DOUGLAS PARK — The people who live in Tri-Taylor and on the Near West Side are fed up with an uptick in crime and loitering in their neighborhood and let the police and an alderman know it Wednesday night.
Community residents gathered for the Lexington & Campbell Community/Police Meeting at Douglas Park.
The audience voiced their complaints to Harrison District Capt. Jim Lavay, Near West District Lt. Jack Benigno and Ald. Jason Ervin (28th).
Residents pointed to a series of incidents in the vicinity of Western Avenue including cars speeding the wrong way down alleys, drug dealing, gunshots, people blocking the street with garbage cans and people hanging out at all hours.
Earlier this week, a woman was shot as she was driving in Tri-Taylor. Also, four robberies were reported last week in Tri-Taylor and nearby Little Italy.
Other incidents north of the Eisenhower Expressway have also caused concern. In May, a 12-year-old boy was shot as he stood in a Near West Side restaurant, just days after a massive fight broke out nearby.
In recent years, the neighbors also complained about a controversial liquor store on Western.
Wednesday night, neighbors said someone who moved into a building in the 2400 block of West Lexington Street was a gang member who a rival gang was looking for.
Neighborhood resident Julian Boyd told the audience of his experience in the neighborhood recently.
"The street is difficult to drive down sometimes. My wife has been stuck on that corner coming home because they are in the middle of the street selling drugs or they are just in the street," Boyd said. "They have no regard for the people in the neighborhood. It is unsafe. We don't walk that way because we don't know what can happen."
Lavay said he looked at the records of calls to police from the area since July.
"There's only been 49 calls for service. Not one of them was for disturbances," Lavay said. "I was flabbergasted. I apologize for not catching this sooner. Now that we know there's a problem, we're going to address it."
Benigno said if his third-watch officers see a party going on "they call a supervisor, they get a group and they address it.
"But now that we know it's problem in this area, we'll make a part of our regular rotation to look for parties."
Ervin suggested residents meet with the people they believe are causing the problems on their block.
"The Police Department is not going to be there 24 hours, seven days a week. It's going to be incumbent upon us as citizens and residents," Ervin said. "What's wrong with men or people on the block going to this person and having a conversation about what's going on in the neighborhood?"
Ervin's suggestion was roundly shouted down.
"The hostility that's going to come back from us doing that doesn't make us feel safe," Boyd said. "That sounds great, but we live in the neighborhood. We can't go to a gang member who clearly doesn't value his life and ask him to please keep the neighborhood quiet."
Ervin told Boyd the neighborhood can't lay all the blame on the police. He suggested the residents mobilize.
After the back and forth between Ervin and the audience, Benigno and Lavay told the group in stay in contact with the police.
Jim Himber, another neighborhood resident, blamed the uptick in violence on an agreement the police have with the ACLU.
"The ACLU put the handcuffs on the police. We used to have more police in the neighborhood and crime wasn't as bad," Himber said. "They did much more stops."
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