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Residents Decry Prostitution 'Surge' in Garfield Ridge, Want More Police

By Casey Cora | December 11, 2014 5:47am
 Flanked by a neighborhood family, community activist Raul Montes Jr. called on police to push prostitution out of Garfield Ridge and Sleepy Hollow. 
Flanked by a neighborhood family, community activist Raul Montes Jr. called on police to push prostitution out of Garfield Ridge and Sleepy Hollow. 
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DNAinfo/Casey Cora

VITTUM PARK — A Southwest Side community activist and aldermanic candidate is calling for more police on the streets after what he and other residents say has been a "surge" of prostitution in residential areas. 

Raul Montes Jr., said prostitution has spiked in the drab motels along Cicero Avenue, with some of the women making their way into the Garfield Ridge, Sleepy Hollow, Vittum Park and LeClaire Courts neighborhoods.

"This activity is an eyesore and it is causing general decay in these communities. It compromises the safety of residents. ... The residents are frustrated and they've exhausted all their known remedies to the attention of police and public officials to get some results," Montes Jr. said during a news conference at the corner of 48th Street and La Crosse Avenue. 

Others at the news conference held signs, including one that said, "Sell your tail, go to jail. Stop prostitution."

Montes Jr., a candidate for 22nd Ward alderman, said he was approached by a prostitute at that corner early Tuesday. The woman, he said, tried to get into his car but ran away when he started calling police. 

Oscar Gutierrez, a truck mechanic who lives right down the street, said he sees the women walking through the neighborhood, sometimes with their pimps trailing behind in cars. 

"The police [are] around but [the prostitutes are] not being arrested," Gutierrez said, using Montes Jr. as an English-language interpreter. 

Police have made 12 prostitution-related arrests in the area since September, according to data from the police department's Chicago Lawn District. 

A police department spokesman could not immediately say whether there had been an increase in prostitution calls recently.

Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) whose redrawn ward includes the patchwork of neighborhoods tucked just south of the Stevenson Expressway, said the prostitution issue had arisen at a recent CAPS meeting. 

"Working closely with the CAPS and beat officers, we've been bringing to the police departments' attention so they can eradicate the problem," he said. "But that's part of the reality that we're facing, we don't have enough police officers. ... I've been fighting for an increase for more beat officers in the neighborhoods."

Lorraine Murphy, 79, a Vittum Park resident since 1973, said prostitution on nearby Cicero Avenue has been an issue for years, but it's only been recently that petty crime has spilled into the neighborhood, including a pair of recent home break-ins and "exchanging dope in the alleys." 

"It used to be a sleepy area but now they're breaking into garages. It's a shame when you can't walk down your street or take your garage out or anything," she said. 

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