Associated Press
CHICAGO -- Another crowd has apparently begun escaping the pressures of big city life by beating a well-worn path to the suburbs: Gangs.
That's one of the findings of a report being released Monday by the Chicago Crime Commission in its first major study of area gangs in more than 10 years.
Chicago police have become skilled at disrupting gangland activity, the report says, so some gang members are moving to the suburbs, where authorities often don't have the manpower or experience to deal with them.
“People in the suburbs can no longer view gangs as an inner-city problem,” said Jim Wagner, the crime commission's president and one of the editors of the 272-page report. “It's a problem they can no longer ignore.”
The migration, which became more noticeable starting around five years ago, has coincided with gang involvement in new areas of crime, including real estate fraud and identity theft, according to the report.
Posted by Suzanne at June 20, 2006