Chicago's bloody weekend surpassed highland park tolls

Chicago — No new counseling resources have started in this city Hmm. The poor South Side, even after a man was shot dead in the midday when he set foot from the playground a few days before July 4.

There is no cloud source charity drive in Chicago that attracts millions for the families of the victims. The death toll on weekend holidays reached at least 10, and 62 were injured. At the July 4th parade in nearby Highland Park, Illinois, violence was unusual in its rich lakeside suburbs. Here, it's a terribly regular event.

"They have a lot of resources in Highland Park," a murder case near the playground from a nationally aired law enforcement agency and home in the Inglewood district. It happened on Friday afternoon.

"It's not something. Our babies see people being shot while in the playground and there is no counseling. They have to suck it up and deal with it.

According to Chicago police data, this holiday violence was in Chicago compared to the previous year, when more than 100 people were injured in shootings and 17 died. Was tamed in.

Community activist and organizer Brown describes himself as a "big mama" in his neighborhood. She flies two American flags over the front door of the duplex. One is red, white and blue. The other (red, black, green) is known as the black release flag. She said her property was a safe haven in the neighborhood.

This spring, a young man was shot down by a block, resting on a gazebo deck and jumping into the garden. Police arrived when she tried to provide first aid. She said they were waiting to see the ambulance and their body cameras were activated, but she didn't help.

"I've never seen so much blood in my life," Brown said. "I looked up at them. Nobody cares. Nobody said anything and gave me advice on what to do. But they are recording me."

The detective was later declared dead in the hospital. I told her. Brown did not have the name of the officer corresponding to her home, and Chicago police said the Washington Post would need to submit a request for freedom of information about the details of the response to the case.

In the community hurt by weekly and sometimes daily violence on the South Side, there was a lot of emotion in the news of the shooting at Highland Park. For many, the swift response with the help of Chicago police officers rented north has salted the wounds most recently.

A 29-year-old nursing assistant, Champagne Gardner, told her mother in the Grand Crossing district early on Sunday when her mother decided to call the police about the noise from the party. He said he was sleeping at home. block. When the dispatcher was answering the phone, her mother went out and got the exact address. As she stood in front of her house hosting the party, she heard a gunshot.

Gardner states that it took 45 minutes for the law enforcement agency to arrive, even though the nearest police station was a mile away. Police said a 24-year-old man was sentenced to death at the scene and two women were injured in a bullet and taken to the hospital. Chicago police did not respond to requests for comment.

"I was sad to hear about Highland Park," Gardner said of the suburbs, where the median household income was $ 147,067, according to the 2020 census. "But at the same time, we're used to something like that here. There was a shooting at the same house last year."

Gardner's family has a median household income of just under $ 29,000. Do not let young children play beyond the fenced backyard of the Grand Crossing, which is estimated to exceed. Similarly, the same is true for Shermiya, three 35-year-old mothers who, due to safety concerns, sought to be identified by her name alone. She said she wouldn't be able to take her children to the July 4th parade, or a large gathering in her neighborhood.

She lives in the Catty Corner of 6600 blocks on South Evans Avenue, and police responded to reports of the shooting at 2:50 am on Tuesday. The 31-year-old boy, shot six times, was taken by ambulance to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was declared dead. The other two were treated for their shooting wounds.

Triton College trained engineer Shermiya drives three children 45 minutes west every morning outside the city boundaries during her school year. Her parents live there and the children use their address to attend school.

Children haven't even been allowed to walk out of the house and even play in the garden since someone was shot on a nearby street corner last year. After police left the area, a young man who believed his neighbor was a shooter approached Shelmiya's 10-year-old son while playing in front and asked if he saw anything. A careful neighbor urged the boy to go inside.

"I didn't play here anymore after that," Shermiya said. "I won't let my kids go out. I don't have any friends. I don't come to this area to socialize. I can't trust you here."

For her, Highland Park's television coverage It was just a reminder that the suburbs one hour away existed in another universe.

"It lasted for hours," Shermiya said. "And it's like people are being shot up the street around here every day, but the whites here aren't enough, so they're still covering it. No. "

J., 50 years old, down the block from Shelmiya and close to the shooting site in South Evans. R. Agreed to be identified only by his name because of his safety concerns, but said he was unaware. Police and media reaction in South Evans over the weekend.

"Ignored here," he said. "Children are shot here — they keep throwing them into their bags, but they take the entire SWAT team to Highland Park and try to reach the bottom of this sh–."

Brown was similarly frustrated by the different treatments of black citizens and the arrest of Robert Climo III, a suspected shooting at Highland Park. Police arrested him after the car was forced to chase on Monday night.

"I couldn't see their feet on his neck," she said. "They treated him with children's gloves." Turn on, baby. "He's not dead. Where they do it.

For her, her city center poverty and its consequences are intentional. Separation, red lining, housing discrimination, and lack of public resources have created a community full of vacant homes, poorly performing schools, and closed schools, she said. Harper High School, down the street from her home, became famous for lack of educational resources, collapsing infrastructure, and frequent violence before it was closed in 2021.

In the US military, she said, both Brown's son and her daughter served. She is the only house on the block with the American flag hanging above the front door.

"We were forced here, so there is no country to return to," Brown said. "This is my country. They should treat me that way, but they don't."

As Brown said on Tuesday afternoon, the remaining fireworks crossed the street. Swipe. She didn't flinch. Witnesses at Highland Park explained the turmoil shortly after the shooting began, and many mistaken the shooting for fireworks, but here there is little confusion among the well-trained ears.

"When it's a gun battle, it's a little more lively," Brown said.