenth of the kind of experiences you feel ton souts side. >> they can afford it too. that's the thing that pains me about chicago. it's the tale of two cities. my chicago doesn't get that help but there's a whole other chicago that gets all of the help and resourtss that they need. >> when we return our special reports on the prevalence of guns and cycles of retaliation. >> was there ever a moment you

feared for your own life? >> every day, today sitting right here right now. cannot live without it.

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when the bullet hit she didn't make a sound, wimper, cry, anything. i didn't know she was hit. it was just a split second. i wake up every day hoping it is a dream but it's not. it has been one month i have not heard my daughter's voice, been able to touch her, see her dance across my floor. there are so many things. >> nikia williams lost her 11-year-old daughter on chicago's south side. she was struck inside a minivan outside the dry cleaners where her mother worked. her brother was in the car. >> your three-year-old was in the car. have you seen a change in him? >> dramatic change, his

attitude, behavior, everything is different. i put him in counseling. i have no choice. i don't know what's going on in his head. i don't know what he's thinking. >> are we doing enough to address trauma in this city? >> no. >> dr. brad stabach spent 35 years treating trauma in kids. >> there is a great need for all of us to say they are so young it didn't really effect them. it does effect them. even young children that don't have a conscious memory, it is in there and it does effect them. they often times feel like they are going crazy because they are having these reactions in their bodies that are like they are back there in that situation.

they don't necessarily put that together that that's what the happening. much of the violence is driven by untreated trauma to the ways that people off deal with that are to use substances to manage their emotions and to carry weapons in order to feel safe. both of those things are going to increase the risk for them being harmed again or for them doing harm to somebody else. >> we are home. >> there are organizations trying to help traumatized families, communities in chicago. the sheer number of people needing help is staggering. >> i have been there since 2015. i have been able to serve 153 families. >> that number seems enormous. >> it is but it's a reflection of what's happening in our city.

>> her brother was murdered in 2008. now she helps others heal. >> when you go into these communities is there a sense that everyone is traumatized in some way? >> it's hard to say they are not. it's not like every time i do an assessment with someone they don't express they have not experienced some level of trauma. they know a friend, a neighbor, someone who is closely connected. they may have been at their church. post-traumatic stress disorder is through the fabric of the urban community. >> it feels like everyone here has lost someone. do you feel like you're traumatized? >> absolutely. >> it takes a toll on a person when your kids weren't bad kids

and something like that happened. it just tears a hole in your heart. >> the campbells have lived here for 20 years. they raised three children here, a daughter and two sons. they have lost both sons to gun violence. >> are there moments that are harder? >> a whole lot of them, yeah. >> i see a lot of boys on the street resemble my children. you know, it tears me up. when i see people doing things with their sons that kind of gets me too. >> i feel like you have your good days and you have your bad days. you have some days you wake up and it's all you can think about. >> the campbells worried about raising a new generation of young black men in the city. >> we were sitting in the front room and i told him, i was like -- he was sitting by the window.

i said sit on the couch over there by the wall. it's just really small things. >> do you feel restricted you can't prove the way you want to move? >> i feel enclosed and bad memories in the house. i feel like i should go outside and play but i can't because it's on the south side. >> i don't like being scared to go outside or play with my friends. >> is it hard? >> yes. >> what's the hardest part? >> well, like i got to take care of my little sister. i got to protect her. i know it's going to be hard because in the streets it's dangerous. we just have to be safe. >> i'm scared every day. any little noise makes me nervous.

that's how bad it's gotten. anything makes me nervous. i didn't even used to be like that at all. i'm not scared of nothing. now i'm scared of everything. after her 11-year-old daughter was killed she fears for her young son growing up on the south side of chicago. >> i feel like i need to get away. i need to raise my son still. none of this is normal. this can't be life. this is not normal.

is it hard? >> yes. >> what's the hardest part? >> well, like i have to take care of my little sister. i have to protect her. i know it's going to be hard because in the streets it's dangerous. and we just have to be safe. >> i'm back here with the panel. i want to start with you germane. it is almost a cliche but the reality of what it means for people emotionally and psychologically is that little

incidents of violence have this ripple effect that you sort of traced in that piece. >> i think in the big picture there is this black suffering in america. we suffered every step along the way. it seems normal. as people try to go to school, try to go to church, try to be with their families. piece by piece it is taken from folks. the beg your pardon of black death and black pain and losing a mother, losing a son. you see that young boy with tears down his cheeks. you traumatize you respond by carrying weapons or in a household like that family where every corner there is hurt, depression and sadness. >> here is what makes me mad about this. we have the blueprint to fix this problem. one thing this country has done right is reinvesting ptsd

research, medication and doctors into fixing the problem of our returned wounded warriors. we have the blueprint. we forget that at the end of the day we all bleed the same color. that's what we need to be focused on and focusing on solution to fix this problem. there is throughout environments particularly those where you have folks that have dealt with the unfortunate other side of bad issues and social economic problems that have gotten them to this point. >> one thing that is important to me is mental health when i worked in these neighborneighbor i saw people being shot when i was coming up. my life could have taken a different road but i ended up changing my life. they are going through

depression. i call it ctsd. it is continuous. we look to leaders to figure out ways to solve this problem. we get the major who shut down all of the urban kplunties chls we get no funding when students have issues in schools. he said i creates more trauma. >> there is not an expectation that people of color deserve or are even prepared. you mentioned ptsd. those are returning soldiers. we are not looked as those as those that deserve support. we can do without. part of it is some responsibility we have to take by ourselves. we have tried to say we are going to buck up. we can get through this too

instead of realizing that some folks are beginning to realize we do need this. this is something we deserve and something the community deserves. >> it always strikes me that one of the biggest inequalities is access to mental health resources. everybody is in therapy. everybody has -- i mean seriously, the amount that are directed of people when they have to deal with things that go wrong in their life, a car crash, pregnancy that was terminated or whatever it is, you know, they have that access. people that are living through some of the most traumatic experiences have access to none. >> and i think as we look at this from a solutions based per specificive folks look at this and say what can we do? this seems to far removed from my narrative or where i am or my place in life or the community.

what they can do is support organizations that are going out that are focused on fixing these efforts in the community. >> and there are some who are working specifically on mental health on dealing with trauma specifically. >> there are so many on the front lines responding in the crisis and the trauma. when pain starts to ripple immediately there folks were sitting with the children, the mothers. unfortunately so much weight ends up being on the solderiers who lose one, two sons, a grandson. also when you go door to door, neighbor to neighbor they all experiencing that. people are out there every single day trying to not only bring attention to it but heal it. >> how the shocking number of shootings in the city are even possible.

>> you can walk to any one with of these stores here and buy a gun here, any of these little corner stores. that's how easy it is. >> guns everywhere. >> everybody knows where to get them at. police know where they are at.

>> more than 4,000 people were shot in 2016. this year shootings are down. lee went back to take a closer look at gun violence and found in trying to understand why there are so many shootings in chicago you have to first understand how there are so many shootings. [ gunshots ] >> you can walk to any one of these stores here and buy a gun any where at any one of these little corner stores. that's how easy it is to get one. >> guns just everywhere? everybody knows where to get them. >> everybody knows where to get them at. police knows where to get them at. >> no one knows for sure how

many guns are on the streets of chicago. police can only say how many they are taken off the streets, 8,000 in 2016. shootings were still up that year, way up. more than 4,000 people shot, nearly 700 dead. someone is not in the city almost every other hour. is there ever a moment where you fear for your own life? >> every day. today. sitting right here right now. >> they were raised on the south side of chicago. when is the first time you picked up a gun? >> probably like ten. trying to be like everybody else. i saw why they needed the gun so i felt i needed one. >> and a gun is an easy way to make yourself popular in. >> why not? that is what everybody looks up to, the person with the gun. >> around here you ain't nobody

until you kill somebody. >> joe washington grew up on these streets. he survived being shot six times. a former gang member he is trying to stop kids from turning to violence. >> when we came along it wasn't like, you know, shooting from across the street. it was you get your man. you know, that's how i came along. >> now it's a little more -- >> man, it's -- you know, they are shooting from way over there and they are hitting innocent people. it is crazy. [ gunshots ] >> with thousands of give ups on the streets individual disputes turn deadly fast. what starts as a beef between two people often ends with five, six, seven people dead leaving people in a bloody cycle of retaliation.

go years ago in august a member of a south side gang is shot, found dead in his car. retribution came in ogt. a shooting of a rival gang member. in the retaliation shooting nar a 19-year-old girl was killed in the cross fire and then tysean lee. >> the murder of lee has sickened people across the country. >> his death touched not ton city of chicago but the entire nation. >> the execution murder of tyshon lee. >> he was nine years old. >> nine years old. >> nine years old and got caught up with his dad's activities in the streets. you know, that was a new kind of killing to me as far as somebody killing a kid like that. >> he was deliberately targeted.

he was lured into an ally way and executed. >> no little boy gets shot seven times on accident. that is not accident. than an execution. >> they say a rival gang killed him to get back at his father. >> his father has ties to a certain gang that is there conflict with another gang. we believe this is a result of the gang violenceviolence. >> his father promised no retribution. >> there is no retaliation. i lost my son. >> he is now in jail charged with shooting three people for shooting his son. >> now three more people shot. so it needs to end. >> so how many of those do we have in the neighborhood. how many otherstrings do you have? >> right now i can could want that we do have like four that's going on, four that we are

keeping our pulse on. there are four that can blow up any minute. >> even if the guns are here someone has to pull the trigger. our job is to get them not to pick the gun up. >> he runs target area redevelopment. among their missions, putting former gang members in outreach programs to try to stop violence on the streets. in this neighborhood there is great need, right? these communities have been depleted far long time, some would say starved, right? >> yeah. what the community is lacking is hope. you're talking about trying to instill hope in individuals who are living in a situation where it is hopeless. the men in our community are unemployed. the women in our community are under employed. every community should have one place where kids feel safe.

>> are there places now? >> there are some places but we understand there are gang lives. just being honest. there are some that groups cannot go over. >> on this side a lot of kids never go over there because it is dangerous. >> unfortunately we have that in our society. >> do you ever get tired or weary of the bloodshed? do you ever feel like no matter what you do it's not enough? >> you know, on the maps in our office we have pointers where we can show you where the victims got shot. what we can show you is the changing of someone's mind to go to school. every now and then we get that one youth that will turn his life around. that's what keeps us going. >> what's at stake if we don't get it in order?

>> we flow it will be an ever lasting loop of chaos. i mean it's up to us, a community, as a collective to come together and move their minds to the next best thing. i think if people have more stuff to lose they wouldn't be quick to retaliate. they would be like yeah. but i will lose my job,girlfrien >> do we think we can come out of it, yes. one of the ways is not just get ourselves out of it but by giving gak. >> we are all trying to get ourselves to rise above and we might get somewhere.

we are over 100 murders down and over 700 shootings down. so that's 800 families at least that don't have to deal with the trauma of gun violence. that's huge and basedly due to the hard work of officers and crime goes down or up. my guests, good to have you back here. you served as a police officer in inglewood. what did it do to you to be a

police in this environment? >> it's not different than the community members. we're just experiencing it in a uniform. when we talk about continuous trama, you have to understand police officers are experiencing that continuous trama just as rapidly if not more so than citizens are. it was traumatizing. i can remember being a rookie in inglewood and walking up to a traffic stop and approaching somebody with yes, sir, no, ma'am and that transitioning to six to eight months later and be walking up to traffic stops with my gun drawn. it changes the way -- >> because you're loaded for bear. >> you look at people in a different light and dehumanize the fact that this is another individual that i need to help and take a service first. >> one of the things that comes through in that piece is if

people, this say true thing about human beings at any time and place anywhere, if you don't feel protected by the state, if you don't think justice will happen, people will take things into their own hands in europe, the city of chicago in 2017. the state is not delivering justice and someone wrongs you, you're going to wrong then back. how much of that is driving things? >> that dynamic is driving things. people feel like the police isn't going to do anything or i don't have trust in the police. i don't want to go down the road. so they will actually take things in their own hands and use street sense when that has to change but just as the young man in his clip said they don't have any hope. they don't have anything to live for. it's tile -- time to be activists or involved or teaches to mentor people. we have to give opportunity in these neighborhoods before it's too late.

>> how much from your view when you're been writing about chicago for years, how much can policing do or not do? >> policing is very limited. i think i applaud eddie johnson for bringing down the numbers but the way he's going about it is through technology. focussing on what they call the hot spots and you know this better than i do and identifying the places where the crime is most likely to happen. that's very reactive. that's not getting issues we've been talking about around the table. you have to engage with the community. neither side of the community can be afraid of each other. you have the issue around police brutality and misconduct, which many people feel is not being addressed so people don't feel safe, they don't feel safe talking to police, engaging with the police because in many ways they feel the police are not on their side. >> one of the things happening

in chicago that i've read a lot about and thought a lot about is an exodus of african americans in the city. >> i left. >> why? >> the same reason you're talking about. i remember being a police officer there, my young at the time 5-year-old daughter standing next to me in my kitchen in a somewhat affluent neighborhood and gunshots ring out. i look over and see my daughter on the floor. she didn't get shot but was responding in her natural human state to violence that was happening outside of our door. of course, i left. why would i stay in this place where i don't see any hope for change? >> and you don't want to risk your family is one thing to talk about change and to say we can do this and that but it's your family. >> there is a question, too, whether you can, this idea of trust. something bad happened, you know, someone got shot on my block, there were gunshots. am i going to pick up the phone

and call police knowing all that that might bring down to bear on my neighborhood. >> i've been in communities talking to people and a lot of people don't know what justice is, no semblance of justice. whether the murders go up or down, it's the clearance rate. how many people are being arrested and prosecuted for shootings and killings? if people aren't delivered justice to the system, they are delivered on their own. >> policing is reactive, okay? policing cannot solve the problem in these neighborhoods. they can put small band aids or lock people up. those are the only band aids to the problem. >> one of the things that happened, i mean, when you zoom out, right, is that you can see a neighborhood, neighborhoods in new york city for instance went through unbelievable amounts of violence and it came down. the poverty wasn't addressed. people are still poor and struggling.

violence came down. 2300 murders in 1992 and 350 last year and neighborhoods in new york that are seeing chicago levels of violence that came down but east new york then and now, just choosing a neighborhood is poor now. there are different problems, you can imagine a world when violence comes down and that's great and a huge net benefit to the community but that's part of what would have to change to make inglewood a place that feels vibrant. >> inglewood is poor. it would start out as a working class community in the '60s and '70s is one of the poorest in the country now because the under lying issues have never been addressed. the poverty and lack of quality education, health care. you can go down the line. that neighborhood has not gotten service they deserve. >> all of you, it's been such a pleasure to have you. thank you very much. >> "all in america chicago" continues after this.

the city of chicago always held a special place in my heart. my father raised me a chick sports fan. my wife is from chicago, i lived in chicago from 2001 to 2007. where i learned to be a reporter. it's a great american city and a president serious about america first, about making america great again will look to chicago and cleveland and baltimore and detroit and other great american cities and think about how great places could be made even greater now.

i'm hoping that still is possible in the future. she was home with the wizards. her husband out with friends when it happened. >> he said something about his kids telling me there was a robber. >> all they told us there was an intruder. >> that you are home so deep in the woods, now slouted in a mystery even deeper. >> police had suspects. >> i remember kelly not wanting to be home alone. >> why would this guy go up and kill this bomb. >> her family had questions of their own. >> something is not right here. >> and someone remembered a phone call and a fib.