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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Danny K. Davis - Recovering addicts need our support,
Vol. 30 No. 38
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September 28, 2016
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austinweeklynews.com
@AustinWeeklyChi
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PAGE 13
Also serving Garfield Park
Austin P.O.W.E.R. 5K, page 11
Mayor wants nearly 1K new officers West Siders critized Emanuel’s Sept. 22 address as too heavy on police investment, too light on economic investment By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
West Cortez Street last Saturday at around 1:30 a.m. The teenager was burned beyond recognition. According to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, the exact cause of Griffin’s death hasn’t been determined yet and police haven’t arrested anyone in connection to the murder. “This is a new low,” said Acree. “Who does this? Who takes a kid, shoots him and sets his body on fire? This is unacceptable
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Sept. 22 speech at Malcolm X College designed to announce a threepronged, comprehensive plan to reduce crime in Chicago has elicited a range of reactions among West Side residents, most of them dismissive of the mayor’s address, which came as Chicago continues to dominate national and international headlines for its gun violence crisis. As of Sept. 24, the city had registered 530 murders — more than 470 of them involving shootings, according to RAHM EMMANUEL DNAinfo. In Austin, the MAYOR city’s largest community area, at least 50 people have died from gunshots, the overwhelming majority of them between the ages of 18 and 35. The three West Side community areas of Austin, Garfield Park and North Lawndale account for at least 100 of the city’s shooting murders, or nearly one-fifth of the total shooting deaths in Chicago. Emanuel said his comprehensive plan includes
See DEMETRIOUS GRIFFIN on page 4
See MAYOR’S CRIME PLAN on page 4
MICHAEL ROMAIN/Staff
STOP THE KILLING: Polly Sykes, the mother of Demetrius Griffin, Jr. is comforted by Rev. Ira Acree, pastor of the Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin. Griffin, 15, was murdered earlier this month.
‘This is a new low,’ says Austin pastor
West Side clergy offering reward for info into 15-year-old’s murder By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
“We’re here today because we are completely appalled at the despicable, atrocious and barbaric manner in which one of our son’s life was taken,” said Rev. Ira
Acree, pastor of the Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin. Acree stood on the 5400 block of West Walton on Friday afternoon to offer a $2,500 reward on behalf of the Leaders Network, the West Side religious organization of which the pastor is a member. The reward is for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever murdered Demetrius Griffin, Jr. The body of Griffin, a 15-year-old Steinmetz student, was discovered inside of a trash can in a garage on the 5500 block of
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