Gangs in Chicago. 'South C's' still in business in 'South Chicago'...
A small article in the May 8 Chicago Sun-Times reminded me that most of the work of Chicago's drug gangs continues, business as usual, into this, now their fourth generation. Back in the 1990s, when I was "gang security coordinator" at Bowen High School (in South Chicago), the Black P. Stones called the area around 81st and Colfax "South Cs." It was a lucrative zone because customers could exit the Chicago Skyway and get there to purchase product and be back on the road (say, to Merrillville) within about five minutes. And so, "South Cs" was always "violent" -- and everyone out there then knew why.
That was 20 years ago.
Today, May 9, 2018, we read in the Sun-Times:
A man was wounded in a drive-by shooting early Tuesday in South Chicago.
The 20-year-old man was walking outside when a black vehicle drove by and someone inside fired shots about 12:30 a.m. in the 8300 block of South Colfax, Chicago Police said.
The man was shot in the lower back side of his body and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was in good condition, police said.
Area South detectives were investigating the shooting.
By: John Whitfield
South Chicago
Our oldest went to Bowen H.S., and though he had long hair, he never had problems, as he went about his school business. Thanks to educators like George that is, that did the necessary intelligence on school safety. Not quite the same story where we once lived in the area, just blocks away, where someone fired into the apartment above us, from the street. The school across the street was named after a slain community activist. Our two youngest were going to Ninos He`roes at 83rd and commercial, while I taught Spanish there. Worst thing that happened while there, a colleague got shot while in his home, a bullet coming from the street. Mr. Douglass. Five years teaching Spanish to the whole school, but just once a week, going from room to room. My initiation to the system.