[00:00.12]Gun violence is an issue in Chicago, Illinois, [00:05.80]America's third largest city. [00:09.84]The Chicago Tribune reported that 61 people [00:15.24]were shot in the city during the long Christmas holiday weekend. [00:21.72]Eleven of those shot died, the newspaper said. [00:26.08]The holiday weekend ended Monday night. [00:30.12]The Tribune said the attacks brought [00:34.16]the total number of shootings for 2016 to more than 4,300. [00:42.32]The number killed in shootings this year reached 770, it said. [00:50.24]In 2015, 2,989 people were shot and 492 were killed in gun violence. [01:03.28]Chicago is not the only city in the United States [01:09.10]to report an increase in shootings and murders. [01:14.96]The Brennan Center for Justice is a non-profit research group [01:20.68]with ties to New York University's Law School. [01:25.96]It reported last week that the murder rate for 2016 in America's 30 largest cities [01:36.36]is expected to be 14 percent higher than the rate last year. [01:43.44]The center blames the increase on fewer police officers working in some cities, [01:51.68]as well as poverty and increased gang violence. [01:56.64]But it said that two large cities -- Baltimore and Washington D.C. [02:04.16]-- have fewer murders this year than in 2015. [02:09.25]Eddie Johnson is Chicago's Police Superintendent. [02:15.12]He said 90 percent of those killed in his city [02:19.68]over Christmas weekend had ties to gangs, criminal histories [02:26.00]or had been identified as potential offenders or victims. [02:32.92]Johnson urged politicians to increase sentences for people found guilty of gun crimes. [02:42.68]"If you pick up a gun and shoot somebody, [02:46.92]you should go to prison, period, that's the end of the story," he said. [02:53.56]"Some people want to give them a pass for it. I don't," he added. [02:59.48]Chicago is working to add police officers [03:04.88]who more closely represent the ethnicity and races of city residents. [03:12.28]Rahm Emanuel is mayor of Chicago. [03:16.36]He said, "Officers come together from different backgrounds, different cultures, [03:22.76]and different faiths for a common cause: [03:27.32]to serve and protect the people of the City of Chicago. [03:32.40]And this whole city will be behind our officers, rooting for their success." [03:40.56]Gary Slutkin is founder of a group called Cure Violence. [03:46.76]His group has trained people to work in their communities [03:51.76]to persuade people to choose non-violent ways of dealing with conflicts. [03:59.44]Slutkin said the workers often knew when a young person [04:04.44]was planning a violent act just by living nearby. [04:09.52]Because they have credibility with their neighbors, [04:14.16]they often have more influence than police, or even parents, he said. [04:21.44]Often the "issue" with another young person was not that big a deal [04:28.52]-- maybe someone spoke to his girlfriend or owes him money. [04:33.64]His workers, Slutkin said, could persuade young people [04:39.28]that their problem with another person was not worth a violent response. [04:46.64]"Sometimes it is simply pointing out that if you go ahead and do it (shoot somebody), [04:52.04]people are going to be looking for pay back against you [04:56.36]or you might be spending 20 years or more in prison," Slutkin said. [05:03.12]But he said a loss of government assistance has left all [05:07.88]but one city neighborhood without the program this year. [05:13.76]He believes the lost funding and higher shooting rates are related. [05:20.44]Slutkin is a professor of epidemiology [05:25.08]at the University of Illinois' School of Public Health. [05:30.18]He said his program uses policies developed by health experts to deal with disease. [05:38.04]It works, he said, because violence can spread [05:42.80]just like diseases such as AIDS or tuberculosis. [05:48.16]His Cure Violence Program operates in 25 U.S. cities, [05:55.32]as well as in other countries, such as South Africa, H [05:59.88]onduras, Mexico, and prisons in Britain. [06:05.12]I'm Ashley Thompson.