Bucktown residents express anxiety and frustration over 2023 crime spikes at community meeting

Residents of Bucktown gathered Thursday night to air frustrations over a spike in violent crime in the wealthy North Side neighborhood, with many calling on the three state legislators who attended to enact tougher penalties for juveniles accused of breaking the law.

The 30 or so community members who attended the meeting at Jonathan Burr Elementary School were blunt in their criticisms of the Cook County criminal justice apparatus, the Chicago Police Department’s pursuit policies and perceived inaction by the state legislature.

Fielding questions and comments were state Sen. Natalie Toro, 20th, and state Rep. Jawaharial Williams, 10th, and Rep. Will Guzzardi, 39th. And while all three attempted to give substantive and nuanced responses during the 75-minute meeting, Williams at one point appeared to endorse police officers using excessive force, a comment that drew a round of applause from those in attendance.

“The issue is that it’s not just one answer,” Williams said. “Me personally, I’m a fan of foot pursuits. I really am. And that’s something you all may not like, but I’m also a fan of police officers, in some cases, having to rough people up. It’s the nature of the business.”

Williams — whose district covers East and West Garfield Park, as well as parts of the West Loop, Bucktown and Lincoln Park — explained to meeting attendees that juvenile criminal suspects, many of them Black, often run from police officers because of the CPD’s history of misconduct.

Steve Jensen of the Bucktown Community Organization asked Williams — who, with his young son and a member of his staff, were the only Black people in attendance — to keep his comments “germane to Bucktown.”

The Bucktown, Wicker Park and Logan Square neighborhoods are covered by CPD’s Shakespeare (14th) District, where, police records show, robberies and car thefts have each surged by more than 50% in 2023. Through late November, 551 robberies were reported in the district, compared with 347 in 2022. Meanwhile, 915 vehicle thefts have occurred in the district this year, a sharp rise from the 522 seen in the district last year.

In 2022, Bucktown residents banded together to hire private, armed security guards to patrol the neighborhood, according to a report from Block Club Chicago.

Toro, a lifelong Logan Square resident who was appointed to her seat earlier this year, has been a kindergarten teacher for the last decade.

“Unfortunately, some of my students have been traumatized by violent crimes, and so I know firsthand what that trauma does at the critical stages of early development in a child’s life,” she said. “And when that trauma is unaddressed, we have issues with regulating emotions and aggression that ultimately feeds into the violence we see in our neighborhoods today.

“I’m also a woman who lives alone in Logan Square, and I know what it feels like to feel unsafe walking alone at night,” she added. “We need to make sure that folks feel as safe at 10 p.m. as they do at 10 a.m., and I know that I don’t.”

Most of the residents who offered questions or comments did not identify themselves. One woman connected the neighborhood’s crime problem to the election of Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“Living in a neighborhood with million-dollar houses and really high crime rates doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “It’s an untenable way to live. Obviously, the crime is insane, or we wouldn’t be here, but I think we’re talking about whether Chicago is going to survive or not. And, Sen. Toro, you mentioned root causes. I understand root causes, OK? But it doesn’t matter right now. Right now, I can’t let my 16-year-old drive after dark, can’t let him take the “L”, and he’s a big rugby player. It’s just insane and something needs to be done, so we’re looking to you guys.”