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- THE WEEK, Page 22SOCIETYA Brief Life in the Killing Zone
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- A young Chicago boy's murder prompts an antigun crackdown
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- Though only 7, Dantrell Davis had alresdy witnessed more fire
- fights than most U.S. soldiers. Since March, two of his
- classmates at Jenner Elementary School in Chicago's notorious
- Cabrini-Green housing project had been slain, and Dantrell was
- well experienced in running for cover at the first sound of
- gunfire. But he never heard the shot that killed him on Oct. 13,
- when a sniper opened fire from a 10th-floor window as Dantrell
- walked to school with his mother. The rest of Chicago did, and
- Dantrell's death sparked yet another agonizing debate over how
- to stop the inner-city slaughter.
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- Chicago Housing Authority chairman Vincent Lane called for
- the National Guard to be deployed at Cabrini-Green. Mayor
- Richard Daley instead ordered a massive police sweep of the
- 70-acre, 78-building project, which houses 7,000 residents a few
- blocks from the city's swankest shopping district. At a press
- conference last Monday, Daley confirmed what most urban
- Americans already know, saying, "We have seen a complete
- breakdown of society."
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- Criticized for a city murder rate that has already topped
- 790 this year, Daley also announced other measures to beef up
- security at Cabrini-Green, including the use of metal detectors,
- IDs for residents and secured entrances. Meanwhile, suspect
- Anthony Garrett, 33, told police that he shot Dantrell by
- mistake. Garrett said he was simply trying to take out a few
- rival gang members when the first-grader got in the way.
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