Thirty-six people shot, nine of them dead. That was the grim tally from last weekend, and the bloodshed has continued this week.

The violence seems unending, and people are scared.

In response to the shootings and deaths, the Chicago Police Department has said that its SWAT team will be put on street patrol.

But what the police see as the most effective way to keep people safe, community members believe could increase harassment of innocent people.

“Sending SWAT teams into the community is doing nothing but suppressing the community,” said Tio Hardiman, director of gang mediation services for the violence-prevention group CeaseFire. “Police are doing the best they can, but all sides need to be active.”

Alphonso Prater, who works for CeaseFire, put it more bluntly:

“SWAT is for what? To hit people.”

According to Chicago police spokeswoman Antoinette Ursitti, the SWAT deployment will give people a visual reminder that police are working to stop the violence.

“The response is only a statement of our continued commitment to keeping the streets safe,” Ursitti said. “There’s going to be additional members deployed throughout the city, and that visual presence will communicate a message.”

But residents don’t see it that way. They say the SWAT deployment underscores a fundamental rift between police and the communities they serve.

The police assess their success largely with numbers, tracking arrests and murder rates: If arrests are up and murders are down, the department is doing its job.

But many Chicagoans focus on different numbers. They count how many of their neighbors have been shot, how many have died – and how many innocent people have been needlessly hassled by police.

“What black man hasn’t been harassed by the police?” said Mike Smith, 35, of North Lawndale. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that.”

Smith said SWAT deployment could help prevent killings, but only if the SWAT units leave non-offenders alone, become more involved in the communities they patrol and get to know the residents they’re serving.

Others don’t see that happening.

“There will be even more damage [with SWAT deployment] because the police out here are doing what they want to do,” said Jackie Walkie, also of North Lawndale. “People will be sitting on the front porch of their house, talking with their family, and they [police] just get out and bash you.”

The perception of police is especially negative among younger residents.

“When the police come, kids see danger,” said Richard Wilkens, another CeaseFire violence interrupter. “And what they should be seeing is relief.”

“They see everyone else as talking down to them,” he said. “Then the walls come up.”

According to Wilkens, stopping the violence requires a commitment to building relationships with young people in affected communities. Young people must learn to trust police enough to call them when problems arise, he said.

This week CeaseFire announced a series of late-night anti-violence rallies and pledged itself to continue mediating the often petty conflicts that sometimes lead to murder.

The group attempts to build relationships with gangbangers and other at-risk youth. They teach conflict resolution to prevent violent teenagers from murdering their peers.

“Homicide is the easiest crime,” said Hardiman, of CeaseFire. “It only takes five or six seconds to blow someone’s brains out.”

But it takes far longer to dissuade angry, emotional and often intoxicated young people from resorting to violence over petty arguments.

“When you see 15-year-olds and 16-year-olds being shot like this, they’re calling for attention,” Hardiman said. “There needs to be a healing process.”