By: Carolina Rodriguez (Loyola Sophomore), Cate Scully (Loyola Senior), Cole Wilson (Loyola Sophomore)
“Don’t cross the grid, don’t cross the line.”
Just before 8 p.m. on October 26, 2022, a Loc City gang member and drill rapper King Ty was killed near the intersection of Greenleaf and Greenview while riding in a car when someone drove up and opened fire.
Numerous shell casings were found at the scene. Loc City is a Gangster Disciple set, which has been feuding with the PBG Gangster Disciple set for over a decade. King Ty was in PBG territory, a few blocks south of Loc City territory.
Before his death, King Ty was in numerous drill rap videos posted online calling out his gang’s rivals. This is just one of the many tragedies of the turf wars that exist in Rogers Park. Drill rap among other things is helping fuel these violent turf wars not only in Rogers Park, but throughout the Chicagoland area.
Historically Rogers Park has been home to offshoots of the Black P. Stones, Gangster Disciples, 4 Corners, and Latin Kings gangs. While far from Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods, these ripple effects can be seen in the far northside and even adjacent to the Loyola Lake Shore campus.
This past August, a local grassroots neighborhood organization, Native Sons, called for gangs to pledge to a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. “ceasefire”. Alderperson Maria Hadden was a key endorser of this. How deeply has gang violence rocked Rogers Park, and how much is gang culture normalized across Chicago’s communities?
Urban areas are a magnet for organized crime and gang activity. Here in Chicago, this is especially visible. In Chicago, like many other dense cities across the world, gangs and gang violence are fueled primarily by demand for illicit drugs and a lack of opportunity for advancement for young people.
Many small robberies and property crimes around Loyola’s campus are often believed to be tied to gang culture, as well as higher-profile incidents, such as a situation from October 20 in which three teenagers were shot in a parked car on the 4400 block of Sheridan Rd in Uptown.
Across Chicago, the prevalence of gang culture and violent crime has attracted plenty of national attention putting the systemic problems of Chicago in a vacuum where it can be hard to decipher between fact and fiction when looking into the facts of the problems the city faces.
Here in Rogers Park, there is a strong established community centric effort organized and led by locals. Groups such as Circles and Ciphers in Rogers Park which provides a music driven restorative justice organization working with young people affected by violence and formerly incarcerated individuals in and around the Rogers Park community. Community member focused groups such Communities Partnering 4 Peace, a Rogers Park and Uptown based group, is directly affiliated with ONE Northside, which works primarily in violence prevention and youth outreach through direct engagement and support of community members.
49th Ward, Policy Director and Chief of Staff, Leslie Perkins, noted to RogersEdge Reporter, “there is additional funding in the 2024 budget for violence disruption, youth employment, and to implement the GoodKidsMadCity Peacebook ordinance.”
The GoodKidsMadCity plan calls for divesting money from upwards of $40 million dollars from CPD’s budget to be invested in youth job-training programs and violence prevention efforts.
The CPD will see a fifty-million dollar increase to their nearly two-billion dollar budget in the 2024 fiscal year, and as confidence in city leaders and politics are waning.
When addressing violent crime, and particularly gang violence in Chicago, perspectives and feelings towards some of the city’s most infamous issues can vary wildly.
Jessica Brandt, a mother and former gang member from West Town stated “Gangs ruined Chicago, walking anywhere you could be on the edge of territory or not.”
The recent spike in crime was bolstered in the summers following COVID-19 lockdowns, causing more unease and doubt across the region. Despite multiple spikes in violent crime in recent years, according to CPD in 2022, gang-affiliated gun violence has only been on the decline since the mid-2010s.
Cynthia Nguyen, a Loyola senior said, “In comparison [to the Loop] I wouldn’t say it’s unsafe here, there are certain areas you want to avoid.”
Rogers Park being unavoidably divided by both the presence of a large University and one of the busiest passenger-rail corridors between either coast, presents a significantly varying difference of perspectives on the topic. However amid a pressing migrant crisis and budget deficit, as recently as November 2023, CPD has reported violent crime and homicides to have reached pre-pandemic levels. This should not ignore the primary drivers of gangs and gang violence, demand for illegal narcotics and lack of youth opportunities. Communities reaching out and having a vested interest in their young people is a step in the right direction.
