Volunteer crime patrol group Guardian Angels is dubbing the Magnificent Mile, “Muggers Mile,” according to flyers members are handing out to pedestrians on the tourist strip. But Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the group should find something better to do.
“If you have an idea or a suggestion on where you want to be helpful, as it relates to safety, there’s school routes, there’s playgrounds throughout the city that are challenged, as it relates to gun violence,” Emanuel said in a press conference Wednesday. “Do something that’s helpful.”
The leaflet includes safety tips for navigating “Muggers Mile.” Tips include putting cell phones away and being aware of the surroundings–similar advice the Chicago Police Department publishes.
But Emanuel said Chicago police are working every day to make sure that area safe, and the Angels would be better off helping with the Chicago Public Schools Safe Passage Program or partnering with police in communities.
But the Guardian Angels are here for all of the city, members told NBC Chicago.
“We’re not the north, south, east or west Guardian Angels,” Angels member Thomas Hunt told NBC Chicago. “We’re the Chicago Guardian Angels and we’ve been fighting crime on the streets of Chicago and around the world far longer than he’s been the mayor.”
Miguel Fuentes, leader of the nonprofit, told DNAinfo Chicago the group focused on Michigan Avenue because of recent robberies and “wildings attacks”
Wildings, sometimes called flash mobs or bash mobs, are a national trend. Large groups of teenagers flood high-traffic tourist areas wreaking havoc, beating pedestrians and sometimes robbing them. The Mag Mile has recently become a popular flash mob site in Chicago.
But Emanuel says Chicago police officers are doing their job in keeping the Michigan Avenue area safe. Violent crime in the area (police beats 1833 and 1834) has been lower this year, compared with numbers for this time in previous years.
Fuentes invited the mayor to walk on patrol with the Angels, but the mayor’s office has not yet responded.
