CHICAGO (CBS) — The prevalence of gun violence during Memorial Day weekend in Chicago is a concern every year, but a Chicago police program is actively working to change that.
From city life to the great outdoors, a Chicago police officer left Friday to take West Side teens for a weekend.
City life is always busy and often noisy,” says Mikey Malarski (17).
That’s why Malarski and more than a dozen young people are changing scenery this weekend.
“I’m a little nervous,” Malarski said. “I’ve never been so far from the city.”
Oranges and watermelons, Cheetos and Doritos, Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish, water and soda and assorted supplies were loaded into a 15-passenger van late Friday. Officer Will Martinez from the Austin district (15th) willing to drive two hours west with the youth.
They camp at Woodhaven Lakes in Sublette, Illinois, just south of Rockford, off Interstate 39.
Camping with a cop had a clear purpose.
“All the youth you see around you are actually involved in various programs in the 15th District,” Officer Martinez said.
Joshua Torres lives in the Austin community of the West Side.
“I see a lot of things, you know, that’s dangerous – a lot of shootings, a lot of drive-bys,” he said. “I’m doing my best to stay safe and be in the house so that nothing bad will happen to me. .”
Torres started hanging around the Austin District Police Department at the age of 7. He was part of the Officer Explorer Program.
Ten years later, Torres voluntarily chooses to hang out with the officers for the Memorial Day camping outing.
“It’s safer,” Torres said. “I feel like there’s not much there. I’m in no danger of anything bad happening to me if I get out.”
Memorial Day weekend unofficially kicks off summer. But it has also proven deadly and violent in Chicago — which is exactly what prompted the Austin District to start the camping trip four years ago.
“My goal was I wanted to give them a safe place as long as they worked to build their community,” Officer Martinez said. “So we take them out of here and uproot them. They’re in a safe place, it’s an enclosed campsite. They can walk around. It’s more fun for them.”
The outing allows the young people to escape the violence and build bonds.
“Officer Will, I don’t see him as a cop,” Torres said. “I see him more as a father figure.”
“We’re part of the community and we just want to build together,” Officer Martinez said. “We all build bridges together.”
Jermont Terry
