CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A spike in violent crime has the mayor of Aurora looking for answers and a new plan, and he said it starts by addressing young people “falling through the cracks.”
"I feel helpless," said Aurora Mayor Richard Irving, while addressing members of the city council.
"And I wonder what we should do, what we can do, but we can't simply have a hopeless feeling and leave it at that. We have got to do something more."
Irvin said black and brown boys, who are falling through the cracks, are killing each other.
"The reality is that crime has increased around the country for a number of reasons, because of COVID, folks not working, cooped in the house, the anxiety of what we are going through in this pandemic in our country. And because of it, we are seeing so much more violence than we have seen in this city in over a decade," Irvin said.
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"Now it's easy for us to say, this is what's happening throughout the country, all large cities our size and larger, are experiencing this uptick in crime. We could just say that and blame it on COVID, blame it on society and what we see throughout the country. We can't do that here in Aurora. We can't just simply say, it is what it is. We've got to do something more," he said.
The mayor plans to assemble the police, aldermen, and the city’s Community Services Department next Wednesday to lay out a plan.