Paranoid feelings, overall uneasiness and an urgency to seek safety have become far too common among Chicago’s South Side residents this past summer with death totals surpassing 300.
According to the Chicago Tribune, 38 homicides took place in August that is three more than last year, due to gun violence. A recent study that was reported by the New York Times shows that there has been an almost 40 percent rise in homicides happening on the South and West side of the city since last year.
Increased gang activity within the streets of Chicago is showing no signs of slowing down, and Chicago Police and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are cracking down by acting quickly in order to halt violent acts caused by gangs while minimizing violence throughout the city.
Pin pointing specific areas that are known to be drug markets, as well as increasing the number of on duty cops present at those locations, continues to stand out as the easiest and most commonly used methods in attacking this problem.
However, the task is quiet overwhelming and at times cannot be executed perfectly. A high-ranking Chicago police officer, who wished to remain unnamed, shared some inside information. “For example, in my district, there should have been fifteen cars patrolling the other day, but there was only two cars present,” he explained.
Even though Chicago is notorious for crime, the big question still remains: why has this summer been so brutally violent? Perhaps it is the unbearable heat, ongoing economic hardships, relentless gang activity, or are other culprits being overlooked, and who exactly are suffering the most due to these fatal acts?
When summer first started, the weekend of June 8, the Tribune reported 40 people had been shot in just the two-day period. The most tragic deaths include young adults, teenagers, and in some instances innocent toddlers who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Death totals have peaked so high that Fox News has compared the Windy City to war zones in Afghanistan, where 84 more people have had their lives taken on the streets of Chicago, as opposed to the battlefields of the Middle East.
However, this new surge of shocking statistics and constant bombardment of Chicago violence updates from the media is not resonating among all Chicagoans. Angelina Tellen, 42, of the South Side, is not too sure about what she sees on the news. “You hear all these facts and stats and I can’t help but to think that the violence, that has always been present in the city, is being blown out of proportion. Maybe the news is slow this year, who knows,” she said.
Whether the severity of violence is being glamorized or valid, the true tragedy lies within the notion that violence and deaths are no longer as alarming as they once were. Shootings are now commonplace, innocent lives being taken is almost expected and the desperate efforts to stop the violence don’t seem to be doing the trick.
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