Increasing Violence in Chatham Neighborhood

For several decades, the 7900 block of Indiana was a pretty peaceful neighborhood. In comparison to other south side neighborhoods, it may very well still have that reputation. But the neighborhood is changing so much that residents are scared to open their front doors.

It used to be a big deal for someone to not cut his grass, but now residents are leaving shotguns by their doors.

"When the city moved all of those people from the projects, they had to go somewhere, and the violence has increased," said Adam*, who has lived in the neighborhood for 54 years. "The Chatham area has changed. There are only a few of my original neighbors left."

Adam recently heard a knock at his front door around 8 p.m. The lady claimed she was interested in talking to him about buying an ADT alarm. She was a brown-skinned African-American woman, heavyset, who looked to be in her late 20s, early 30s.

"She was talking so low that I couldn't hear her," Adam said. So he opened his front door but not the screen door. "She wanted to come in to talk to me, but I know better. She missed the ADT sign on my door, and just about everybody here has ADT. As soon as you open that door, there's probably somebody on the other side of her ready to knock me in the head."

So Adam told her "no thank you," closed his door and went back up his stairs. An army veteran who says he wants a sign that says "Damn the dog, beware of the owner," he believes the neighborhood will only get worse.

In the Chatham area, Ald. Freddrenna Lyle had already ordered the basketball rims to be taken down or locked in Cole Park after two shootings on March 18 and April 15.

Thomas Wortham IV, a first lieutenant in the Wisconsin Army National Guard who had returned home from his second tour duty in Iraq, was shot and killed on May 19 over a motorcycle robbery while visiting his parents on the 8400 block of South King Drive.

On June 21, two teenage boys were found naked and shot on railroad tracks after leaving a party on Sunday.

They were located at 9 a.m. on the 9000 block of South Holland Road in the West Chatham neighborhood.

Newsletters circle the neighborhood warning Chatham residents to get alarms that can't be deactivated from the outside, encouraging installing steel screen doors and told to call the police when they see someone in their alley. There have been sightings of strangers with dogs in the neighborhood who look like they're scoping out the block, disguised as dog owners. Residents have discussed alley sightings like "a car throwing something in a garbage can, driving off and a young man on a bicycle going in the same garbage can to pull out that package."

According to Red Eye Chicago, there were 49 citywide homicides in June, an increase of three from June 2009 with 46 homicides.

"The way it is now, guns definitely need to be banned unless they really want to make Chicago the duel at the OK Carrol," Adam said, who is a licensed gun owner. "Even if it includes me, it won't make me any difference. I'd rather see all the guns removed. Unless you're Doc Holliday or you're one of those guys who is real swift with the guns, you're in jeopardy if anybody is authorized to carry a gun. In our community, we're suffering a lot from youngsters being killed with gang warfare outside and they're usually under the age of 17."

"I know the constitution states you have a right to bear arms," Adam continued. "But if that part of the constitution is going to justify the deaths of all these young kids and kids going to school and kids in school getting shot, then I think we need to take another look at the Constitution."

* The real name of this interviewee has been changed to protect his privacy.
Additional Notes: This entry was originally published by the Chicago News & Events Examiner.