GANG TURF WAR ON MORSE AVENUE: BATS, KNIVES, BLOODY NOSES

CHICAGO - Despite the "cleaning up" of a rough strip in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the city's northeast side, the gangs are fighting for their drug market turf, and it came to blows on the evening of Sunday, October 7 at 9:40 p.m.

Witnesses tell The Bench that there was a group of ten thugs standing in front of J.B. Alberto's Pizza at 1326 W. Morse Avenue in Rogers Park last Sunday evening, when another group of thugs came around the corner of N. Glenwood and Morse, near the CTA's elevated train tracks. Carrying baseball bats and brandishing knives, the two rival gang factions went at each other. Both factions, witnesses say, were black gang members fighting over the "right" to sell their deadly narcotics in this part of Chicago.

One witness called 911 at 9:43 p.m. He said the police reacted quickly. Nevertheless, he told The Bench, he saw at least one guy "get the shit kicked out of him" by another thug just outside of the CTA Red Line station, about 140 feet west of J.B. Alberto's. "There were a lot of bloody noses," the witness said.

It is not clear which gangs were involved in this fight, but it is clear that the gangs and drugs problem persists - in spite of all the feel-good propaganda put out by 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore.