The night of Wednesday, Oct. 24, was supposed to have been a show of community solidarity against gangs and drugs, but ended up pitting people against one another amid charges that the event had been hijacked by people pushing a racist, anti-poor agenda.
An estimated 200 citizens turned out at Truman College for a march sponsored by the 23rd District Community Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) group. Present were representatives from the 23rd district, including district commander Richard Guerrero, and Ald. Helen Shiller (46th).
The plan was to march through the streets of Beat 2311—including Magnolia Ave., Leland Ave. and Sheridan Rd.—where gangs, drug dealing and violent crime, including homicide and non-fatal shootings, have been heavily concentrated. As it turned out, only about two-thirds of the group actually made it out to the streets. Shiller and the remaining participants ditched the march, preferring to stay behind at Truman College, after the alderman grew upset with what she called a biased, inaccurate and “inflammatory” flyer that partially blamed the high crime rates on CHA and HUD mismanagement of low-income properties.
Most participants seemed to agree that crime is bad and there is too much of it in Uptown—especially in Beat 2311, the immediate area surrounding Truman College. But there was much disagreement as to who is responsible and what should be done about it.
“I’m here because our neighborhood is under attack,” said Judith F. Rutherford, who owns a house in the 4600 block of N. Malden St. She ticked off a list of recent crimes on her street, including a murder of an apparent drug dealer over the summer; “people who have harmed our neighbor across the street just short of blinding her”; drug dealing going on every day before her very eyes; and drive-by shootings that reportedly broke all the first-floor windows of a building in the 4700 block of Malden St.
A woman who owns a six-flat near Montrose Ave. and Beacon St. complained: “I’ve probably been up here...one of the oldest landladies up here, and 30 years ago when this neighborhood had a reputation of being terrible, it was safer.”
“It’s Time to Reclaim Uptown!” screamed the headline on the anonymous flyer being passed around the march staging area inside Truman College. The copy continued: “Uptown is being terrorized by the escalation of gang activity and drive-by shootings on Leland, Magnolia, Sunnyside, Malden, Hazel Streets and Sheridan Road!”
The flyer then made several claims about crime within the above-named area, alleging a link between crime and poorly managed public housing. It also claimed that during a police anti-drug operation two years ago, “44 people living in subsidized housing were arrested for criminal activity.”
Low-income housing advocates at the march were disturbed by the flyers, which they said seemed to scapegoat the poor. A few even dismissed crime in the area as relatively inconsequential. The real problem, said Uptown low-income housing resident and advocate Larry Pride, is the “gentrifiers”—the developers building new condominiums and the upscale, mostly white buyers.
“They move here, but then they want to get everybody out of here that’s been living here 20 and 30 years,” he said. “I’ve lived here for 30 years ... Crime has always been there, [throughout] the whole city,” he said. “It’s nothing like they’re trying to blow it up as. You don’t have shootings every weekend. You don’t have shootings every day. You hear a pop-pop once in a while. But there’s not too many communities that you don’t hear it.”
Pride said the police do a great job trying to take care of crime, but that the offenders get “back out on the streets” in short order. “That’s the way our system is set up,” he said. Rae Mindock, of the 4500 block of N. Beacon St., said she felt that the folks circulating the flyers were exaggerating things. “There were two drive-by shootings in September, and that was it,” she said. Asked whether those shootings caused her any concern, she said, “Yes, but that’s been dealt with.”
Other low-income housing advocates expressed deep concern about crime in the neighborhood, but said the issue was being exploited by racists and gentrifiers.
To the claim that the 44 arrestees lived in subsidized housing, Shiller said, “Not up here.” She also disputed the flyer’s claim that none of them were evicted by CHA. “I have a list of 20 people that have been evicted,” Shiller said.
Before the march began, Shiller made her way to the middle of the crowd inside Truman College and addressed everyone, protesting the “inflammatory” flyers.
“There is not anything that is accurate on them,” Shiller said. Several people in the crowd shouted in protest. Shiller continued, charging that the 44 public housing residents arrested in a sting operation two years ago “did not all live in subsidized housing, certainly did not all live in scattered-site housing—did not even all live in this community. Many live in other parts of the city, and even out of the city.”
“What’s your motive tonight, Helen?” shouted a man holding a placard.
“What’s your motive tonight?” countered an elderly woman.
“It is time—it is time to lower the rhetoric here,” Shiller shouted above the buzz. “It is not a time for us to be polarizing or participating in polarizing our community. It is a time for us to be increasing communication in our community. We all are on edge. We have been on edge for a month or so now, since September 11—”
“Since the July 11 murder,” shot back a burly, bearded man in the crowd.
“There is no question we have problems in our community. We should be engaging together in attempting to cross over the barriers that divide us, to understand each other and to figure out and try to solve those [problems].”
“Terrorism affects all people,” the heckler shouted.
“You are the terrorist!” the elderly woman yelled.
Shiller suggested that “everyone that would like to participate” in the march should do so, but that people “who would like to talk to me about how we can work ... to open up lines of communication and begin ideas and suggestions” should stay behind at Truman College with her.
The march, which lasted about an hour, continued through the streets of Uptown, but without Shiller and her group.
David Rowe, executive director of the Uptown Community Commission, said of that night’s events: “It was heated, but it was good in the sense that people were able to express their outrage at the violence and the lack of management and maintenance of the CHA properties. I think it’s really irresponsible for the alderman to skirt the issue of violence, of crime, of non-management and non-maintenance of many of the buildings in our neighborhood whether they be CHA, HUD or privately owned. The issue is crime and violence, and we won’t move away from that. It’s really irresponsible, at a time when we’re having drive-by shootings, for people to be divisive.”
In response to the criticism that Rowe and his organization—and others who criticized public housing management—were anti-poor, Rowe countered: “I’m for quality housing, safe streets and competitive schools ... We are not for warehousing people. I’m for balanced, quality housing no matter whose it is. The house can cost a million dollars, but if they have drug dealers and gangbangers and people shooting in there, we want them out of there.”
Ofcr. Tony Niemotka, a CAPS liaison for beat 2311, was diplomatic in reflecting upon the contentious event. “The march itself went quite well,” Niemotka told Inside. “I believe when people go to the streets to march against gangs and crime ... it shows that they’re in control in their neighborhood and that they have a concern about what happens in their neighborhood.”
Of the allegedly ill-managed CHA units blamed for breeding much of the crime, Niemotka said, “There are problem buildings that are being addressed.” He said the 23rd District is working closely with the CHA to address the issues, and that a CHA representative will be at the next Beat 2311 meeting, as well as two detectives, who will specifically address residents’ concerns about recent shootings on Leland Ave.
“I don’t know if there’s a hidden [anti-public housing] agenda, but I think everyone has a concern for the crime in the area, whether they’re high-income or low-income,” Niemotka said.
Although homicides in the period from January to September rose slightly—from two last year to three this year—Niemotka said crime overall in the district has dropped 11 percent.
The slight decline didn’t seem to mean much to the angry citizens who turned out for the march. “I come from a family of police officers,” said Judith Rutherford, “and God forbid that it should take getting a police officer killed to clean out the rat’s nest in the 4700 block [of N. Malden Ave.] and Leland Ave. and on the other bordering streets that are causing us all to be terrified. God forbid.”
The next CAPS meeting for Beat 2311 will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6, in the cafeteria at Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson Ave.
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