Aldermen who are sweating Mayor Daley over his police chief's secret meeting with gang leaders are missing the point.
We are beyond unenforceable ordinances, hand wringing, marches and candlelit vigils.
Because armed gang members are being blamed for most of the shootings, we can't stop the violence without dealing with this population.
Two weeks ago, Jody Weis told reputed gang leaders to stop the killing or face being slapped with federal racketeering charges.
If gang leaders fail to heed this warning, police will move to take their cars and houses. Heck, maybe they can even take their mamas' cars.
The threat is part of the new Chicago Gang Violence Reduction Initiative.
"We are focusing on group responsibility," Weis said. "If one of these guys kills another gang member, we are going to come down on them with all the firepower we have," Weis told reporters.
Whether Weis can deliver on his threats remains to be seen. But this is the first time the city's top cop has called out alleged gang leaders.
Apparently the strategy had some impact on gang violence in Boston and Cincinnati, although a recent report claims that Boston's 2006 gang truce is beginning to unravel.
The truce was struck after the FBI was able to attribute 20 shootings to a feud between rival gangs.
Interestingly, the feud was not about drug turf, but about which gang controlled a neighborhood basketball court.
Police were able to persuade each gang to agree to a cease fire.
The truce held together until May, when a 14-year-old honors student with no gang ties was targeted by members of one gang because he was hanging around a basketball court that was frequented by the other gang.
Boston's experience shows the challenge Weis faces.
The makeup of a gang changes, and a leader may have a street rep, but that doesn't mean he can control younger, undisciplined gang members.
In Chicago, Weis hauled in 30-year-old Labar "Bro Man" Spann, an alleged Four Corner Hustlers leader and Jettie "Bo Diddley" Williams, the 50-year-old reputed leader of the Traveling Vice Lords.
Spann, who is in a wheelchair because he was shot, is on parole for armed robbery and bringing drugs into a penal institution. Williams has been convicted of attempted murder and armed robbery.
Both men balked at being held accountable if members of their gang shot a rival gang member.
But the notion that these gang leaders can control young underlings is likely a myth.
Wallace "Gator" Bradley, a former Gangster Disciple who has kept close ties with gang leader Larry Hoover, has been taking the stop-the-violence message to gang members ever since 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was killed by a stray bullet in 1992.
Gang leaders, like Gerald Reed, who is serving a life term, are now warning young gang members not to make the "same bad choices."
But those warnings are falling on deaf ears. On Saturday night, 15-year-old Darrell McKinney, an innocent bystander, was killed in crossfire by gang members while attending a block party in Humboldt Park.
Another 17-year-old male was killed at a block party on the South Side in an incident that the police suspect was gang-related.
"What we are finding out is a lot of the shootings are personal and not gang shootings," Bradley told me.
But Bradley argues that "you can't criminalize a whole group when the group is not involved."
The former gang member takes credit for negotiating a gang truce in CHA's Cabrini-Green housing development after the Dantrell Davis shooting.
"I am still asking to meet with Mayor Daley and Jody Weis, and to stand with them against this violence," Bradley told me.
"We are serious about public safety. Any individual who thinks he can shoot little girls and shoot senior citizens is a terrorist," he said.
Because of the stigma attached to gangs, the perception that law enforcement is negotiating with gang leaders has to be a politician's worst nightmare.
Daley is no exception.
No question about it. This is a risky move -- but one that is long overdue.
Weis is exposing these gang leaders for what they really are.
Powerless.
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