Good afternoon, everyone. I just got word from a commenter that there was a shooting on the 2900 block of North Gresham last night. Right away, I begin searching the news websites to see if they'd wrote anything about it. The Chicago Sun-Times did. Here is some of their article:
"A 16-year-old boy suffered a graze wound when a shooter riding a bicycle fired shots and struck him in the back in the Avondale neighborhood on the Northwest Side Sunday night. At 7:40 p.m. the teen, an alleged gang member, was standing on a porch on the 2900 block of North Gresham Avenue with a group of people when someone riding a bicycle fired five or six shots and grazed him in the back, according to police." Source/Read more.
Well, what can I say? Yet another shooting in the "wonderful" Avondale neighborhood. This has got to be at least the 7th or 8th shooting this year in Avondale, not to mention the stabbing on the 2900 block of North Springfield last weekend. And yet another gang related shooting. This is not really surprising me anymore, but it still pisses me off. What the hell are our Aldermen doing all day, besides sitting on their big asses? NOTHING. You'd think Aldermen Colon or Reboyras would be outraged about this, but they aren't. And they claim they cares about this neighborhood .... what a shame. If they cared so much, they would be finding ways to end this bullshit. I don't see our Aldermen speaking out about this. This is exactly why I blog, to show all of you that there is LOTS of crime, especially gang related, and our aldermen don't give a rat's ass.
I have lived in Avondale ALL of my life. It has NEVER been this bad here. Up until last summer, I felt so safe here that I would want to go outside all of the time, but that changed. Starting with the stabbing at George and Ridgeway last July, the streets got violent. I thought things were bad then, but when the two murders happened in the area of Wellington and Albany, it showed me that violence was over-spreading our lovely neighborhood. I thought I'd never say this, but I actually think Logan Square is getting better even though there's more gangs down that way (more or less on the southern end), while Avondale gets worse.
So, regarding this shooting (especially to those who live over there), what did the police do (as in looking for a crime scene, taking pics of it, talking to witnesses, etc.)? I know the shooter was arrested due to a good citizen (and whoever you are, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS :-]), but what else happened?
And I have questions for before this occurred:
*What was the vitcim doing on the porch with his friends? They say he's a gang member, so I suspect he was throwing up signs, talking too loud, etc.
* Did the vitcim and offenders have a confrontation (argument, street fight, etc.) before the stupid thug pulled out the gun and decided to shoot the vitcim?
* Who started the confrontation (if there was one)?
* How many gangbangers were involved? What gang was this?
* Did anybody threaten to pull out a gun before the shots were fired?
Now what I want to know is, what can we do as a community to stop this bullshit? We can talk about this and go to our Beat meetings, but do those really help anymore? I don't feel like they do. Maybe we ought to have a community walk? Or a public safety meeting? Or stand on corners with signs demanding our aldermen to take action? Or stand on corners in groups to show these little punks we're not taking shit off of them? The latter sounds great.
Comments? Questions? Send them here or email me. Thank you for your time.
P.S. Sorry for all of the angry profanity, but this just makes me so mad.
UPDATE, 7/28/09: More gunshots have went off on Gresham. You can read my latest post regarding it. This is most likely a retailation shooting.
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Avondale Logan Square Crime Blotter
Hi, everyone. I'm AvondaleLoganSquareCrimeBlotter. I'm a life-long resident (16 years) of Avondale. More
Comments
Before I forget, to the idiot who made the comment in the article, saying (quote/unquote), "The only reason why a suspect was caught is becuase this is the Avondale neighborhood is still pretty descent and not infested with hispanics or blacks. Good luck in getting someone to come forward in a black neighborhood and when it comes to a hispanic neighborhood, they don't want to come foward because many are undocumented. I am guessing that it was a Polish person that came foward, good for that person," ...
... First of all, this neighborhood is mostly infested with those races, mostly Hispanic (and I do NOT have a problem with that. I only have a problem with the idiots who are commiting all of the crime), but they're not causing ALL of the problems, at ALL. Take a walk down to Milwaukee and say, from Central Park to Belmont, then tell me that. Or read this blog. All the time, there's a call about drunk (mostly) Polish (White) males fighting, urinating, harassing people or whatever the hell they do, and they even harass innocent Hispanics/Blacks. I've seen this in person. I've even been harassed by them, and I'm White, so what does that tell you?. Second, I have Hispanic neighbors who have had come out to tell police what happened in a shooting, fight, stabbing, etc., so there are Hispanics who hate this crime as well. A couple of times, they even gave out descriptions and addresses of these offenders. I've even see a few Blacks talking to police when something happens. Yesterday, in the shootings in Austin, there were witnesses who gave out descriptions and what they saw, and Austin is just about an all Black neighborhood, so don't give me that bull that they don't care. And finally, there are times when the Polish around here are uncooperative. I have NO intentions of sounding racist here, but this is true.
Without getting into the racial issues... I'd love to hear some practical advice on cleaning up a neighborhood. I'm sorry, but the walks and the vigils just seem utterly pointless. A few weeks ago I witnessed a bike ride to "stop the shooting." What possible good does a dozen white guys riding their bikes up Hamlin, throwing t-shirts and bumper stickers at people accomplish? Nothing. On the other hand, the neighborhoods that have managed to clean up have largely done so by driving up the property values so high that *all* lower-income people had to leave, which is kind of like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. So, is it possible to have a safe, affordable neighborhood?
Well that's the big question right?
If a neighborhood is affordable, that means that people who would rather get into trouble than work to earn a living are more likely to be living there. That's all there is to it. If you want to get rid of these people, you have to send them to some other schmuck's neighborhood (or to the suburbs!).
What amazes me here in Chicago to this day, are those spots where low income neighborhoods but up against well-to-do areas. Look at that whole radius around Cabrini Green sometime. One minute you're in yuppieville, the next you're in front of rundown schools and a crumbling low-rise project.
There's a purpose to vigils and bike rides, but I don't think it's "cleaning up the neighborhood" so much as giving people who care about that stuff a way to hang out and do stuff together. I think that's a pretty good reason to meet up.
Andrew, the thing you described on Hamlin DOES sound pointless. However, I don't think the walks are completey pointless. I think if we walk, we might show these thugs we're not playing anymore. I also believe in vigils since I am a praying person (but I could just go to church if I wanted to pray about it).
I believe the best thing we can do, without getting rid of affordable housing here, is to start calling 911 regarding EVERYTHING these punks are doing. It'll start getting on the dispatcher's and the cops' nerves, but maybe if we do that, they'll start helping us clean up this neighborhood.
I feel that it is wrong that those neighborhoods threw out their lower income people. They deserve to have a place to live as well, and I'm sure there are people in lower income housing that hate this stuff as much as we do. I, myself, may be on the verge of going into low income housing and I know people in it (who do NOT cause trouble).
Commish, that's not true, at all. Like I said, there are people living in lower income housing who HATE THIS CRAP AS MUCH AS WE DO. There ARE good people in lower income housing. I just wish that the troublemakers would get kicked out and that the good people in lower income get to stay.
I agree with you ALSCB, there seems to be much more tension this summer than in the past summers. I have only lived in W. Logan Square/Avondale for a few years, but as soon as it warmed up this summer, I started noticing a lot more activity- a lot more territory tagging too.
On a different note, I can't believe (referring to the Sun Times article) that someone would make a public statement that is so arrogant, but I guess that is out of our control to change. And I think that it is terrible that people associate individuals (as some have commented) who live in low income as people who don't care about crime. I think if you raise awareness (although I am not sure quite how) and start some kind of movement like you were saying, then a lot of people would be interested in joining regardless of their background.
I've been noticing that too. This evening, that was really proved to us when the big fights broke out at Koz Park.
I also agree that it's terrible that people associate every low income person with all of this. I also agree that alot of people would join our awareness thing regardless of their race, background, etc.
It seems to me that the increase in crime and general goofing off is most likely directly related to the crapy economy right now. More people out of work = more people getting into trouble because they have nothing better to do with their time. More people out of work = more thefts, robberies, crimes as people try to make money any way possible. More people out of work = more people feeling hopeless (which can lead to drug and alcohol abuse, which in turn leads to crime).
I don't have the answers to all of this, but until things improve I agree that we should take a stand and call 911 as often as necessary.
I agree with you, Lisa. I also think the ecomony is the blame for all of this.