Police: Shootings at Chicago Gang Member Funerals ‘Out of Control’

Shootings at the funerals of Chicago-area gang members have surged to the point that police now say they are “out of control.”

The gang shootings have led at least one cemetery to hire off-duty police to work security.

Fox 32 reports Hillside Police Chief Joseph Lukaszek’s observation that gang members view funerals as a place where they can do what they want. He said, “It’s getting out of control, it really is. The gangs just think that it’s a safe haven for them and they do whatever they want to do.”

Funeral director John McCall says he worried about the safety of those who work at funeral services. He said, “It is dramatic for the families and very dramatic even for the funeral directors, the violence that’s going on and all the things that’s happening. Guns and knives.”

Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin said there have actually been times when individuals hung out of cars and shot at one another. He said such an incident occurred in December 2017 during a funeral procession was en route to Oak Ridge Cemetery. Boykin said the car from which people were leaning was identified and police later rammed the car, stopping it and apprehending the armed occupants.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says he is pooling ideas and proposals on ways to reduce the violence. He hopes to have some of them implemented by May.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.