Double-digit shootings since the year began, in a far South Side neighborhood, caused an anti-violence organization to up the ante and take over the streets when alleged criminals least expected it.
Officials from CeaseFire and about 50 people, including many youth, gathered at the intersection of 111th and State Street April 11 at 9 p.m. to take their anti-gun message to the area that has been plagued by gang violence, drug sales and shootinsg.
“There have been at least 60 shootings in the Roseland area since Jan. 1, seven have been confirmed as fatal. That’s why we’re targeting this area tonight,” said Tio Hardiman, director of gang mediation and community organizing for CeaseFire.
Daylight vigils and rallies are most popular but are also less threatening to those who are on the corners selling drugs, and engaging in gang and other criminal activity, he said. The organization decided to take a different approach and hold the rally in the community’s prime crime hours, between 9 p.m. and midnight.
Wearing raincoats, holding umbrellas in one hand and CeaseFire signs in the other, protesters marched from 111th and State Street to 109th Street and Wentworth Avenue. “There is a lot of negative activity near that area, so we’re going to the belly of the beast,” Hardiman said.
Joining Hardiman and other rallygoers was a senior at Phillips high school in Bronzeville. Ieisha Barry spent the early part of her day off from school, on the day of the rally, with Hardiman speaking about anti-violence and the 23 Chicago Public Schools students who were slain this school year. She said she was looking forward to marching with CeaseFire in the rally later that day.
“It’s a lot of innocent people getting hurt and killed over nonsense they aren’t even involved in. It makes no sense. I wanted to come out here because there are too many students dying,” the 19-year-old said. But what she wasn’t looking forward to was one of her classmates being a part of the day’s news.
A 15-year-old student from Phillips was shot in the chest area that afternoon in the Ida B. Wells public housing complex in Bronzeville. Witnesses said the boy was not the intended target. Police have not determined whether the shooting stemmed from a drug or gang dispute in the complex. There is no one in custody.
“He didn’t bother anyone, and he was a good student. I’m just hoping that he gets well,” Barry said.
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