美国国家公共电台 NPR Gun Deaths In Chicago Reach Startling Number As Year Closes

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

Chicago passed a grim milestone¹ recently. The city has seen more than 700 homicides this year, that's more than any other major U.S. city. Of course, that startling number does not begin to tell the whole story. As we're about to hear, each death reverberates³ in the lives of family and friends for decades. We begin with member station WBEZ's Miles Bryan.

MILES BRYAN, BYLINE⁴: Fourteen-year-old Demarco Webster was helping⁵ his dad move to a new apartment a few months ago when he was shot and killed. His stepdad, Juawaun Hester, says they had intentionally⁶ waited to start the move until after midnight in order to avoid any trouble. Hester says DeMarco didn't even like going outside if he didn't have to.

JUAWAUN HESTER: I don't understand, man. And, you know, what's going on now is like the future children, the good children, the smart children with scholarships and they're the ones who's dying to the gun violence.

BRYAN: Hester says just one day after his stepson was killed, his neighbor's twin teenage boys were both fatally shot, too. Two more deaths in what's been a very bloody⁷ year in Chicago. The city surpassed last year's total of about 470 killings⁹ in September. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently announced the city would hire about a thousand new people to work in the police department.

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RAHM EMANUEL: These officers will be assigned directly to the streets of our communities to work with residents in partnership¹⁰ to confront gun violence.

BRYAN: But many here are skeptical¹¹ that having more cops will stop the murders. Rev². Marshall Hatch has a church on the city's west side in one of the most violent neighborhoods. He says relations between police and the community have deteriorated¹² since late last year, when video is released of a Chicago officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald, a young black man.

MARSHALL HATCH: They've seen it in their best interest to pull back and not be, you know, aggressive. That probably has helped fuel a lot of the surge of violence that we've seen this year.

BRYAN: Chicago Police Superintendent¹³ Eddie Johnson says police are in a bind¹⁴.

EDDIE JOHNSON: They're cautious because of the national narrative¹⁵ that's out there right now, so they're careful about how they do police. But at the same time, the biggest reason for this spike¹⁶ is because our repeat guys just don't fear the judicial¹⁷ system.

BRYAN: Johnson says Illinois needs tougher sentencing laws for repeat gun offenders¹⁸. And locking up gang leaders did help in the late '90s, the last time the city saw this level of killing⁸. But University of Illinois criminologist John Hagedorn says statistics can be misleading.

JOHN HAGEDORN: Today the gangs are no longer structured and city-wide, they're small cliques¹⁹ of kids. The reasons for the homicides are often insults, accidental events, very difficult kinds of things to contain.

BRYAN: Hagedorn says in the late '90s, Chicago police cleared about two-thirds of all the city's homicides, but now only clear about a quarter of them.

HAGEDORN: So we're dealing²⁰ with a different kind of situation which calls for some different policing strategies, but mainly it should tell the city that it has to address the roots of desperation.

BRYAN: Seonia Owens knows that desperation. Owens is from Chicago's South Side, where her 15-year-old son was shot and killed nearly 20 years ago.

SEONIA OWENS: When you shoot that boy, you shooting that whole family. When put - take that one bullet, you have destroyed a whole family, might as well say you shot everybody.

GREENE: OK. A voice there capturing this difficult moment in Chicago, hitting 700 homicides this year. That story came from member station WBEZ's Miles Bryan.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

WBEZ has been revisiting families affected²¹ by homicides in 1998, that was the last time the city suffered more than 700 murders. Reporter Patrick Smith talked with Kyisha Weekly about her childhood friend Candice Curry²². Candice was playing in a park that summer when a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting took her life.

KYISHA WEEKLY: I met her when she was 9 and we was friends. We instantly connected and, you know, everyday we used to hang together, go to school together. Her mother - we used to go to her momma house and, you know, jump rope in front of her house and...

CRISETTE: (Unintelligible).

WEEKLY: That's Crisette. This is my little baby, 3 years old. And our favorite spot to go to was the Route, it was called Route 66. It was a skating place. It was skating on one side and it was dancing on the other side. So my - our parents used to think that we used to go for the skate and we use to go for the dance part (laughter). And so one day my grandma came and picked us up.

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WEEKLY: Candice lost her life at that same - she came over, it was a summer day. She came over in the morning, we walked to the store, got our chips, juice, honey buns and orange juice. Came back and sat on my back for a little while. As we was talking and stuff, we were just sitting there talking and she said that she was ready to go to the park. And I told her to wait for me so I changed my clothes. And she said she was going to wait but then she got impatient and said she'll be back or meet her up there. I told her OK.

And it was like soon as she got to the park, somebody was driving by - they say they was doing a drive-by trying to shoot at somebody else and shot her. Some guys came - ran to my house and told me Candice got shot right as I was getting dressed finna (ph) go to the park. And I was tore, I didn't believe it, you know, but I didn't think that she would pass 'cause she only got shot under her arm. So, yeah, I was heartbroken. I try not to think about it.

CRISETTE: (Unintelligible).

WEEKLY: OK, Crisette. Yeah, it be - I try not to think about it. Sometimes I drink a lot to not think about the stuff that done happened in my life.

(SOUNDBITE OF GODSPEED

WEEKLY: There used to be a lot of shooting going on when I was growing up and you used to have to just sit on the floor, try not to get shot. Can't look out the window. It's way worse than that 'cause they be hitting innocent people.

CRISETTE: (Unintelligible).

WEEKLY: OK, baby. Love my baby, that's why I, you know, can't be - can't sit on a bus stop with your kids, people getting shot, women getting - they shooting women, everything and they just - it's out of control.

(SOUNDBITE OF GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR SONG, "EAST HASTINGS")

MARTIN: That was Kyisha Weekly talking about her 13-year-old friend Candice Curry, who was killed in 1998.

GREENE: Now, a few years after Candice's death, another teenage friend of Weekly's was killed and then her brother and then last year her young nephew.

(SOUNDBITE OF GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR SONG, "EAST HASTINGS")

1 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

2 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

3 reverberates   

回响，回荡( reverberate的第三人称单数 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射

参考例句：

• His voice reverberates from the high ceiling. 他的声音自天花板顶处反射回来。
• No single phrase of his reverberates or penetrates as so many of La Bruyere's do. 他没有一个句子能象拉布吕耶尔的许多句子那样余音回荡，入木三分。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

7 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

10 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

11 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

12 deteriorated   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her health deteriorated rapidly, and she died shortly afterwards. 她的健康状况急剧恶化，不久便去世了。
• His condition steadily deteriorated. 他的病情恶化，日甚一日。

13 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

14 bind   

vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬

参考例句：

• I will let the waiter bind up the parcel for you.我让服务生帮你把包裹包起来。
• He wants a shirt that does not bind him.他要一件不使他觉得过紧的衬衫。

15 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

16 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

17 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

18 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

19 cliques   

n.小集团，小圈子，派系( clique的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All traitorous persons and cliques came to no good end. 所有的叛徒及叛徒集团都没好下场。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They formed cliques and carried arms expansion and war preparations. 他们拉帮结派，扩军备战。 来自互联网

20 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

21 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

22 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。