Crime | CHICAGOOD

Chicagood is an online magazine launched by The Chi-Town Project. It is a magazine for social conscious Chicagoans that focuses on social awareness issues and those who step up to make Chicago a better place for tomorrow. We also like to have fun and celebrate what it means to be Chicagoan and what is good in our city. Be Chicagood.

We love saying that we live in the greatest city in the world. The beautiful skylines, innovative monuments and strong-willed spirits that dwell within the city gives us more reason to boast about Chicago’s greatness. However, as we progress into a rapidly changing future, many of our great city’s downfalls become glaringly obvious as we strive to become a world class city. Poverty, corruption, education and gang violence are only few of the many social awareness issues that have surfaced within Chicago’s inner walls. That’s where The Chi-Town Project steps in. We serve as a platform of fresh ideas, as a series of projects with the ability to ignite passion, discussion and action among Chicagoans for the greater good. Together we can strive for one ultimate goal: guiding Chicago to a better tomorrow. As a curation of social goodness, we celebrate not only the city’s identity but also the achievements that define what makes Chicagood. Join us as we inspIre. dreAM. aCHIeve.

Chicago Mothers Rally against Violence

This weekend was Mother’s day, but for many mothers in Chicago, this was their first Mother’s Day without their children.

This weekend, more than 50 woman who have lost their children rallied against Chicago’s high crime rate in honor of Mother’s Day.

The rally was punctuated with 5 deaths and over 20 others wounded over the weekend.

The women assembled Sunday say reports like these need to stop. The Mother’s Day march is an annual tradition led Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Parish, both to protest the ongoing violence that threatens youth in the city and to provide support for mothers who have recently lost children.

“Some mothers, this is their first Mother’s Day without their child and they don’t know what to do,” Pfleger told the Chicago Sun-Times. “So I let them know that we think about them, care about them, and I don’t want the pain of this day to override them being a mother.”

Despite an initiative by the Chicago Police Department to up police resources in some of the city’s most dangerous areas, homicides in the cityincreased by 60 percent during the first three months of the year.

VIA: Huffington Post

Chicago Public Housing Comes Down. Did it Decrease Violent Crime or Just Moved It Elsewhere?

Chicago Magazine had an interesting article that explored Hanna Rosin’s fascinating and controversial article in The Atlantic, “American Murder Mystery,” which claims that tearing down public housing in high poverty neighborhoods didn’t decrease cime and poverty but rather pushed it out to the outer neighborhoods and suburbs. Rosin mainly explored Memphis but Chicago Magazine makes a compelling comparison that draws many similarities with Chicago.

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Temperatures Soaring, so are the Gang Violence

Today marks the first day of spring and we Chicagoans have been spoiled with beautiful summer weather for the last week. Everyone is taking advantage of the unusual warmth and heading outdoors. But it’s not all fun in the sun for all. Warmer temperatures translates to a spike in gang violence and this year’s warm winter season hasn’t been particularly great on the Chicago’s gang violence stats.

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“Some Things Aren’t Acceptable” Bicyclist Chases Down Mugger

“There’s nowhere in my city, there’s no where in this planet that that’s allowed.”

Meet Eric Puetz (51 yrs), a Chicagoland native who is not your ordinary bicyclist. He rides his bike to work everyday from Arlington Heights to Logan Square (That’s 21 miles!) He enjoys the ride because he “sees the city in a different light”.

Perhaps seeing the city in a different light prompted him to take action when he saw a mugger wrestling with a 75-year-old woman on the ground, then grabbing her purse and running away. He took off after the mugger disregarding his own safety through parking lots and alleyways. He wasn’t even deterred when the mugger repeatedly claimed to have a gun. He kept a safe distance at 30 ft away but after the third claim, Eric called his bluff and went in for the finish. He finally was able to tackle the mugger after about two blocks and sat on top of the thief with all his 220 pounds until the police came.

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Stabbings account for 12% of 2012 homicides

We hate to start the morning off on a depressing note, but the Redeye has published some stats regarding Chicago homicide that we need to share. We need to focus on any social awareness issues that arise along side our celebration of this great city. One glaring issue Chicago has been struggling with is homicide rates.

Redeye, as you may know, has a homicide tracker where they track homicide across the city on a per month basis. It is a valuable resource to gain insight on this troubling issue. Here are the facts that are before us. Nine people have been stabbed to death in Chicago homicides so far this year. Stabbings account for nearly 12 percent of the 76 homicides in the city in 2012. Six percent of the 441 homicides last year were stabbings.

February ended last week with 28 homicides, up from 25 homicides in February 2011. Eight homicides have been recorded so far this month. Police logged 22 homicides in March last year.

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Documentaries about Chicago Gangs and Violence Are Online

The Interrupters should have been a shoo in for the Academy Award for best documentary. But surprisingly they were left out of the nominations. However they were honored with a Film Independent Spirt Award.

The success of The Interrupters, a Chicago based documentary about the city grappling with gang violence, has shed a lot of national attention on the gang violence in Chicago and how our city is dealing with it.

PBS released a version of the documentary online for free viewing. Chicago Magazine compiled a couple other documentaries that explore Chicago’s gang violence that are also online. WARNING: PARTS OF IT ARE GRAPHIC AND NSFW

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Money from Cheaters and Deadbeats will be used for Children

Seems a little ironic how the money earned from the state lottery was used to fund the education system in Chicago. It’s like using money from gambling and using it to educate our future generation of Chicagoans. “Hi son, gambling got your through school. Now be a shining example for Chicago in this world!”

Now, Mayor Emanuel announced that he will be spending an estimated $8.8 million collected from “Cheaters” and “Deadbeats”, to fund programs for children and the police. The money is from folks who owe City Hall money from outstanding debts and fines from such things like parking, red light citations, and so forth. The city already has collected $5.2 million in outstanding debt in about three weeks using an ordinance that allows the city to intercept state income tax refunds from people across Illinois. Another $3.3 million is expected to be collected later.

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CPD Goes Local- Orders 500 New Ford Police Interceptors Made in Chicago

The Chicago Police Department got some serious upgrades to their aging fleet of Police Pursuit Vehicles. Ford announced the sale of 500 new Police Interceptors to the CPD that will eventually replace the old Crown Victoria. With a 25% boost in fuel economy and a slick V6 engine that performs as well or better than a V8, these SUV/ sedan combo pack a serious punch. A fleet-wide 20 percent fuel economy gain would stand to save the department at least $20 million a year with fuel prices hovering near $4 a gallon.

Best of all, the new Ford Police Interceptors are made locally, creating 230 jobs at the Torrence Avenue plant.

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The Interrupters Wins Spirit Award

Chicago based documentary about the city grappling with gang violence, The Interrupters was surprisingly left out in the Academy Awards nomination for best documentary. But in a separate event on Saturday, The Interrupters took home the honors of Best Documentary at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

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Chicago Pastor’s Rooftop Vigil Sucessful

“I would call it very depressing and frustrating that we’re living in such a great city but yet we still experience violence and gunfire on a day-to-day basis,” Rev Cory Brooks said. “It breaks your heart because there’s so much hopelessness.”

For the past three months, Rev. Corey Brooks began a silent mission, not in front of 100s at a church, but instead on top of a vacant South Side motel in a tent next to kerosene and electric heaters. The motel was a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes just across the street from his New Beginnings Church in the 6600 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The dilapidated and abandoned motel is an unlikely place to find a pastor, but that place would change in the near future.

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Winning City Sticker Design Yanked, But not Without Pain

UPDATE: It appears now the runner up, Caitlin Henehan whose design elevated to the 1st place after the City sticker fiasco has pulled her design because of “unwanted media and public scrutiny and criticism of her artwork that soon followed,”. Now the city is forced to design the sticker in house. The city stickers are still scheduled to be distributed on time.

In a city wide art contest aimed at highlighting children’s artistic abilities to be placed on the City stickers, you would expect happiness and hope and inspirations. But at the end of the day it delivered a crushing blow to one troubled teen’s spirits. And nobody came out a winner.

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Did a gang pull a fast one on Chicago’s City Stickers?

Did a gang pull a fast one on Chicago’s City Stickers? One popular Chicago Police Blog makes an interesting case. Detective Shaved Longcock (Yes that is the blog’s name), believes that the winning design for the Chicago city’s vehicle sticker competition by a 15 year old Chicagoan actually contains gang symbols that is actually supposed to go into print in a few days. The 15 year old attends a school for troubled youth.

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Lots of Gangs in Chicago

Digest these numbers: There are 70-100 gangs in Chicago with membership in the 68,000 to over 150,000 people. These are some facts released by The Chicago Crime Commission, a non profit organization dedicated to fighting crime in Chicago, in their “The Gang Book 2012″.

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Something to Smile about: Local Dentist Steps up to Help Bring a Smile to Carjacked Chicagoan.

Chicago is notorious for crime and corruption but don’t let that label what Chicagoans are capable of. Chicagoans are awesome and here’s a story that will bring a smile.

18 year old Chicagoan Edwin Rodriguez was waiting for his brother inside his car when he heard someone come up and tell him that he had a flat. He came out to check only to hear his brother’s car start up and the thief began to drive off. Edwin grabbed the handle and was dragged for about a block and in the end suffered stitches, a torn ligament in his foot and three broken teeth.

Flash forward a day later and a Lincoln Park cosmetic dentist, Dr. Jack Manikowski offered his expertise and services to Edwin for free to help repair his broken teeth.

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