Pubdate: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: John W. Fountain IN CHICAGO, KILLING KEEPS UP A RAPID PACE CHICAGO, Oct. 23 - Though it may lose its title as the nation's most murderous city to Los Angeles this year, Chicago is still on a pace that almost matches the number of homicides it logged last year. Last year, 72 of the city's 666 homicides - the most in the nation - occurred in the Harrison precinct, making it the city's deadliest police district. So far this year, according to police figures, Harrison has had 51 homicides, about 10 percent of the 519 killings reported as of Tuesday in the city's 25 police districts. The 519 homicides actually represent a 3 percent decline from the 535 recorded in the same period last year. But the count still puts the city's homicide toll on pace to exceed more than 600 by year's end. Of this year's homicides, 415 people have died from gunshot wounds. In cases where the motives were known, 116 homicides were gang related. David J. Bayless, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said the number of cases linked to gangs was likely to increase significantly as the police concluded investigations into other homicides. Mr. Bayless said the department responded to last year's surge in killings by increasing patrols in the city's most troubled neighborhoods, including those in the Harrison police district. Also, he said, the police intensify enforcement in small areas over three- to four-day periods. Officials said their efforts have netted hundreds of arrests and have helped them solve some homicides. Even with the success of law enforcement over the last decade in dismantling the "hierarchy of many of these gangs," Mr. Bayless said, the violence has not subsided among those who remain on the street and have stepped in to fill the void. The gangs are "all very fragmented now," Mr. Bayless said. "And because they're fragmented, there's more infighting. We're also seeing that the loyalty is no longer to the organization. It's to that drug spot and it's to the money." The Harrison district, which includes the West Garfield neighborhood, features modest or crumbling single-family homes, apartment buildings and vacant lots that remain scarred and barren since the fires of 1968. It is a neighborhood where gunshots echo in broad daylight, where conspicuous young men with busy hands transact deals with pausing motorists and where children seek the refuge of schools like George W. Tilton Elementary School on Keeler Avenue. "I know it's bad, but I don't let it stop me from doing my job and from doing things for my children," Leatrice Satterwhite, the school's principal said last Friday, adding that Tilton offers before- and after-school programs for the children. "The kids view the school as a safe haven." It is all pervasive, the drugs, gangs and violence. On Oct. 6, Charles H. Watson, 23, was found in a shallow, weed-covered grave between abandoned houses on the West Side. The police say they believe he was abducted and beaten to death four months earlier by fellow gang members in a dispute over drug money. The gang and drug competitions lead to conflict, and the conflict often leads to gunfire - something with which the children at Tilton are all too familiar. In fact, Ms. Satterwhite said that last Thursday she summoned the police to the school after shots rang out just down the street shortly before classes were dismissed. The police said a 16-year-old boy suffered nonfatal injuries in that shooting, which they believe was gang related. On Friday, as third graders lined up in a hall about lunchtime, the haven the school provided was symbolized by a green banner that hung high for all to see. It read, "You are about to enter a learning zone." Another sign hung on a wall nearby. A stark reminder of the dangers outside, it carried the portrait of a small child and the plea: "Don't shoot. I want to grow up." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens