By Annie MartinThe Daily Northwestern
South Evanston residents have dealt with gang activity in their parks, schools and apartment buildings for years.
Howard Cohn said his condominium complex at Mulford Street and Sherman Avenue was marked with graffiti recently.
Drug sales are also a big problem in his neighborhood, he said.
“The streets are too dark,” Cohn said. “And we need neighborhood watch groups.”
Residents have expressed their concerns in meetings and on online message boards, and many have formed neighborhood groups. At a community meeting Tuesday night, officers from the Evanston and Chicago police departments addressed about 60 residents and officials about how to combat gangs.
Gangs in Evanston include people from a variety of backgrounds and have many different symbols and colors, but according to Evanston Police Detective Ryan Glew, most have one thing in common – selling drugs.
Glew, who works in EPD’s gang and narcotics unit, said most people who join gangs are first exposed to them during childhood and adolescence, and many have family members who are already involved in the gang.
He also cited a strong correlation between gang membership and gun ownership. Most gang members have someone who doesn’t have a criminal record purchase a gun for them or acquire the guns through burglaries.
“Guns and gangs go hand-in-hand,” Glew said. “The guns are usually either very cheap or stolen.”
Most gangs have certain colors and symbols, Glew said, but gang members don’t wear their colors and symbols as much as they used to because it makes them easier to identify.
Tagging – a way gang members anonymously sign their names – and gang graffiti have also been problems in Evanston, Glew said. While tagging is usually done by an individual and is not associated with other criminal activities, gang graffiti usually depicts gang symbols and is used to mark territories, send messages to other gangs and create memorials for slain gang members.
In 2004, two people were killed on the 2000 block of Howard Street, which forms part of the border between Chicago and Evanston, in what police called a gang-related incident. Recently, several burglaries and assaults linked to gangs have occurred in the south part of Evanston, including the assault of four individuals late last month.
Ald. Ann Rainey (8th), who has served in her position for about 20 years, said she has received a number of complaints about gangs during her tenure and so it was important to hold Tuesday’s meeting.
“I don’t know everything about gangs in Evanston, and I thought it was time we talked to the experts,” Rainey said.
Resident Candace Hill said it’s often hard for her to tell if large groups of people and other typical signs of gangs are actually gang-related.
“If you’re not familiar … it can sometimes be very hard to recognize if a group of kids in a park are part of a gang or not,” Hill said.
Despite never having been a victim of gang-related crime, Hill said the issue matters a great deal to her.
“I’ve never had any interactions with gangs in Evanston,” Hill said. “I haven’t been robbed, I haven’t had a gang member run up against me in the street. But I do have a son that goes to (Evanston Township High School), so I’m interested in what is happening there because I know there is a gang presence there.”
Reach Annie Martin at [email protected].
