Chicago Street Gangs The City of Chicago is home to many iconic sites and famous things including Wrigley Field, Giordano’s deep dish pizza, Navy Pier, Portillos, and Willis Tower. Chicago residents live and work in some of the most affluent, wealthy, and glamorous neighborhoods like The Gold Coast and River North. Over the last couple of years though, the spotlight has been shifted from all of Chicago’s wonderful things to its poverty stricken neighborhoods, rising crime rate, murders, and drug problems. All of these things can be linked to what many consider Chicago’s biggest problem, street gangs. But today the city seems to be far more segregated and full of poverty in neighborhoods that are home to minorities. Many adults turn to the streets to make a living and children see their elders and in return do the same. These same poor neighborhoods have a failing public education system for the youth along with a bad relationship with police. According to the Chicago Crime Commission, “a 2012 Chicago Police Department gang audit found there are more than 600 gang factions in the city, with a minimum combined membership of 70,000” (cbsnews.com). With the large number of gang members in the city there is a lot of fighting going on over turf for control of drug distribution. This is mainly a problem occurring in minority communities all throughout Chicago. “201 of the 259 homicide victims were African-American” (chicagotribune.com). While blacks make up about 33 percent of the city’s population, they accounted for nearly 78 percent of the homicide victims through the first sic months of 2012.
Gangs are nothing really new in Chicago with the famous work of Al Capone throughout the city during the prohibition era. But those gangs seemed to have more structure and purpose. Todays street gangs in Chicago are young people who are trying to make their claim as the guy