Newsweek magazine put it this way in an article chronically gang violence in Chicago:

“In the biggest city in the American heartland, teens murder each other over Twitter beefs, and grown men shoot children in the head — sometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose. The carnage has even earned the city a grim nickname: Chiraq. As Chicago-raised rapper Kanye West raps in his song Murder to Excellence: ‘I feel the pain in my city wherever I go / 314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago,’ a reference to the death tolls of those places in 2008.”

Kane County might not be Chiraq, but its proximity and access to Chicago — along with its own urban landscape in Aurora and Elgin — means that it is no stranger to the ravages of gang crime and gang violence.

At a special event Tuesday in Aurora, the Kane County Sheriff’s Office will present a community forum on what’s being done and what can be done to combat gang crime and drugs in our communities.

The Kane County Sheriff’s Office forum on gang crime and drugs will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 23, at the Aurora Public Library’s Santori Library, 101 S. River St., Aurora, in rooms 125 and 126. All members of the community are invited to attend the free event.

The powerful forum and question-and-answer discussion will include former gang members, counselors, law enforcement officers and presenters with special, topical knowledge. Presenters include African American Men or Unity, the Kane County Sheriff’s Office and the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The forum promises to reveal “little-known facts on community initiatives that are taking place right in our own back yards to combat gang and reduce the flow of drugs to our local neighborhoods and schools.”

SOURCE: Kane County Sheriff’s Office news release