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Reckless drivers take over SW Side intersections
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By Tim Hadac
At the April meeting of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch, a police officer admitted that the drag racing/drifting phenomenon seen and heard in the Midway area in recent years “probably will increase, but we hope not.”
The admission was triggered by a brief discussion of another “takeover” of a neighborhood intersection by car fanatics: this time at 55th and Central at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, March 30.
But that location is not the only one targeted by the loud, raucous and some say dangerous activity. About two weeks later, neighbors reported a late-night takeover at Archer and Oak Park.
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In a screenshot from a video showing drifting in a Southwest Side parking lot, Smoke billows from both a muscle car’s wheels and the asphalt below. –Supplied photo
Last year, drag racers/drifters also took over intersections at 50th and Cicero, Archer and Nashville, 63rd and Austin and 63rd and Oak Park, to name a few. They also have repeatedly used Ford City’s massive parking lot for their late-night hijinks.
Southwest Siders residents were quick to weigh in.
“Here we go again,” said Chuck Ptak. “These punks bring their cars here and wreak havoc. I went to Archer and Oak Park a week later, and you can still see all the tire marks. What are the police going to do about it? What are the politicians going to do about it?”
Maricela Torres said she was heading out in the night to pick up her husband from work when she was blocked by a takeover.
“He works second shift at a warehouse in a bad neighborhood,” she said. “His car was in the shop, being fixed. So I had to go get him. But then I was blocked and had to figure out some way to make a u-turn and zig-zag down side streets—and I was late picking him up. He was standing outside in a rough neighborhood, waiting for me. What if something had happened to him?”
“I thought when that Florida woman was run over and killed by drag racers at 65th and Cicero in 2022, the politicians would be as angry as those of us in the neighborhood,” said West Lawn resident Oscar Mantilla. “But no, they just looked the other way and pretended they didn’t see it. This drag racing could be stopped if the politicians had the will to do it. But they don’t.”
Records show that police do respond to 911 calls about intersection takeovers, and the CPD representative at the GRNW meeting—CAPS Officer Ray Tracy—did add that police monitor social media platforms to try and get advance warnings of drag racing/drifting meet-ups. But arrests appear to be few when compared to the number of people who take over intersections.
Further, the few arrested are usually charged with misdemeanors like reckless driving and released immediately.
Cellphone video of takeovers often show police not breaking up intersection takeovers, but parking their vehicles on the perimeter and appearing to wait until the drag racers/drifters have had their fun before slowly pushing them away.
Some say police have the tools to put a quick stop to drag racing/drifting and point to a new law championed by 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn and others that allows CPD to use photo and video evidence to track down and impound vehicles of those engaged in reckless driving.
But two years after the law emerged, CPD has yet to offer evidence that it is using it.
“If this law is what it was sold as, why are we not hearing about police tracking down these cars and impounding them?” asked Mike Rodriguez. “I think what it comes down to is, there is no will from Mayor [Brandon] Johnson to order police to get tough. After all, this is the guy who sees young people acting like savages and says, ‘Don’t demonize these young people.’ I suspect the mayor is holding the police back from doing their jobs.”
One Clearing teen who asked that his name not be disclosed told the Greater Southwest News-Herald, “I think these old people are making too big a deal about this. I think they forget that when they were young, they did pretty much the same thing in their cars on Archer or 63rd Street or wherever. What’s all the fuss? Go back to sleep, Grandpa.”
A retired police officer from Garfield Ridge who asked that his name not be disclosed added, “We shouldn’t have to do this, but the sad reality is we have to put pressure on the police, on the mayor, on our aldermen again and again just to get them to do their jobs. I tell everyone to call 911 again and again. Do not give up. You pay taxes to live in a nice neighborhood. But you have to work to keep it that way.”