Violence Interrupter

He's mostly known as Drac, though his real name is Anthony. I wasn't sure what to expect as I sat inside of our designated meeting place waiting for him to show-up. He was an hour late. I usually think of myself as understanding in the area of tardiness, mainly because my life is overshadowed by this common practice. However, I was starting to get a little tired of waiting. When he showed up, I was surprised at how energetic he was.

Drac is a man who works within the organization that the "gang leader" I shot a while back works in. Drac was also in a gang and he now spends time trying to mediate within gangs to avoid shootings in the Waukegan and North Chicago area. I spent about two hours with this guy as he showed me to his office where he works and to a part of the community that he recently did some violence intervention.

When setting up for this particular photo, I didn't even need to do any preparations. Drac was grabbing multiple signs and buttons and setting them up around the room. The signs in the background were set up by Drac. He seemed excited that he was having a "photo shoot" day.

After the photo shoot, he took me into North Chicago and showed me some abandoned buildings he had recently been to. He pointed across the street to a park, "There were some bodies over there."

I didn't fully understand if he meant people that were dead or were wounded by gunshots, and I couldn't help but realize how far removed I was from this sort of lifestyle.

Later that night as I turned on the light to my bedroom, I look around and felt the comfort flood around me. Did the gang members that Drac interacts with on a daily basis ever feel this comfort, this safety that I felt within my own bedroom? What a strange world, just 20 minutes west of where I laid my head that night and fell asleep.