By Chicago’s standards, the winter was relatively mild.

Still, with temperatures near 80 degrees — the warmest weekend in months — hundreds of city youths headed to 31st Street Beach in the twilight hours of Friday, April 14, where a young teen was shot in the leg.

It might have served as a warning to some, as another “teen takeover” unfolded in the heart of downtown the following night, and two teen boys were shot and wounded near Millennium Park.

More than a dozen police reports obtained by the Tribune show how the chaos unfolded as Chicago police for hours struggled to control hundreds of teens and young adults as they darted through traffic, smashed windows and carried out acts of violence.

[That city is in REAL trouble and going down the tubes faster than I think they know, while the people they’ve elected watch it burn around them. ~ Beege]