Really good NEWS from CHICAGO! not ALL news is Negative............................................

Chicago battles rise in teen murders

Recent wave of violence includes 20 students killed since September

Crane High School students, friends and supporters hold a memorial

March 10 outside the school for student Ruben Ivy, 18, who was shot

and killed outside the Chicago school on March 7.

updated 10:48 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 27, 2008

CHICAGO - The morning trip to school for dozens of teenagers here had

all the normal signs: bleary eyes, oversized jackets zipped up against

the chill, the seemingly endless wait for the bus.

But there was tension underlying the routine: The trip was under the

watchful eyes of parents, an alderman, a principal and police.

The escort to and from Crane Tech High School this week, dubbed

"Operation Safe Passage" is just one of the ways Chicago is dealing

with a wave of violence that has stunned the city.

Since September, 20 Chicago Public Schools students have been killed,

18 by gunfire. Last school year, 24 of the more than 30 students

killed were shot to death, compared with between 10 and 15 fatal

shootings in the years before.

"The loss of life that we've seen among our young people is ...

devastating," said school district spokesman Michael Vaughn. "This gun

nonsense has reached a crisis level."

Dramatic increase

The number of violent deaths involving students in the nation's third-

largest school district has increased so dramatically in the last two

years that police are increasing school patrols and soon will be the

first department in the country with live access to thousands of

security cameras mounted outside -- and inside -- schools.

Chicago Public Schools is one of the only urban districts to track how

many students are killed by guns -- though none of the slayings have

occurred on school property.

Nationally, homicide was the second-leading cause of death for young

people ages 10 to 24 in 2004, and of those killed, 81 percent were

killed with a firearm, according to the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention.

Chicago's overall homicide rate, like that in other major cities,

dropped to a record low in 2007. But the murders that do occur are

hitting young people hard, frightening students and parents, and

prompting everyone from Mayor Richard M. Daley to activists to call

for action.

Operation Safe Passage began this week. It provides escorts for

students from the ABLA Homes public housing development to Crane Tech

High School. Many of the 120 students from the housing project have

not been to school since March 7 because they fear retaliation after a

reputed gang member from ABLA shot and killed another student who

lived on a rival gang's turf.

Three of Michelle Johnson's children attend Crane, and she says the

escorts help -- somewhat.

"For right now, I feel it's kinda safe," said Johnson, who added that

she is willing to take her children to school every day until the

situation improves.

Police to have access to school cameras

Daley recently announced a new resource for police -- access to the

4,500 security cameras mounted inside and outside about 200 elementary

and high schools.

The real-time video from the cameras once was available only to school

officials, but now police and the city's Office of Emergency

Management and Communications will be able to see it as well. Daley

said indoor cameras will be used only in emergencies.

Daley also has rolled back the curfew times for minors by half an

hour, to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends.

Many observers insist the issue isn't a school problem but a symptom

of overall violence in the city. In fact, students in some of the

city's most violent neighborhoods say school -- with metal detectors,

private security guards and uniformed police officers -- is the one

place they feel safe.

Antigun activists and officials say the violence highlights a

dangerous reality: Arguments among young people that used to be

resolved with fistfights now end in gunfire.

"They're just shooting out of rage," said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, an

outspoken priest on the city's South Side whose church is putting up a

$2,500 reward for information each time a CPS student is killed. The

Chicago Board of Education has promised to match with its own $2,500

reward.

Tio Hardiman, executive director of the anti-violence group CeaseFire,

said many young people consider a firearm their only protection. The

way to reduce violence is to stop petty arguments among young people

before they escalate into gunfire, Hardiman said.

"A lot of young guys in the community, first of all, would rather get

caught with a gun than without a gun," Hardiman said. "There's a need

a dire need for more conflict resolution training."

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They kill each other in Africa.....

They kill each other in Chicago.

Same same. Subhumans.

love

hank

The only diff is that they dont eat them after they kill them in

Chicago.