Chiraq: Seven arrested in train station machete attack

Chicago skyline

Apologists for Chicago's high murder rate blame illegal guns. But if all of the city's guns vanished, brutes will still find ways to terrorize the innocent.

From Fox 32 Chicago:

Seven people have been charged after a man who refused to flash a gang sign was attacked with a machete Monday morning at a Brown Line station in the Northwest Side Albany Park neighborhood.

The attack happened about 12:35 a.m. Monday at the Kedzie station in the 4600 block of North Kedzie Avenue, when a group of suspects went up to two men, ages 17 and 26, and told them to flash gang signs, authorities said.

The men refused, saying they were not in a gang, police said.

Mario Elvira, 18, then pulled out a "cutting instrument" and struck the 26-year-old in the head, leaving him with cuts to his head and neck, police said. A source said the weapon was a machete.

The victim is being cared at a nearby hospital--his condition has been stabilized, but the man's wound is over six inches long and his treatment required more than 30 stitches. As for the attack, ABC 7 Chicago is reporting that it only ended when a train arrived at the station--which doesn't happen too often after midnight on the Brown Line.

At least four of the accused were charged with trespassing on the Brown Line platform--which means they didn't pay their fare. Jumping the turnstiles is a big problem for the Chicago Transit Authority and this incident is evidence of the soundness of the "broken windows" approach to combating crime.