"Stop the killing" Yesterday's front page of the Chicago Sun-Times was reversed with the headline 'Stop the killing' sending a message to the cities parents to stop ignoring the increasing gang and gun violence that witnessed 37 people being shot, including 13 school kids, in Chicago over this past weekend. Then since midnight Monday five people have been murdered and eleven more injured in ten separate incidents. Horrifying.

"In the coming weeks, the Chicago Sun-Times will take those words to heart - "One murder is one too many" - and lead our city in what we hope will be a smart and honest conversation about what to do to quell the violence. Our reporters and columnists will investigate what we believe to be the roots of the problem - gangs and guns, to be sure, but also the social forces that turn our young people to gangs and guns - and we will ask you to offer your own best ideas." (more)

Every morning almost without exception the local news channels include a shooting within it's overnight digest. More often than not it is not the main headline. Local political intrigue, the ongoing election, a house fire, the weather or a Cubs win usually grab the headlines. Most of us Brits have a morbid fascination with gang culture being brought up on the Krays, Richardsons and American television. Gang culture in Chicago is ingrained in it's history but as the spring temperatures rise so does the violence amongst gangs on the south and west side of Chicago with members as young as 13 years old.

Chicago has always been deeply divided by race. The ghettos started in the 1920's but African American's were disconnected from the then notorious drug, alcohol and gambling gangs of the first half of the 20th century made famous by the likes of Capone and Torrio. Chicago's black families however were living in deep poverty and were turning to crime, so in the 1960's the cities politicians built housing projects to provide communities for the growing black families that had settled in the big manufacturing cities in the midwest.

These housing projects, the most famous being Cabrini Green which I still plan to write about before I leave, only served to foster violent crime and alienation from the rest of a thriving city. These projects also occupied what at the turn of the century were considered boom property areas, none so more than Cabrini Green, five minutes from where I now live, and currently being bulldozed to be replaced by fancy homes and condominiums.

The tearing down of these black communities, despite the neglected and appalling conditions of the majority of them has caused anger, bewilderment and the displacement of gangs and as they are forced into new neighbourhoods they come into direct contact with existing gangs prepared to protect their patch. The growing Latino factions is also a factor, previously keeping themselves to themselves, their own drug and petty crime markets are now being invaded by new residents looking to mark their new turf.

Therefore Chicago's neighbourhoods on the south and west side are now a patchwork of gang rivalry and drug markets, almost un-policable with critics suggesting that the establishment turns a blind eye to the cities gang culture. The Sun Times' front page says we should all stop turning our backs.

The Sun-Times appeals to all of us not just the mothers and fathers as parents of these young kids that are shooting and killing one and another. A front page headline is not enough, but perhaps it's a start and with Chicago's politicians focused on winning the 2016 Olympics, improving the cities elderly transport system might be the wrong place to spend it's massive budget.

These statistics make very scary reading and I have to pinch myself to realise I live in this same city. It should be like being part of a blood thirsty gangland thriller, but strangely it is not. Like all cities there are areas that you avoid, Chicago is no different and if you look at the map, all of these terrible instances take place a long way from the centre of this sprawling city of 3m people.

I have never once felt even slightly threatened living in this beautiful city, don't let it put you off coming, the gangs are not interested in you or me, but be aware that they do exist. Chicago will always be a home to me and I have this forlorn hope that one day this city can eradicate it's gang culture from the long list of what it is famous for.  ¶ 13:23