Too many murders and too much hurt. Enough is enough, residents in one West Side community said Saturday during a campaign to take their streets back. Dozens of residents marched down 14th Street and Ridgeway Avenue, in Lawndale, calling for “positi
Too many murders and too much hurt.
Enough is enough, residents in one West Side community said Saturday during a campaign to take their streets back.
Dozens of residents marched down 14th Street and Ridgeway Avenue, in Lawndale, calling for “positivity in the neighborhood, not crime.”
Holding signs that read: “War in Lawndale. Who pay? Mothers, siblings and kids,” the community demanded safety during the first annual Taking Back Our Street March and Rally.
Between January and August 2008, 26 of the 339 homicides citywide occurred in the 10th police district where the Lawndale neighborhood sits.
For the same period last year, there were 16 murders in the district.
Bertha Kirkland’s son was one of the murder victims.
As he sat in his car about a half-block from his home in the 1500 block of South Ridgeway Avenue, 24-year-old Julius Tolliver was felled by gun violence in January. The motive for the killing is unknown, Kirkland said.
The rally was something Tolliver would have wanted, his mother said.
Describing him as a peace-loving person, Kirkland said her son, a father of two, had planned to organize a similar rally because of the violence that caught hold of the community.
“He wanted to get the neighborhood together because the kids and the seniors in the community are scared to come outside,” Kirkland said. She organized Saturday’s event.
Tolliver’s mother said the hurt lingers for her and his children. They still cry and want him back.
Janell Colbert said the violence in the area has gotten completely out of control and her grandmother can no longer enjoy the weather on her own porch.
“There were two shootings within the last two weeks on 15th and Ridgeway. My grandmother was sitting on her porch both times that it happened. It’s just not safe for her or anyone else to be out there anymore. You never know when it will happen again,” said Colbert, who is also Tolliver’s cousin.
Alderman Sharon Dixon (24th), whose ward includes a large portion of Lawndale, was invited to the rally but did not march with the residents. She told the Defender that she showed up to the rally before it got underway but had to leave to make another scheduled appointment.
Kirkland said she plans to demonstrate a few times each year until they see the crime diminish.
“I plan to have another march, or something to that effect in November. We must continue with this. We all need to feel safe in our own community. We must stand up for it,” she said.
Chicago police said patrols have increased there, in undisclosed areas and surrounding schools where needed.
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