THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2008
Forum Raises Gang Awareness
By TOM ROBB
Journal Reporter
Approximately 20 people visited Maine Township Hall on Wednesday, June 4 for a forum on gangs.
The event was held completely in Spanish.
Maine Township trustee Laura Morask, who is also an assistant state's attorney and candidate for judge of the 12th subcircuit of Cook County court, and Julia Morales, a life-long resident of Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, hosted the forum.
Morask and Morales have been hosting educational meetings about street gangs with residents and at schools and other locations within the township for the past few months.
Morask said many of the mothers who attended the Wednesday forum work, some as many as three jobs, which presents challenges in keeping track of kids who are more and more embracing gang and hip hop culture.
Morask said gangs are moving into some areas of un-incorporated Maine Township.
She said it is nothing to panic about but parents should not ignore it either.
"I don't want people to be alarmist that they (street gangs) have a foot hold in the suburbs. (Mayor) Daley closed the housing projects and some have moved to Section 8 housing in some unincorporated areas," said Morask. "They started moving to the Northwest suburbs. Are there gangs in Park Ridge or Niles? No I'm not saying that. The police departments are becoming more proactive."
Morask said that gang graffiti from the Latin Kings was found on Dee Road in unincorporated Des Plaines.
Morask said another California based gang has also tried to gain a foothold in the Northwest suburbs. She said that just because a youth is into hip hop does not mean he is a "gang banger wannabe", but she said counselors at Maine East and West high schools are starting to see more students emulating the gang lifestyle.
Morask said she attended a recent forum discussing gangs at Chippewa Middle School in Des Plaines.
She explained that the childrens' extensive knowledge of gangs was "disturbing" but their attitude was "encouraging."
Morask said she showed students gang symbols and 90% of them know what they were.
"To them it is a fact of life," said Morask, adding that the meeting with the sixth, seventh and eighth graders was scheduled to run 45 minutes but lasted two and a half hours.
Students at the junior high forum said they ran away from gang bangers who tried to recruit them. Morask said she is most troubled by a trend she sees working at the Cook County courthouse at Harrison and Kedzie in Chicago where adults, small kids and even babies wear tee shirts with implicit threats to those who "snitch." She said she is hopeful after talking to Chippewa students who "wanted to do the right thing."
Morask has been invited to hold more gang education seminars in the fall by school officials in several school districts.