Thursday, February 9, 2012

Violence Weighs Heavily in Englewood - Chicago News Cooperative

Until recently, the sound of gunfire crackling in the streets of Englewood came from at least two or three blocks away, giving La’Keisha Gray-Sewell and her young family a fragile sense of safety and distance from the mayhem.

But Gray-Sewell, who runs a mentoring program for girls, and her husband, Barry Sewell, a disc jockey, have taken no chances. They do not allow their two children to play in front of the two-flat they bought and moved into in 2005. When the children want to ride their bicycles, they are confined to their tiny backyard.

Even on the sunniest afternoons, the family is on lockdown.

No place in the struggling South Side neighborhood feels safe to the family these days. In the last few weeks there have been at least two outbreaks of gunfire on their block of two-flats and bungalows.

The latest was a burst of gunshots just down the street from Gray-Sewell’s home on Jan. 16, Martin Luther King’s Birthday. It was 4 p.m. when the shooting started. Gray-Sewell and her children hit the floor and huddled in a back room, waiting for the police.

“There’s no escape,” she said. “Living in Englewood, I feel like I’m robbing my children of their childhood.”
EDIT: I see that Aisha Butler of "RAGE" was quoted!
That includes trust, said Asiaha Butler, president of RAGE, the Resident Association of Greater Englewood. “The community doesn’t trust the police and the police don’t trust the community,” she said. “We have a whole lot of work to do.”
Read the whole thing!

No comments:

Post a Comment

PLEASE READ FIRST!!!! Comment Moderating and Anonymous Comment Policy

While anonymous comments are not prohibited we do encourage you to help readers identify you so that other commenters may respond to you. Either read the moderating policy for how or leave an identifier (which could be a nickname for example) at the end of the comment.

Also note that this blog is NOT associated with any public or political officials including Alderman Roderick T. Sawyer!