I am writing this letter in response to the April 3 article on the front page of the Northern Star entitled “DeKalb’s Gangs.”

The article started with anecdotes about the paranoia about gangs in DeKalb, essentially painting Phi Kappa Psi as fearful and ignorant.

They stayed up all night “protecting” their house against what? Somebody spraypaints “GDI” on a dumpster and suddenly that means there’s a gang war on the horizon? I understand that crime is a common problem in that neighborhood (just check the police blotter from time to time), but, as the Northern Star article points out, there is not a gang problem and the reports of gang-related crime has diminished significantly (somewhere around 70 percent if you do the math) between 2009 and 2012.

Furthermore, these stats are for “suspicious” gang activity and not actual, convicted gang members or arrests.

So then why start the article with paranoia-inducing anecdotes instead of the facts?

I am familiar as to what gang violence looks like and its effects on a school community.

I was a teacher in Chicago Heights for four years before returning to graduate school at NIU.

If you are not familiar with that area, then you should know that it is a community with an actual gang problem.

I had students who were Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and Four Corner Hustlers.

This article was insulting to the students at NIU and acted to instill fear on this campus.