A reader and neighbor of Ald. Shiller sends in the following pic and info:Where was Ald. Helen Shiller as bullets flew across Broadway, Wilson and Racine yesterday afternoon?
On the street talking with police?
In her office working hard to stop all this violence?
No.
She was spotted at 4.30pm – a few short hours after the first shots rang out less than a block from her office – returning to her peaceful Andersonville home. Way to show concern for your hood Helen.
AWESOME WORK! A picture is worth 1,000 words, isn't that the old adage?
ReplyDeleteHmmmm...a Helen-Cam...now there's an idea...
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side for Helen, perhaps she really lives at this address. However, UU just ruined her weekend.
ReplyDeleteCome on it's Halloween weekend.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Helen will be traveling down to Buena Park to help pass out candy to the kids at Buena Circle Park. They do use adults as monitors.
Snicker.
This photo is going to make her and some of her supporters shitbat kwazy.
I generally believe in a zone of privacy for anyone, to include our elected officials, but I have to admit this does amuse me.
Take Action:
ReplyDeletelet's call the press, meet in the park tomorrow (see Clarendon park opening ceremonies on UU) and bring the spotlight to Uptown again. The more "she" feels the heat the better. Hopefully Daly will feel some heat to knowing that we are a very pissed off and concerned community looking for immediate change. Let's make signs about anti-violence, being concerned citizens and wanting Schiller's immediate resignation and a actual qualified/concerned leader put in place by Daly. Let's disrupt the event by letting the media know about the shootings that just took place there and take a fucking stand. I believe in our productive loitering but look at when the shootings and violence are happening and where. Time of day means nothing to these people. It's a small contribution to solving our problem but unless we raise our voices to be heard by the mayor or national media, when can we really expect to stop living like this? We need to find out what we and the police can do that is actually effective. Screw Schiller, her office means nothing in my mind, it's pointless to continue complaining about her, she has proven her worth and it isn't much. Tomorrow 9:30, Clarendon Park, bring constructive signs demanding Schiller's resignation, and a end to violence. Call everyone in the neighborhood that we know and let's do something!!!!
COURAJ follows police officers with cameras, why can't we follow Helen? Same line of thinking, she is a public servant and her job involves dealing with the public. During the course of her job, she should be recorded...
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that you want to cast your lot in with COURAJ?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else find it slightly odd that whenever Helen is seen in public, it's usually from the back?
ReplyDeleteThis picture.
Her sitting at the Town Hall meeting.
Her walking briskly to her car after the Truman meeting in August.
OK I am puzzled. The city requires all city employees to live within the city limits, so shouldn't the alderman live in the wards they represent? She lives and reaps the rewards of living in Ald. Smith's ward. Ald. Smith's ward is well run, lower crime rate, lots of unique businesses, and a vibrant community that people are flocking to to live, and enjoy life in. Helen's ward? A wild west shoot out taken over by criminals.
ReplyDeleteHer eminence, Alderwoman Shiller, does own the place on Carmen.
ReplyDeleteThat block is in the 46th Ward. Extreme NW corner of the Ward, but nonetheless the 46th Ward.
Aldercritters are required to live in their wards.
@HopelessInUptown -- Helen does live within her Ward, at the far north edge.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Helen's, and will be voting for James C. in the next election (and celebrating his victory later), but I am a little bit bothered that Helen's being stalked outside her home with a camera. Just because she is a public servant doesn't mean the public should automatically have 24-hour access to her; you all would be more than a little upset if your boss, coworkers, clients, customers showed up at your doorstep unexpectedly, no matter how bad your job performance.
Hopeless--isn't it possible that Alderman Smith and Shiller both inherited two very different kinds of wards when they came into office? Shiller's ward already had a very different flavor and character, and history than did Smith's, I believe. Point being, before you turn Smith into some kind of Aldersaint, I'd just take into consideration that Smith may have already had a good head start.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's a bit creepy to be snapping people at their homes, following them around like that, even Aldermen. Following her is not the same as that Copwatch following cops because Shiller does not stop and arrest people, and SHiller was not in the middle of performing any official public duty because she was GOING HOME (and I'm not trying to defend Copwatch, but it's pretty silly to try to analogize the two, just not the same). And I've no reports, by the way, of Copwatch following officers to their homes and taking photos...
Plus, if the shooting happened at 2 ish and Shiller did the apparently "unthinkable" act of going home at 4 ish, well, how are you to know she did not talk to anyone in that approximately 2 hr time period?
UW, paleeze. It's rather pointless to even attempt to defend Helen's record of public safety.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why she was going home. It may have been a family emergency; maybe she was feeling ill; maybe she was meeting a repairman at her home.
Is it dirty to take her photo? I wouldn't do it myself but given her own dirty bag of tricks she's pulled over the years, she can hardly complain.
You just gotta figure her and her dwindling band of supporters hate cameras.
ReplyDeleteThe riot video. IT'S a CONSPIRACY!
The media asking annoying questions. IT's a CONSPIRACY!
It seems at least some of her own immediate neighbors have now turned on her. The end is nigh.
There are already at least three people openly planning to run against her and the cabal of 19th Ward Daleyite hacks haven't even made their move yet. Look for an openly gay candidate to siphon off votes from the Capplemaniac and possibly a black candidate to siphon off votes from Shiller. Throw in someone with a hispanic surname and add a pinch of Asian surname just for the hell of it.
Add in someone from the Lakeview portion of the ward and we could have a 6 person race.
The goal is to get their guy, and it is a guy, as number one or two in the February election and then win the runoff.
The 19th Warders lust, and I do mean LUST, after political power on the lakefront. The big political money in this town revolves around real estate and when the economy improves the lakefront fishing hole is better than the SW side fishing hole. Former Sheriff Sheehan played around in N lakefront politics in the late 90's, but didn't have much luck.
Expect more White Sox flags in local windows, folks. The barbarians are at the gates.
Expect more White Sox flags in local windows, folks. The barbarians are at the gates.
ReplyDeleteThat's disconcerting.
Tho - not too often are warring factions of baseball fans known to open fire in the middle of a crowded intersection in the middle of the afternoon.
IP, Are you saying this person hasn't even moved into the ward yet and wants to run for Alderman? I wish him luck but I'm not placing any bets on him.
ReplyDeleteHoly Moley,
ReplyDeleteboth Dan Hynes and Lisa Madigan live just west of Uptown. They both have ties to the SW side. Hynes grew up there and Madigan moved there for part of her childhood.
It's not at all unusual for 19th Warders to move to the lakefront after college. Some stay. Some leave. Because of demographic changes on the SW side many south side politicos have been looking north. Some of it just because their kids have moved here post college and is not necessarily a power move.
From what I can tell this guy has been around here for at least 5 years. Maybe 15 years? I guess I could look at the voter records, but being Halloween I'm dressing up like a Guinness and I'll be looking for a glass to pour myself into. Preferably 5'10", brunette, with poor eyesight, low standards and daddy issues. It would also be helpful is she didn't want to have any children.
Yo, after the White Sox won the World Series I recall reading about some south side doofus who circled around Wrigley Field for hours with a Sox Flag hanging out of his pickup truck. Luckily, my nephew called and I was able to get my brother to stop driving and go home.
Oh I just want to make one thing perfectly clear.(I'm channeling my inner DICK Nixon here)
ReplyDeleteI will support Cappleman for Alderman no matter what he thinks about that or even if he offers me money to support someone else.
Personally, I think he ran a very good campaign last time with no experience and little money. Given the work he has been doing he is the challenger to beat and I think that is recognized by the Mayoral toadies hoping to spread their influence to the 46th Ward.
I just got my tax bill and the increase was small. Next year because Uptown has better withstood the real estate collapse we are looking at some serious tax increases.
http://cookcountyassessor.com/LatestNews/LateNews.aspx#
Scroll through the Chicago township reassessments and notice that while most other townships are seeing big decreases in assessed values our township has seen smaller decreases or slight increases.
That means the 2009 property taxes, payable next year, are going to hit us in Uptown harder than the rest of the city. We will be shouldering more of the burden.
Just before the next election too.
Surrender Dorothy!(I mean Helen)
It's gonna be a perfect political storm.
Holey Moley, way not to read a word I said. I did not defend her record--what I said was that what was being said was speculative. You could be right, maybe she did not talk to the police. But using speculation to justify snapping someone entering their home just because you don't think they spoke to the police after the shooting, and therefore they ought to be followed? Don't think so.
ReplyDeleteWTF does it say Shiller was "followed"? Actually, it says a neighbor of hers sent in the photo.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, any competent alderman, or any alderman who at least wanted to give the appearance of giving a damn about bullets flying into businesses on main retail corridors in her ward, forcing mothers with children to hit the ground to avoid being hit, would have stuck around, talked to the police, released a statement onm her website decrying the violence, and been out reassuring her constituents.
Well, that alderman would not be Helen Shiller. And the photo bears out that fact very, very well.
List one thing, just ONE thing, Helen Shiller did in reaction to the gunshots across the street from her office EXCEPT go home two hours later.
UW, read what I said again. I gave her a benefit of a doubt. You have been reading this blog long enough to know that she pulls some dirty tactics and the evidence has been shown many times. One can't complain of perceived dirty tactics when one is pulling them at the same time.
ReplyDeleteGiven her horrible record of responding to crime, sooner or later she has to expect that a photo like this will appear. I'm surprised it took this long. I also admit that I chuckled a little that she was caught.
HM, you started out saying I was trying to defend her record, which I was not. TSN, whether it was someone who followed her or a neighbor snapping her photo and sending it to a website so as to generate speculation on what she did (or did not do) 2 hrs prior, is still kind of creepy to me. But ok, you win, she was caught going home 2 hours after the fact. That proves everything.
ReplyDeleteAny decent, self-respecting, investigative reporter (read: No reporter for the Trib or Sun Times) who cares even the smallest amount for integrity in government would follow a buffoon-of-an-alderman like Shiller around and record her doings after an event like that that occured in her ward LESS THAN A BLOCK from her office. This is political scandal and the electorate should be mortified that her response is to take her toys and go home. Da Maya should be livid with her inaction. The cavalier attitude that our elected officials exhibit toward these events is inexcusable and exactly what make Chicago such a political hell-hole and NOT the world class city they perport to be. But, alas, the electorate are too busy and apathetic of those actions by the elected to actually care. They would rather sit at a computer and complain before actually getting things done.
ReplyDeleteLike my momma always say: "You get whatever you deserve."
"she was caught going home 2 hours after the fact. That proves everything."
ReplyDeleteThank you! That can't be stressed enough. SHE. WENT. HOME.
Bullets were flying, and SHE WENT HOME.
The ward had three gunfights on public streets in the space of four hours, and the person in charge of the ward? SHE WENT HOME.
In the corporate world, when the company has a crisis, no one asks the CEO to stick around and make sure things are made right. The CEO stays until the situation's under control. Helen's never worked in the corporate world, but surely she's seen "Mad Men" or a movie or two.
Yet her reaction when children were ducking bullets across from her office less than two hours prior? SHE WENT HOME.
Where was she when Francis Oduro was killed at the same spot? When the innocent bystander was shot in the back on that same spot on Christmas Day?
Did she release a statement of regret, saying she was working with the community and the police to make sure such things didn't happen again? Was she all over the news, decrying violence on the streets? Did she change her website, like she did for the very pressing announcements about Andersonville trick or treating or O'Hare concessions?
Nope, murders and violence don't even rank THAT HIGH with our alderman.
Because at the end of a good four hour work day, no matter what mayhem is going on in Uptown, SHE GOES HOME.
Thank you for pointing that out.
I had to run to Webster's for the definition of 'reptilian'
ReplyDelete