Saturday, April 25, 2009

An Uptown Afternoon

Police scanner activity from April 24 courtesy: News-Star online at yournews.com
-A 3:28 p.m. police call said “There is a sex offense at the Broncho Billy Playlot at 4734 N. Magnolia. “It’s a sex offense behind the playlot. A male white was taking off his pants. He is now headed eastbound.”

-A 3:04 p.m. call said “We have a male black causing a disturbance at 2010 W. Montrose. He is yelling, cursing and threatening people at the bus stop. Then he got on Bus #6191 and he’s headed eastbound right now.”

-At 3:08 p.m. a call said “There is theft in progress. A male black is taking security tags out of the books” at the Borders at 4718 N. Broadway.

-Police received a complaint that vendors were hawking food and wares at Montrose Harbor without city permits. An officer said one vendor has a permit, but another needed to know where to get one at 2:11 p.m. and was told the vendor can go to City Hall and get a permit from the Revenue Department.

-A battery in progress was reported at the Wilson Red Line Station at 3:30 p.m. Then, a call at 3:32 p.m. said “I’m over there. The guy already got on the train.”

-A call at 2:09 p.m. said a suspicious man was sitting in his car talking on a cell phone for over an hour at 4650 N. Sheridan. Backup was sent.

-People drinking at 4402 N. Sheridan at 1:04 p.m. were disrupting CTA bus operations.

9 comments:

  1. So, I was in three Harmony about 3 weeks ago and I observed a group of male and female teens, age 13-17 approximately, loud and rambunctious outside of the restaurant. It scared me a little. I asked the lady at the counter if this was normal and she said yes with a slight nervous laugh. I also asked if she was ever scared and she said no because she knows them, as if she has become use to the activity.

    Two unmarked police cars did circle through while I was there but the teens did not seem to be unnerved; they continued with their behavior. They waited until their rides came and did not leave until they were good and ready. Seems like gone are the days when a police car could break up a crowd by its mere presence. I am so all for being vigilant and keeping an eye out but what about our safety. I remember thinking as I left, “next time I‘ll just have them deliver”.

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  2. I've had the same experience at Three Harmony on many occasions and I feel bad for the owners. No business owner should have to put up with that sort of thing and it's clear to me, despite the proprietor's tolerance, that there is an intimidation factor involved.

    On one occasion, I was picking up my food and a group of these teens quickly entered the restaurant and didn't appear to have any intention of ordering anything. As I walked down Magnolia on the way home, I came across some officers patting down other teens from this crew and let them know that part of the group scattered and was in the restaurant. One of the officers headed over there to check it out. I'm not sure what came of it, but it's clear that the police are too apathetic to proactively police known trouble spots. They know what's going on, but they are purely reactive and it's frustrating.

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  3. hey at least we don't live in Rogers Park they just had there third fatal shooting in three days. This last one making a terrible mess of the Howard street train station bus turn around.

    Which brings me to the second point if you happen to be the victim of a shooting near or on CTA property. Please try to stay still and bleed out so as to minimize the inconveniance for other more fortunate un wounded CTA riders.

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  4. Similar to a comment I posted last week, except in this case, the police had roughly a dozen or so teens (male and female) lined up along the 'Bronco' play lot on Magnolia.
    So hopefully this means there's more attention being payed to the 'kid' gangs.

    On another note, there were 3 unmarked police cars, doing 3 separate busts, on Wilson today, at the same time.

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  5. I think its going to be a long hot summer this year in uptown. I have called the gardian angles and they siad they might make a few trips through our area. We sure could use them to help clean it up around here. Contact them and ask for thier help and they will come to see who they can catch..www.guardianangles.com

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  6. Um...since when is it a crime to be loud and rambunctious in public? That's what teenagers do.

    I have worked at Stockton - on the corner of Beacon and Montrose - and can assure you that the middle school kids (up to age 15) who go there are pretty well put-together, especially when compared to others across the city.

    And Aron, why would you assume the teens who entered the restaurant had anything to do with those who were being questioned by the police?

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  7. Sorry Jane, but you don't have to listen and watch very long to realize the group that typically hangs out in front of 3 Harmony is all bad news. Even just the language is extremely vulgar and sexist and completely inappropriate anywhere, anytime. It's a sad statement that I can't walk with my daughter to pick up an eggroll!

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  8. Just nitpicking here, but the Bronco Billy Play lot is NOT at 4734 N. Magnolia!

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  9. I think Jane made a really good point. Sure it sucks to hear teens cursing loudly and it's something maybe you'd like your young kids to avoid hearing but come on.

    TheComfortZone said they waited until their rides came and then left. So you would like the police to start harassing groups of kids waiting for rides?

    And Sneki, just what does "all bad news" mean? If they are selling drugs, call the cops. If they are stealing, call the cops. If they are loud, crude, and vulgar, try to remember what kids did to annoy adults when you were in school.

    I for one don't like the way many adults just assume the worst about kids they don't know and think the police should just randomly stop and search them. Having grown up here (chicago, not uptown) I remember how much it sucked everytime the police would detain me and my friends for no reason because it was assumed we were up to no good.

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