Lakeview crime and meeting: A closer look

Lakeview crime and meeting: A closer look
by John Fenoglio
Copyright by The Windy City Times
2009-08-19
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=22121


The actor Peter Finch once ranted, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" in the 1976 award-winning film Network. His character, an evening-news anchor named Howard Beale, was fed up with the disparities inherent in American society. That same phrase was, ostensibly, the archetypal message that resounded amongst the roughly 200 neighborhood residents and business owners who attended the CAPS 2331 ( Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy ) meeting at Nookies' Tree, 3334 N. Broadway, Aug. 5. Their collective frustration is the result of a string of violent attacks that have plagued Boys' Town in recent months.

"It's bad and it's getting worse. It's time to take our neighborhood back," said Geno Zaharakis, owner of the bar Cocktail.

The meeting at Nookies' occurred just feet away from the location of an attack on Buckingham Aug. 3. The victim, Branco Savic, was walking home after a long night of work. WCT reached him for comment after the meeting.

"I'd just said good night to some friends down the street from the restaurant. I was on the sidewalk when I heard people running behind me. At first I thought it was my friends that I'd just left, but then I realized that it was four men, all of them dressed in black, chasing some other guy. It seemed like the guy they were chasing was deaf because he was trying to yell something, but couldn't; like he was almost mute. I started to move out into the street but they'd already caught up with the guy. I was about parallel to them when they jumped on the guy, beating him with a potato sack filled with rocks. I was like, 'What the hell are you doing to him!' but before I could do anything, one of them rushed me with brass knuckles and hit me right in the mouth. I was knocked down, trying to get back up, but one of the other guys came at me with a brick. I was on the ground and I could see the other guy was being hit with a brick, too. I remember thinking that they were going to kill the guy. Then everything went black. I'm not sure how long I was unconscious," recalled Savic.

Savic, who did eventually make it to the emergency room, spoke of the incident with an indignant tone; determined yet quietly seething.

"You have no idea how pissed I am. I want to find these guys. This is my neighborhood," he said.

Emotions also ran high at the meeting. At one point someone shouted, "It's all those kids from the Center on Halsted! They're the problem!"

Kevin McManus, a volunteer from the Center on Halsted and a member of the Youth Leadership Council, disagreed, firing back, "Hold it right there! That is simply not true! There is a war of misunderstanding within this community. The kids from the Center are victims, too. They're not the problem."

The Center has long been celebrated as a safe place for LGBTQ youth, who are, in many cases, disenfranchised from their own communities elsewhere. McManus explained that the kids are getting a bad rap from criminal elements who try to exploit them at a time when they're seeking safety and acceptance.

Throughout the two-hour meeting, 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney and 23rd District Police Commander Kathleen Boehmer tried to moderate the restless crowd. At times they seemed to be on the defensive, almost taken aback by some of the angry questions hurled at them.

"What about a Facebook page for this stuff?!" someone shouted. The comment was met with applause by the crowd. The police looked perplexed.

One woman shouted, "If you're not going to add more police after midnight, please have them do something more effective than they're doing now! I'm tired of calling 911 only to have the cops show up twenty minutes later, or even drive by after I've called and do nothing."

"We can only be as good at responding to crime as you are when you report a crime. You have to report these things every time you see them. We work very hard to get there as quickly as possible and we always respond to 911 calls," Boehmer said.

When asked to respond to rumors about graveyard shifts being short-staffed in the 23rd Police District, Alderman Tunney said, "I'm comfortable with the resources we have here."

Still, those rumors persist. In fact, sources within the police department, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, have told WCT that they are, in fact, short-staffed during late-night shifts.

"We need more police out here. If we can't get more police, then we need to do something else. People banded together during the '80s and '90s. The Pink Angels were effective where the police fell short. We need to get organized. Let's get a pad of paper going around so we can put together an e-mail list," said Zaharakis.

Boehmer and her officers have been proactive about community walks during weekend hours. The walks involve community members and police walking the streets to create a visible presence in the area. Moreover, she encouraged people to keep being proactive by showing up at the CAPS meetings.

After the meeting, attendees poured out of Nookies' to a handful of local media hungry for details. ( Note: Reporters were discouraged from being inside Nookies' during the meeting, despite many citizens' request that they be let in with their cameras. )

"Look, there's never going to be enough police. Crime happens everywhere, and we're not immune to it," said William Healy, a former criminal prosecutor, who attended the meeting. "It will get worse if we don't stay involved… So, yes, I certainly hope people stay involved like this."

Community walks took place Aug. 14-15 at midnight. Participants met at the 7-11 parking lot at 3407 N. Halsted ( Halsted & Roscoe ) . Also, check out the new, unofficial "Lakeview 911" page on Facebook.