Three elderly people were robbed and beaten in front of a food pantry located on the 2700 block of South Lawndale Avenue in Little Village, as reported by WGN. Although this event happened in May of 2023, more than a year ago, the recent spike in crime in the Little Village increases the probability of something like this happening again. More than three shootings have occurred in the past four months this year, and fear is only increasing in this Latinx community day by day.

Rush University Medical Center did a snapshot analysis in 2016 of the area of South Lawndale, stating that in one of their surveys, 52.4% of residents do not trust their neighbors, saying that the level of trust with their neighbor is “a little /none/ not at all”.

“I can’t even walk my dogs outside without having to worry if I might need to run away from gunfire. I can’t even carry money because I might get robbed.” Juan Rodriguez, an 80-year old man said. Rodriguez has been living in Little Village for 40 years. This is the fear that he says most residents feel because of the gang violence and random, unexpected killings of innocent bystanders.

People of all ages end up on the news, either being rushed to the hospital in critical condition to later pass away, or end up passing away at the crime scene. Everyone fears for their life, children, teenagers, middle-aged and the elderly. It is hard to live in an area where you could walk out of your house and be possibly killed just by walking to the corner store, or waiting in line for free food at a food pantry. As well as going to school in the morning and coming home late from school, there is not one time of day or activity you could be doing that would consider you safe.

This is the unfortunate reality of living in Little Village at such a dangerous and scary time like this.