UPDATED
Uptown residents are furious over escalating neighborhood violence and what they perceive as their alderman's ambivalence to it.
Fed up after Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) was not responsive to their concerns about recent shootings and a full-street gang fight, a group of her constituents organized a protest outside Monday night's Olympics bid community meeting at Truman College to demand swift action.
"Ald. Helen Shiller has a history of ignoring obvious threats to public safety, and ignoring her bosses," reads a flyer announcing Monday's protest. "Her bosses want to speak to her, and if she won't come to them, we will come to her."
Another flyer circulating, this one from a similar protest outside Shiller's office last year, shows the alderman's face on the side of a milk cartoon under the label "Missing."
Reports of nightly violence in Uptown bubbled over last week, after an Uptown resident shot video of what appeared to be near-riots by rival gangs at the corner of Sheridan and Leland and posted it on the community news blog Uptown Update.
Watch the video:
What a riot! from Joe Gray on Vimeo.
Shiller's office did not return several calls for comment from the Huffington Post Monday. Her secretary's and chief of staff's voice mail boxes were full and unable to accept messages. Shiller's office also did not respond to requests for comment from CBS 2 and NBC Chicago.
One man has reportedly been arrested in connection with the fight. On Monday a resident discovered a cache of makeshift weapons near where the original gang fight took place.
The violence continued over the weekend, with a mugging near 5000 North Marine, and the shooting of three people in the 1200 block of West Leland.
None were in serious condition, CBS 2 reports.
The protest began around 6 p.m. outside Truman College. Click here for live Twitter updates.
UPDATE: Ald. Shiller said she was out of town last week, when the street fighting was caught on video, but that she is "equally concerned" about the violence as her critics.
After entering the meeting through a side door, Shiller met a crowd of angry protesters on her way out. In comments to the Tribune, Shiller implied that the protesters are overselling the fight video to dramatize their cause:
"That you play it over and over again and make a big thing about it as though there isn't a [police] response, or somehow that is representative of every evil there is, stuff happens," Shiller said. "We have a very big city with a lot of activity going on, and none of us exists on an island," Shiller said.
Watch a Fox Chicago report on the meeting, with comments from Shiller: