Taste of Chicago Shootings

7Jul2008 Filed under: Chicago Author: Mike

Bad news man. I tell people how safe Chicago is and here five people are shot during the busiest festival of the year. Are they going to have to put officers with assault rifles in the loop?

Tags: Crime, Police

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4 Responses to “Taste of Chicago Shootings”

Dusty
July 7th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

Dude thats whats happens when you get a bunch of monkeys at a party…. Its just sucks it makes a name for Chicago, cause its my hometown as well but thats why I dont live there anymore…. stupid monkeys
Mike
July 9th, 2008 at 9:21 am

Uh, this is a stupid offensive comment and I should probably remove it.
Arwen
July 11th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

I was at the Taste of Chicago this July 3rd and I find it outrageous how Mayor Daley and other city officials have downplayed the violence that occurred. I have lived in large cities for 20 years, including Washington, DC when it was known as the Murder Capital of the United States, and I have never felt unsafe at an event until now.

Aside from the shootings that included a fatality, my friends and I witnessed many disturbing events at the Taste of Chicago. I’ll try to paint you a picture… It began in the early evening as we made our way through Grant Park. We saw smoke followed by a large crowd of people running at top speed towards us with looks of terror on their faces. We thought we were about to be caught up in a stampede, but thankfully the situation calmed down and we were able to get away from the crowd. This happened several more times throughout the event.

After settling into a spot to watch the fireworks in Grant Park/Lakefront a drunk reveler fell through hedges located behind us and almost rolled into our group. At that point, one of my friends and I decided to leave and watch the fireworks from our hotel room at The Congress Plaza Hotel located across the street from Grant Park. Heading back to the hotel we saw a verbal altercation between two groups of people and left the area as quickly as we could. We were very happy with our decision to return to the hotel because my boyfriend called to tell me about another crowd of people who ran and crashed through the hedges, almost trampling over where they were sitting. The crowd included people with their children and some were even carrying babies as they broke through the hedges in order to reach safety.

Unfortunately, the chaotic experience does not end there. As we watched the crowds disperse from Grant Park in The Congress Plaza Hotel lounge, we saw police officers in full swat gear wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles. We proceeded to watch as groups of 10 to 20 police officers ran down the street chasing people who had been at the event. This happened on at least three separate occasions and about 100 feet from where we were sitting. The mood in the lounge was charged as some warned to stay away from the windows fearing riots. As fellow lounge patrons shared their stories of the events of the day, it was clear we were not alone in our experiences. Many expressed disbelief and serious disappointment in what was happening around them.

It seems the main cause of the violence was from gang activity. I watched a brief interview with Tio Hardiman of CeaseFire (http://www.ceasefirechicago.org). He warns that if the young people involved in gangs do not get the help they need, the violence will spill outside of their community into the rest of Chicago and urges working together to help end gang violence. From what I saw on July 3rd I couldn’t agree more.

It is important to state that I do not blame the individual police officers as I believe they did the best they could given the sheer number of people attending the event which was over 1 million. I do however find the response from the mayor and some city officials irresponsible. When asked, ‘Is the Taste safe?, Superintendent Weiss responded, “Absolutely, 100 percent.

Now, I ask you, does what I have described above sound safe?
JGF
August 11th, 2008 at 10:37 am

I have been to the ToC in the past. Nothing like this year. I met a family over the weekend who witnesses from close proximity one of the shootings that occurred this year. They were really scared - understandably. I guess Chicago’s extremely strict gun laws don’t work. Why is it that the cities with the strictest gun laws have the most crime? This type of criminal activity wouldn’t have happened in Dallas. The armed good people would have shot the bad guys. The bad guys fear armed citizens. It’s time for concealed carry for Illinois.