SR0379 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0379 LRB100 12213 MST 24692 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, In 1996, the World Health Organization held the Forty-Ninth World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland and declared violence a leading public health problem; and

WHEREAS, The World Health Organization developed a typology of violence that identified three categories: self-directed violence (by oneself), interpersonal violence (by another person), and collective violence (by larger groups), which includes hate crimes, terrorist acts, and mob violence committed to advance a particular social agenda; and

WHEREAS, Hate crimes, school shootings, and community shootings have increased at alarming rates over the past eight years; and

WHEREAS, Hate groups have emerged as one of the greatest threats to public safety; from 2008 to 2012, the number of "patriot groups", including militias, multiplied by more than 800%; and

WHEREAS, Violent extremist threats come from a range of groups and individuals, including domestic terrorists, homegrown violent extremists, as well as international terrorists, lone offenders or small groups who may be radicalized to commit violence at home or attempt to travel overseas to become foreign fighters; and

WHEREAS, Between 1982 and 2011, mass shootings such as Sandy Hook, Columbine, and the Pulse Night Club occurred every 200 days on average, but between 2011 and 2014, they occurred every 64 days; and

WHEREAS, Hate crimes targeting Muslims tripled in 2015, with attacks against Muslim Americans experiencing the biggest surge; there were 257 reports of assaults, attacks on mosques, and other hate crimes against Muslims, a jump of about 67% in 2015; it was the highest total since 2001, when more than 480 attacks occurred in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001; and

WHEREAS, Attacks against transgender people have also sharply increased; according to FBI data, African Americans were the most frequent victims of hate crimes based on race, while Jews were the most frequent victims based on religion; and

WHEREAS, Fifty-Nine percent of the hate crimes that the F.B.I. recorded were based on the race, ethnicity, or ancestry of the victim; religious bias accounted for about 20% of all attacks; about 18% of attacks were based on sexual orientation; and

WHEREAS, Chicago's homicide and violent crime rates have been rising, and appear resistant to violence prevention efforts; in 2016, 762 people were killed in Chicago - 300 more than 2015, representing the largest one-year increase in any of America's biggest cities in the past 25 years; in January of 2017, Chicago shootings and violence were up 24%; and

WHEREAS, The United States Department of Homeland Security has described violent extremism involving school shootings, mass shootings, terrorist acts, hate crimes, and gang violence, as a serious threat to public safety and has called upon each state to develop a comprehensive prevention strategy for countering violent extremism using a public health approach; and

WHEREAS, There are three levels of public health violence prevention: primary prevention, which aims to prevent violence before it occurs; secondary prevention, which focuses on immediate responses to violence such as pre-hospital care; and emergency services or treatment, and tertiary prevention, that focuses on rehabilitation, reintegration, reducing long-term physical emotional or physical disability relevant to victims or perpetrators of violence; and

WHEREAS, A comprehensive response to violence protects and supports victims of violence, reduces the perpetration of violence, and changes the circumstances and conditions that give rise to violence in the first place; and

WHEREAS, Faith and community-based organizations provide critical leadership, knowledge, and passion when it comes to preventing and intervening in cycles of youth violence around the country; and

WHEREAS, All throughout the country, faith and non-profit organizations have taken on many tasks in order to keep young people safe and increase their positive opportunities; and

WHEREAS, Staff and volunteers from churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, and community-based organizations are actively involved in the lives of both victims and perpetrators of violence; collaborating with medical staff, law enforcement, courts, social service, business, and community activists; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge faith-based organizations and community-based organizations to collaborate and build a multidisciplinary alliance that promotes community resilience and public safety through the development of programs and strategies aimed to prevent violence and violent extremism in impoverished, underserved, and at-risk communities by providing media outreach and educational campaigns, after-school programs, mentoring programs, and other activities that replace negative messages, activities, beliefs, and attitudes with positive productive activities, beliefs, and messages, through a transparent and collaborative process with the community that takes full advantage of any available State and federal funding resources.