Chicago tries rapid response to curb gangs

While many residents welcome the new police presence, some feel it doesn't go far enough. They have been dealing with gang crime for years and simply want a larger, permanent police presence.

"As soon as police leave, bam, the criminals are back. They have got a whole new group on the payroll selling drugs," says Alderman Walter Burnett, who represents a West Side area that includes the notorious Cabrini Green public housing project.

Mayor Richard M. Daley initially supported a plan that would have shifted more officers to high-crime areas, but politics got in the way. Aldermen in low-crime areas resisted and the plan died. The city said undercover police and the rapid response teams will be more effective at deterring crime than an increase in beat cops. Burnett and others are unconvinced.

"Those of us with a lot of crime in our areas never think it's enough," he says.

Several factors lie behind Chicago's gang problem that make it among the worst in the nation. For one thing, the city has always been one of the most segregated, with minorities boxed into certain neighborhoods and warehoused in public housing high-rises. That led to high concentrations of poverty, particularly on the south and west sides, exacerbated when manufacturing jobs started to disappear en masse, says Greg Scott, who teaches courses on criminology, street gangs, and drug trafficking at DePaul University.

And many of the gangs are highly structured organizations that have been around for decades. Mr. Scott doesn't see how the police initiative can make a difference without addressing some of these underlying problems. In fact, be believes that "going in and basically busting up gang boundaries" will just create more violence as members move into new turf.

Others blame the enduring violence on the proliferation of hand guns in the city, which are actually illegal in Chicago, and the release of thousands of ex-offenders back into poor neighborhoods.

Tio Hardiman, a coordinator for the antiviolence group CeaseFire Chicago, also believes more must be done to attack the root causes, such as a lack of educational and economic opportunity. He says the city may be well-intentioned, but that simply targeting gangs won't work. "It's easy to go out and make arrests," says Mr. Hardiman. "Let us collectively come to the table and try to stop this problem."

Chicago police claim they've done that, and say the recent initiative is just one aspect of an overall strategy to fight crime.

Out on the streets, residents certainly recall better days. "I remember the vibrant commercial strip of Madison Street, shopping for my Easter dress there," says Mildred Wiley, a life long west side resident. "I remember the bowling alley, the skating rink, and the Roosevelt Theater."

All are gone now. She welcomes a crack-down on gangs and drug dealing, but says the area also needs investment from banks and businesses so that young people can do more than "graduate to the corner."

Page: 1 | 2