Deontae Smith would have been 26 today, but he was fatally shot in 2009. In his honor a street dedication ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. Friday at 61st and Peoria.
By
KWIJONA CALVIN
Homicide Watch Chicago
A Chicago mother is still searching for answers in the death of her son.
“It’s been 6 years since his murder, I’ve had three billboards posted with a $10,000 reward and no one knows who killed my son,” Tonya Burch said.
Ambitious, polite and caring described Deontae Smith, a 19-year-old with dreams of joining the U.S. Air Force to support his family.
On Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, what started off as an unusual day for Burch became even stranger when she received inumerable calls from unfamiliar phone numbers after a long day of work as a cosmetology instructor at Capri Beauty School.
“I usually don’t work on Saturdays, but this particular Saturday an instructor called off and I volunteered to fill-in for her. Meanwhile, Deontae was at home and he called me, he was very excited because someone from the Air Force called him to schedule a interview,” Burch said.
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By KRISTEN TORRES
Homicide Watch Chicago
Academy and Grammy award-winning artist Common encourages Chicago’s youth to #PutTheGunsDown in a new video with other rappers. | Leo Burnett
A rising number of fatal shootings on the West and South sides has made Chicago almost synonymous with violence.
Homicides have become almost commonplace, and have led to activists trying just about anything to get the city’s youth to put the guns down.
Some have blamed the problem, at least partly, on often-violent lyrics in rap songs, which sometimes glorify the violence. But one new effort is trying to turn that theory around.
“Gun violence is increasingly becoming a problem in the U.S.,” said Brian Shembeda, creative director at the Leo Burnett advertising agency. “We realized we needed to take small bites, and focus on our community first and foremost.”
In partnership with Chicago Ideas Week, the advertising giant has released a music video featuring local rap artists advocating non-violence. The idea is that the most effective solution might be from those same artists whose lyrics are often blamed for promoting or inciting violence.
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A team of Chicago cops (in blue) takes on a team of men from the BUILD program in the Donna Dudley Peace Project All-Star Game last week at Little Cubs Field in Humboldt Park. | Jared Landsman/Homicide Watch Chicago
By
JARED LANDSMAN
Homicide Watch Chicago
Retired Chicago cop Isadore Bo Ramos stepped to the plate, trying to knock the softball out of the park against a team of former gang members. “Before the game I go by and shake their hands, and let them know explicitly, prepare for an ass whoopin’,” he said.
As a kid, Ramos was involved with BUILD, a youth program established in 1969 with the goal of keeping kids away from a lifestyle of crime and gangs.
As he looked out at Little Cubs field in Humboldt Park last Thursday during BUILD’s Donna Dudley Peace League All-star game, he reflected on the youth-intervention program that started in his own neighborhood.
“I am a product of BUILD. I joined at the age of 15. They had a youth reach-out program that was very instrumental in the formation of my life,” Ramos said.
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By JARED LANDSMAN
Homicide Watch Chicago
Thursday night on the West Side, a group of youth taking part in a gang intervention program will try to kick some cops’ butts—on the baseball diamond.
At Little Cubs Field in Humboldt Park, the big lights will be on and the bats swinging as one of the city’s oldest community youth programs hosts its annual Build Gang Peace League All-Star game.
Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development, or BUILD, was established in 1969 as a gang intervention program for youth in Humboldt Park, but has grown to serve over 3,000 youth annually with organized activities.
One of BUILD’s most popular programs is the Donna Dudley Peace League, with a goal of using sports “to bridge community, racial and gang barriers that keep us divided,” according to spokesman Daniel Perez.
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Being so close to Lincolnwood — and the suburb’s police — is one reason Nahla Yafai thinks her North Side neighborhood that’s part of Forest is safe. | Emily Gray Brosious / Sun-Times
By MICHAEL LANSU, FRANK MAIN and CHANTELLE NAVARRO
Chicago Sun-Times
In Chicago, where a dozen people were killed over the Memorial Day weekend and politicians are still talking about how they can stop filmmaker Spike Lee from calling the city “Chiraq,” four communities stand out as oases apart from the violence.
In Mount Greenwood, Edison Park, Forest Glen and North Park, not one person has been killed over the past three and a half years, a Chicago Sun-Times / Homicide Watch Chicago analysis shows.
“One of the reasons we moved here is it’s a safe area for kids,” says Bobbie Sue Tuxford, 31, who lives in Mount Greenwood on the city’s Southwest Side.
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