A group of concerned mothers from the South Side of Chicago is fighting against bloodshed and murder through peaceful loitering.
The group of parents formed a coalition against violence called Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK).
“As a mother, you will do whatever you can to protect your kids, even if that means sitting out on the corner for the entire summer,” says MASK founder Tamar Manasseh, 37, a rabbinical student raised in Englewood who has a 16-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son.
MASK is a response to a shooting that killed one woman and injured two others on 75th and Steward on the South Side of Chicago. Members “planted folding chairs on the southeast corner of the intersection and spent the afternoon chatting with passerbyers and dispensing hugs. The next day, they were there again.
They plan to return…until the public school year resumes.” So far, no shootings, In These Times reported.
Some neighbors questioned the effectiveness of the group’s effort to prevent violence, but membership has doubled from 10 to 20.
Preventative community programs can reduce crime rates, according to Nicole Porter of Washington, D.C.-based prison reform group The Sentencing Project.
“It’s about psychology, about why (kids commit crimes) in the first place,” says Manasseh. “They’ll tell you, ‘I have a record,’ and it just sounds so hopeless. And I hate to hear that in a 19-year-old kid. You have so long to live…You want to find a job? We’re gonna go look for a job. You want to get something off your record?
Let’s find a way. That’s a mother’s job – we’re unpaid social workers.”