An aspirin won’t cure the headache caused by brain cancer just as policing won’t cure crime problems. Economic development fights crime. Investment in public education fights crime. Job training fights crime. Chance the Rapper seems to understand this. Perhaps Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel should have taken note.

Protests took place on iconic Lake Shore Drive in Chicago on August 2, 2018 calling for the resignation of Mayor Emanuel due to the city’s crime problem. The march took place amidst the Lollapalooza music festival and a Cubs game to draw attention to the cause. The crowd of about 400 had a clear message. Protesters were frustrated by the endemic crime and lack of economic investment in the predominantly black and Latino south and west sides of the city that have been socially and economically neglected for decades, while the downtown area and north side of the city continue to thrive.

All too often, the response to elevated crime rates is enhanced policing and police training, as seen by Mayor Emanuel's plan to build a $95 million police and fire training academy to consolidate and improve police training across the city. However, policing only addresses a symptom of a much broader issue. It is no surprise that a city with a history filled with decades of housing discrimination and economic deprivation in black communities has devastating concentrated crime. Policing won't solve such a complicated situation.

Chicago native, Chance the Rapper, has been an ardent activist and philanthropist for the city. His work includes writing a one million dollar check to Chicago Public Schools, developing an arts education foundation and being vocal about holding local and state officials accountable for the condition of the predominantly black communities on the south and west sides. Providing opportunity to the city's disenfranchised through education is part of the solution to the city's complex crime problem — an area of the Mayor's platform protesters clearly see as lacking.

While improved police training is necessary in the city, given the visible misconduct by police officers in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, among other incidents that has resulted in unrest about the city's police, it is not the end all be all for the pervasive crime in Chicago. Wherever there is poor education, high unemployment and poverty, crime will inevitably follow. Addressing these cancerous realities will begin to alleviate the headache that is Chicago's crime rate.