Independence Eve Violence Update

Wow. Yesterday's Chicagosphere post on alleged gang violence during Chicago's Independence Eve fireworks turned out to be today's top story on ChicagoNow. That post compared official reports of a relatively "peaceful" July 3rd fireworks display with reports from the blog, Second City Cop, and several Twitter members indicating a sizable gang presence, multiple gang-related fights, numerous guns recovered, and a potential shooting or serious injury at or around 8:30 p.m. in the vicinity of Buckingham Fountain.

Today, I'd like to take the liberty of again referring my regular readers to Chicagosphere, where I've posted an update on yesterday's allegations of July 3rd violence--and the things I'm doing to get to the bottom of them. That includes using tools from both the traditional and online methods of news-gathering.

Yesterday, I reached out to my blogging and online media colleagues and social-media friends on Twitter and Facebook to seek additional information. That resulted in coverage from almost every major community news site in Chicago, including Gapers Block, Windy Citizen, Chicago Carless, the Beachwood Reporter, Chicagoist, Huffington Post Chicago, Second City Cop, and the WBEZ Chicago Public Radio blog, and lots of eyewitness tips about incidents of violence, including several posts from Megan McDonald, Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, in yesterday's Chicagosphere comment thread.

Today, as I continue to ask my readers and social-media friends to keep the eyewitness accounts coming, I did what any self-respecting traditional news-gatherer would do. I filed FOIAs. Find out about them--and what you can do to help--on today's Chicagosphere.

Read on Chicagosphere: Following Up on Chicago's Independence Eve Violence