Fifty-nine gangs are at war over territory and drugs in Chicago's west and south sides. Makeshift memorials of balloons and teddy bears mark the spots where residents, often children, were caught in the crossfire.
The violence is so pervasive that Father Michael Pfleger, a priest with the largest Catholic congregation on the South Side, isn't waiting for a savior — he's taking it upon himself to find murderers by offering rewards for information leading to an arrest.
“When a child is shot and killed in this city—in the South Side in particular—and there's no idea of who may have done it, I put a $5,000 bounty on the head,” Pfleger tells Whitaker. “We've given out about 24 rewards over the last 10 years. I have 12 out right now.”
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