How will you address Gun Violence?

He says it is a problem all over the country, that we have two gangs in Decatur, and that the Decatur Police are doing a good job with their resources. He says as some Decatur gang members are "eliminated", more come from Chicago. He wishes he had the answer, and says education is important & that the city has been very good working with the School District and other agencies in town.

She says Decatur Police do an excellent job and that our crime rate is "much lower" than Springfield or Champaign, before talking about many people & kids needing to learn conflict resolution instead of picking up a gun.

She says it's not one issue, but many elements that need to come together and work together.

She talks about a ride-along she participated in where six police cars came to coral 60 children at the movie theater, and parents were sometimes "worse than the children" when they came to pick up their kids.

She said we have resources in town to teach moms and dads how to be parents.

Says he "might have a different approach" after 32 years in corrections.

He says we need to "be transparent and admit we have a problem" and have serious conversations about our gun problem in Decatur, saying that's where accountability comes in.

Seemingly criticizing the other candidates, Cooper says "Every city has it, but we got it in Decatur and we need to talk about our problems, in Decatur, and how to solve it."

He says we need our community to "see something, say something" and report the things they see - whether gun problems or drug problems. He says it works & that he's seen it work before & that "you can run somebody out of your neighborhood [and] out of Decatur."

He says the State's Attorney needs to give no plea deals for gun crime offenders, hit them with a "hard sentence" and "put them away" as a detterent.

He says we need to come together and talk about what we can do to "change gun laws", mentions it being a divisive political issue, but says we can all agree we need to "open up and talk about it."

He says we need a different approach, saying we can't expect different results if we "keep approaching the same issue with the same ideals and the same mindset". He says crime is thoroughly researched, that we understand the root causes of crime, and that it's "not found in every community," saying there's a reason Forsyth is a low-crime area.

He says the municipality "can only do certain things," but they need to "set the tone" to "make the environment conducive for indivudals to want to be productive members of society."

He says most of the individuals getting into crime "feel as though they do not have any form of a pathway forward in our society, and they have not been afforded the opportunities necessary."

He says we do have a lot of resources in our community, but as others mentioned, there is a large disconnect, and there is a reason these services "are not meeting where they need to go."

He gives a theoretical example of a "young man at 14 years old that's dealt with gun violence [and] abject poverty [their] entire life," and feels they've "been left out of [their] society and [their] community." He says, in that framing, "Why would I break my back to go work at McDonald's" when feeling like there is never going to be a true path forward to "self-servancy" and to "being a contributing member of society".

He says we need to look at the "root causes of crime" and not keep looking to "band-aid solutions". He says "a kid having a gun is a problem, but we need to look at why he has a gun at 14 years old in the first place," whether that's his access to it or why he has the drive to want a gun in the first place.

He quotes Reverend Courtney Carson as saying "nothing stops a bullet like a job" and says if someone has a $95,000 job they have to be at every day and a family to support or a brand new home, they'll be much less inclined to participate in crime.