CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Victims of violent crimes that occurred on the Northwest Side gathered Wednesday in Ukrainian Village demanding that police do more to keep them safe.
They live in Ukrainian Village, Bucktown, Logan Square, Humboldt Park and Wicker Park. Outside the Ukrainian Community Center on Chicago Avenue, they shared their personal stories about becoming victims of armed robberies on the streets.
“All I think about is this fear and this anger and having that gun at the back of my head. That’s all I can think about,” one victim said.
“Two men approached us with guns, threw us to the ground and took all our belongings,” said another victim.
They also said they're not sure how much longer they can stay in Chicago and raise families.
“I don’t know what to do about my son in our neighborhood. I want him to have a childhood that’s safe, and we can’t,” one woman said.
Ten community groups, organized by the Greater West Town Community Coalition’s Sam Royko, want to see the closed 13th District Police Station reopened. If not, they'd like a satellite police office.
“I think that this is the type of measures we need to take to make sure there’s more visibility, more police officers in an area,” Ald. Gilbert Villegas said.
Royko noted that there's been "a dramatic increase" in violent crime in the entire West Town area.
“What we’ve seen is armed robberies. What we’ve seen is burglaries. What we’ve seen is shootings. What we’ve seen is carjackings,” Villegas said.
Villegas wants to see the mayor and the police superintendent show up at a meeting scheduled for Nov. 14 at the Ukrainian Community Center and explain how they're going to deal with the situation.
Villegas also believes if police pursued more people fleeing crime scenes in vehicles it would be a deterrent.
“What do they do when they’re committing a crime? They just leave, and the supervisors in turn say, ‘stop the chase,’” said Villegas.
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