By CAROLYN P. SMITH - News-Democrat
EAST ST. LOUIS -- Being a Mom is challenging enough, but imagine having to warn your kids to get away from the windows during gunfire.
Welcome to East St. Louis.
Some mothers say people are being robbed at gunpoint with regularity for $5, $10, or $20 -- basically all the money they have -- as they leave their residences to walk to a nearby grocery store.
Clusters of gun-wielding young men wearing baggy pants and oversized T-shirts and hoodies crowd the entrances to the complexes and strike fear in many of the residents.
Residents like Kimberly Rosebud say they're pleased that help has come their way.
They said the violence in the East St. Louis area had gotten out of hand and, by itself, the East St. Louis Police Department could not handle the crime.
Last year, the city had 29 homicides. Violence was holding many residents hostage inside their homes. Rosebud said the task force's drug-, warrant- and gun-sweeps throughout the projects are helping because a lot of the city's violence occurs in the projects.
But since Nov. 16, when a special task force known as WAVE (Working Against Violent Elements) brought federal, state and local police agencies together to fight violent crime in East St. Louis and surrounding areas, there's been only one homicide in the city.
Task force members also have taken 56 guns off the streets, made dozens of drug arrests, recovered stolen cars, arrested people for home invasion and seized a total of $30,369.
The task force is made up of members of MEGSI, Illinois State Police, the U.S. Marshal Service, the FBI, East St. Louis Police Department, the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, ATF, and Illinois Department of Corrections.
U.S. Attorney A. Courtney Cox said the police participating in the task force "are making the difference and they deserve a thanks from the community."
He added, "Before they started, there was a homicide every week."
Rosebud agreed that things are better, "but it could be a whole lot better. The task force has families and they have to go home. As soon as they leave, the same people who are causing the problems come back out," she said.
"I'm very grateful for what the task force is doing and I want them to stay out here to make our communities safe. Right now, I don't let my children go out and play because I'm afraid they may get shot. There are crews of young people in their 20s robbing people of $5, $10, and $20. They're able to intimidate people because there's several of them, with guns pointed at your head saying, 'Give it up.'"
Focus on the projects
Rosebud said it's never quiet in the John DeShields housing project.
"There's always something going on. People hang out at all times of night; 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m., it doesn't matter. There's always somebody hanging out," Rosebud said. She said she had to teach her children not to go near the windows during gunfire.
"I taught them to get down on the floor and stay there until it stops," she said.
Rosebud knew a lot of the people who were murdered in 2009. She said it's a sad occasion for her every time she gets news that someone has been killed.
Natosha Brison, 23, lives in the Roosevelt Homes housing complex. She, like Rosebud, wants to move, but she doesn't have the money.
"It's terrible. They shoot all of the time. I have four kids (ages 6, 5, 3, 1). I have to let them stay inside and tear up the house. But, at least I know they're safer than if they were outdoors," Brison said. "That little girl got shot in her eye and she was just walking home from the store with her mother. It's really bad out here."
In November, a 5-year-old girl was shot in her eye while she was outside a store near the Orr-Weathers public housing complex.
Brison said individuals who live in the Roosevelt Homes and some outsiders are causing the problems.
Drugs and guns
Brison also takes care of her 11-year-old brother and worries he might want to emulate the guys he sees hanging on the corners, selling drugs. The fast money and fancy cars are appealing to some youths.
Brison knows that this lifestyle leads either to jail or a grave. She does not want that for her little brother.
"We shouldn't have to live in America like this," she said angrily. "There should be more recreational centers that offer the young people something to do."
She added, "The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center is closed. That center is all the kids had. Now, we have nothing and no place for our kids to go. The young kids imitate the older kids. If they see the guys on the corners looking cool, they want to be like them."
Brison hopes the police presence continues and the crime disappears.
She is critical of a 24-hour store that sells alcohol nearby the projects.
Brison said because it is open all night, people go back and forth to the store, which creates opportunities for altercations between groups.
Both women said guns and drugs are the source of a lot of the violence in the projects.
