If you want to know how bad things have gotten there, the major media outlets are no help. The last thing they want is for people to stay away from The Mag Mile – the stretch of Michigan Avenue just north of the Chicago River – full of glittering shopping, towering condo buildings and hotels, and the iconic Water Tower that is Chicago's rival to Fifth Avenue around Trump Tower. You have to go to Second City Cop and CWB Chicago , two grassroots websites that are not afraid of alienating big advertisers or of a phone call from City Hall.

"Wilding" is the term for mobs of violent young people taking over upscale neighborhoods and wreaking havoc, looting, mugging, and attacking innocent people just for the fun of it. A "good" neighborhood is no guarantee of safety anymore in Chicago. The breakdown of civil order , in other words, is well underway in the Windy City. Bit by bit, civilization is slipping away in Chicago.

The arrival of 90-plus-degree weather over the Memorial Day weekend unleashed the urban youth. Today, CWB Chicago lists the "highlights" of emergency radio traffic, and it is a horrifying compilation of chaos unleashed. For example, an hour and half or so of Saturday night:

8:22PM – "Mayhem," says the downtown police dispatcher, taking a few brief seconds to summarize what she and Chicago cops are dealing with. 8:26PM – Lakeview: Officers call for backup. Fifteen to 20 people are beating up a boy who tried to prevent them from stealing a bike at the Lane Tech High School Memorial Day carnival. Story here. 8:39PM – 70 or 80 teens coming off the Chicago Red Line. "Tell Water Tower to close their doors; otherwise, they gotta let 'em in." 8:42PM – Fights behind the historic Water Tower. Crowd: 200 people, per dispatcher. 8:45PM – "Water Tower is closed. There's one door open so people can exit." 8:46PM – Cop: "Got a large fight on Pearson just east of Michigan." "Have Water Tower lock their doors." "They are, they are." 8:55PM – Rush & Chicago Avenue: A group ran into Nordstrom Rack, saying someone has a gun outside. Issue appears to be fireworks set off near the historic Water Tower. Also: More cars needed outside the location for a fight. 8:56PM – Millennium Park: "Caller says a Hispanic male has a baseball bat in his pants." 9:11PM – Sergeant: "We have a Cubs game letting out. Send teams down to the platform at Chicago and State to make sure order is being kept" as the arriving Cubs fans mix with teens waiting to leave via the same station. 9:21PM – Big fight outside the Park Hyatt, says an officer. 9:39PM – "We need everybody we have to try to get rid of these people" at Chicago and State. "Push 'em to the Red Line." "Maintain the perimeter, do not let anyone out." At least four arrests for resisting police. 10:05PM – "Hundreds" running wild in the streets near Roosevelt Red Line station. The train from Chicago and State – which was supposed to run express to 47th Street – stopped at Roosevelt by mistake, an officer says.



Screen grabs from videos of weekend violence on and near the Magnificent Mile (credit: CWB Chicago).

There is much, much more. The early hours of Sunday morning were not an improvement.

At Second City Cop, they note the absence of major media coverage of the chaos and suggest (tongue in cheek, I hope) that the Fraternal Order of Police (the cops' union) declare "no go zones."

Many many reports of CPD merely "escorting" the ne'er-do-wells to the Red Line out of downtown – that's some deterrent. Better advise everyone you know who might be coming downtown to come loaded for bear.

Second City Cop also reports – and is the sole outlet to say so – that cops are so overwhelmed that the Chicago Fire Department is being asked to have its trucks patrol the streets for three hours per shift. It would be nice if the major media in Chicago would ask the CFD about this report.

One incident that did make it to the Chicago Tribune:

A 19-year-old woman was charged in connection with an attack on two Chicago Fire Department paramedics in the back of an ambulance that was also struck by a bullet during the episode in Englewood early Sunday, police said. Latorya Thigpen, of the Parkway Gardens neighborhood, is accused of hitting, punching, kicking, scratching and spitting at two uniformed paramedics as they tried to treat her in the 2700 block of West 68th Street in the South Side's Marquette Park neighborhood about 4 a.m, police said. The paramedics suffered scratches, abrasions, bruising, and loss of consciousness, police said. During the incident, a bullet lodged itself in the passenger side door of the ambulance as medics were treating a patient whose family became irate when they weren't allowed in the ambulance.

Civil order is precious, and far more fragile than the progressives that run Chicago (and most big cities) understand.