Teens Directed To Southbound Red Line Trains To Stop Fights On Michigan Avenue
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago police directed unruly teenagers on Michigan Avenue to get on the Red Line or buses and leave the downtown area over the holiday weekend.
Several youths were fighting on the Magnificent Mile and officers sent many of the teens to the CTA stop at Chicago and State and directed them to southbound trains and buses.
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told CBS 2's Derrick Blakley that nobody's civil rights were violated and nobody involved was forced to leave.
"We had a few issues in the downtown area with individuals fighting, we responded rapidly and quite well to those incidents," Johnson said. Officers did make several arrests, he said.
"Sometimes kids to goofy things, we all know that," Johnson said. "Locking up 100 or 200 juveniles for being juveniles, I don't think we want to do that. If they are committing actual crimes, we will arrest them."
Other Red Line trains were prevented from stopping at Chicago Avenue to prevent others from joining the mayhem.
"I know there were some questions about us forcing some on CTA buses [and subway trains] and what I can tell you is we didn't force anybody," Johnson said. "We directed people to different stops. It was simply a public safety issue. "
"This goes along with best practices across the country," said Johnson, adding that officers in New York City and Los Angeles do the same thing.
Johnson said there were 1,300 additional officers on the street over the weekend and overall violence was down compared with last year. Murders were about the same (seven in 2018, six of 2017), but shootings (25/33) and shooting victims (29/44) were lower this year. Officers also made more gun arrests (118 compared with 83)
"I won't be happy until we have zero murders and zero shootings," Johnson said.