CHICAGO (CBS) –Chicago Ald. David Moore (17th) is risking his safety to help people in his neighborhood stay safe by promising to camp overnight in a tent on a notoriously dangerous street.
Temperatures reached a record 97 degrees in Chicago on Monday— and since setting up his tent last weekend, Moore has already had to dodge some gunfire.
Nevertheless, the continued gunfire and open drug sales prompted Moore to take such drastic action. He’s trying to bring awareness to an issue that he said no one seems to care about.
Will he be able to handle the heat?
“I’m sweating,” he said. “If it is God’s will.”
Moore sleeps in a tent on 73rd Place between Ada Street and Racine Avenue in Englewood — and his move is getting attention in the department.
“On this particular block, the 1200 block of West 73rd Place, where you have an open-air drug market, where people are just being, it’s a highway every day,” Moore said.
So to address persistent issues in the Englewood community, Moore hopes to shine light even when it’s dark.
“An innocent young lady was recently murdered. I’m getting calls, ‘What the hell are you going to do, councilman? We’re tired,'” Moore said. ‘I’ve tried everything else. I don’t know what else to do.’
Moore even started sleeping in the first night over the weekend, and a volley of gunfire rang out while he was streaming live on Facebook.
“So there were just shots being fired at the block. Threats were being made against us,” Moore said in the Facebook Live video. “No one was hit.”
Still, Moore said people living on that block of 73rd Street experience such violence every day.
“The kids don’t feel safe playing in the streets because you never know when someone is going to come along and shoot someone,” Moore said.
Tamuela Miller stopped at the campsite to tell Moore to keep fighting.
“Because the residents just want someone to do something different than what they’ve done before,” Miller said.
Moore said anyone who thinks he’s being grandstanding or playing politics with the sleepout is sorely mistaken.
‘They can say that, but that’s not it. I’m putting my life on the line – my life is not worth politics,” Moore said.
Ald. Moore said he plans to stay out as long as necessary to get extra patrols and make his streets safer. He admits he is concerned about his safety, but he is not afraid when doing his job.
Jermont Terry
