Crimes that are considered by many to be gang-affiliated are not always so. Over time, one begins to see how the media spins stories to attribute gang ties to them, when in actuality, this might not be the case. We have to try to come to the understanding that not every crime that involves teens, guns, or evidence of drugs is actually a product of gangs.

In a June 20 report, DeKalb Police Lt. Jim Kayes told the Northern Star that gang violence is still active and is probably a result of the Jayson Martin shooting in March. Gang violence? That is really the last term I would use when it comes to that particular incident within DeKalb.

When I was younger growing up in the heart of the inner city, I was given the chance to find out what the definition of “gang violence” really was. From my time in DeKalb, I have seen no evidence of crimes being committed due to the involvement of gangs.

On June 26, the Chicago Crime Commission published the Chicago Gang Book, which states that gangs are moving to the suburbs of Illinois and consequently are taking up new crimes such as mortgage fraud and identity theft, among others. To some extent, this is true. I know plenty of people that have moved their families and their gang affiliations to the suburbs. Some use this as a way to escape the life they led in their younger days, while others use the less-strict suburbs as a hiding ground.

In 1999, Chicago decided to deal with what city officials called the imminent gang problem, not by actually prosecuting gang members that terrorized the city but by tearing down project buildings and driving those residents, most of which happened to be of color, out of the city and into the surrounding suburbs.

The destruction of these buildings was not a product of gang activity as many police and city officials have claimed but one of politics. How do you make the third largest city in the United States more attractive to tourists and prospective businesses? It’s easy — you demolish the eyesore that has been the Chicago housing projects and tell the underprivileged residents there they will have to move to the suburbs in order to survive. With a promise of work and housing assistance, many residents jumped on the idea of a new life within a house instead of in a towering building.

The migration of these individuals has been misconstrued as the passage of gangs into surrounding suburbs including DeKalb, and with this misconception has come racist stereotypes. A growing town such as DeKalb is trying to look resident-friendly and does not want to promote a racist image, so as a result, much of the violence in DeKalb has been falsely attributed to gang activity.

DeKalb police are ignoring the more important issues at hand by labeling shootings and verbal confrontations a product of gang violence. These unjust claims do not help the city or the subsequent groups to which these stereotypes are attributed when they are written off as stereotypical events instead of being dealt with appropriately.

If this continues, DeKalb will have to live with the stigma of having a “gang problem,” and the Chicago Crime commission might just have to publish a new book with DeKalb in it.