Violence in this great American city matures so notoriously that film director Spike Lee now purportedly seeks a new nickname for the Windy City: Chiraq.
The name merges Chi-town with Iraq -- as if Chicago sinks like the godforsaken Iraq, a hopeless war zone to the world.
The label signals a long fall for Chicago, whose official motto is the elegant "Urbs in Horto," or "City in a Garden." Once upon a time, Chicago even inspired poetry when Carl Sandburg declared it the "City of the Big Shoulders."
But "Chiraq" is another story altogether for America's third-largest city.
It's a relatively new byword, and it's now reportedly the working title of a drama that Lee is filming in the most violent neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side and elsewhere in the city.
The very name has ignited a political firestorm, especially in City Hall, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others dispute any suggestion that Chicago is home to gunplay and death.??
08-06-2015 - Vidéo Spike Lee /
