​ FIRST UNDERSTAND HOW DIGITAL-AGE VIOLENCE DIFFERS FROM INDUSTRIAL-AGE VIOLENCE

• • ​Digital-age violence 

    • in every American city

      • is rooted in the loss of the TRUST that along unifies generations and sustains families, neighborhoods, cities, states and nations alike in a democracy.  This loss surfaced in the 1960's - the early years of the digital age - with two intertwined digital-age phenomena:

        • the global generation gap ("never trust anyone over 30")

        • the rise of mass TV sponsored by advertisers whose inherently divisive practice of target marketing results in the creation of TV programs for audiences of specific age, racial, gender and political groups.

      • centers to this day on young people, not adults.   ​

      • is substantially media-based and media-driven: is equally a topic in commercial and social media and a phenomenon of daily life.

      • foments debilitating communication breakdowns (polarizations) that rapidly escalate violence in communities of all sizes, local, state, national, international

    • in Chicago 

      • arose in the 1960's with the heavily-armed, drug-dealing, youth-victimizing street gangs whose 100,000+ mostly teen-age members have since then overwhelmed the resources of traditional law enforcement (police, courts, prisons)

        • along with the rise in the 1960's of national network TV and local TV evening news whose sensationalized if-it-bleeds-it-leads coverage of youth/gang/gun violence along with coverage Chicago's invariably failed attempts even to reduce violence has numbed the minds of Chicagoans and their leaders over the years into accepting violence as a permanent and even natural fact of Chicago life, like brutal Chicago winters   

      • discredits and renders obsolete Chicago's industrial-age, police-centered violence-reduction public safety tactics.

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• NOW DEVELOP A DIGITAL-AGE PUBLIC SAFETY STRATEGY TO RESTORE THE TRUST CHICAGO, LIKE ANY DIGITAL-AGE CITY, NEEDS IN ORDER TO MAKE ITSELF SAFE​​

  • The only remedy for digital-age MISTRUST is digital-age TRUST.

  • TRUST grows in groups of all sizes when people can listen to and learn from each other in 

  • makes Police, Public Health (medical), Public Communications (media) and the Public (citizens and City Hall) responsible for public safety in Chicago.

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• Address media-generated mistrust as a root cause of digital age violence

• Use media generated to generate citywide trust as the antidote and cure for digital-age, citywide violence

  • The only remedy for mistrust is trust

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• Unlike industrial-age violence, digital-age violence

• centers on young people, not adults

• is exacerbated by abuses ofg commercial and social media​

  • commercial media​

  • social media

• is marked by alarming breakdowns of communication among all segments and sectors of society:  law enforcement, generations, racial, religious, economic, political

• Is no longer a Public Safety (police) problem the traditional sense of the term.

• Is now equally a Public Safety (Police), Public Health (Medical), Public Communication (Media) and Public (citizens and City Hall) problem.

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2. identify digital-age mistrust as THE ROOT cause OF DIGITAL-AGE VIOLENCE

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• Unprecedented levels of mistrust stem from the global communication breakdowns. In Chicago, is mistrust

  • Between young people and adults​

  • Between Chicagoans and City Hall

  • Between citizens and Police

  • Among Chicagoans of all ages, races, religions and economic backgrounds​

• With respect to Chicago's violence, six decades of failed attempts to even reduce violence resulted in a citywide loss of trust in city leadership and citizenship itself.

• This mistrust has numbed the minds of most Chicagoans and their leaders into accepting wartime levels of violence as unalterable, even natural facts of Chicago life, like brutal Chicago winters.

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• Digital media are equally part of the problem and the solution

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