CHICAGO — After a violent Monday left 13 people shot, three fatally, mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia issued a statement decrying city violence that he said has become "a brutal tradition."
“It is a brutal tradition we’ve had here in Chicago in recent years," Garcia said. "With the first spring thaw, Chicagoans have come to expect a dramatic spike in gun violence in our streets."
The latest violence followed a bloody weekend that left five people dead and 15 people wounded. Among the wounded Monday were a 2-year-old boy and 5-year-old boy in Roseland.
“Evelyn and I are praying for the families of the victims of yesterday’s shootings and for their communities. And we are praying for a day when the dawn of spring in our city no longer equates to violence and trauma in the minds of Chicagoans.”
This isn't the first time Garcia has spoken out against city violence become a routine part of life in Chicago. He told DNAinfo last week that living in the Little Village neighborhood has made him acutely aware of the crime facing some communities.
“I’ve seen more than my share of difficulties of the most affected Chicagoans, the ones who live with the highest risk,” he said. “It’s neighborhoods like this where the risk is fueled by gang violence, a tradition that goes back 40 years, and we live under a lot of pressure.”
Over the last 25 years, Garcia said things that shouldn’t be normal have become routine on his block — including picking up empty cases of beer bottles, discovering bricks, rocks, metal shanks and other weapons stashed on the parkway, scrubbing graffiti from his garage door, and on the worst days, pulling out the garden hose to wash away spilled blood.
“Living here gives me insight into what type of strategies we need to undertake to revitalize communities people live in where violence is commonplace, shootings are almost predictable, to have a better quality of life," Garcia said.
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