By Lorraine SwansonLake Effect News
In an all too familiar scene that is being played out across city neighborhoods in Chicago’s bucket-of-blood summer, this time it was Uptown’s turn to gather in front of street shrine of holy candles and stuffed animals for a murdered neighbor.
More than a hundred residents turned out for an uneasy peace vigil on the 4500 block of North Magnolia on Friday evening where a 21-year-old man was shot to death earlier this week.
Aaron Carter was gunned down around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, along with a 27-year-old man who was shot in the legs, according to published reports. Carter, who grew up on Magnolia, was pronounced dead early the next morning at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital. Continue Reading
“Who’s going to protect them?” Davis asked. “It’s a safety issue or lack thereof.”
ReplyDeleteI think that's a fair question.
Funny how the Helen side can't help but play the class warfare side along with the "It was a lot worse in the 90's" card. I really don't care if it was "worse" yesterday. We need to focus on the present and the future.
ReplyDeleteI thought Mr. King and Ms. Cooper did a great job without playing the Uptown cards, or passing the buck.
Why must the Helen mindset bring all down to the lowest common denominator as apposed to bringing others up?
I attended yesterday and mourned not Aaron who I did have run ins with, but I mourned the loss of security. Comments like “They was wrong to take him out because he was a good person. He did nothing to nobody" and statements like "the family doesn’t believe Carter’s death to be related to a gang violence" make me realistic that nothing will change in the near future. These people just don't get it. They aren't willing to join civilized society.
If I find a "Hennessy Memorial" in my yard it is going in the recycle bin with yesterdays tribune.
According to police, it wasn't gang related actually, so they are partly right. But he certainly wasn't a good kid in my mind, but ultimately that judgment is in God's hands now.
ReplyDeleteIts aways the same old story from friends and family every time these punks get shot or killed. How great of a boy he was. A outstanding model for the neighborhood. People really have a blind eye to the real truth behind these type shootings and the sooner they face the real facts of life the sooner the ward will become safer for all that live here.
ReplyDeleteStill not a word on the 46th Ward site.....we know the "L couldn't stop at Argyle on July 9th"
ReplyDeleteThat was nearly a month ago.
Quite a bit has happened since.
I hear a lot of comments from some about why are we mourning a thug?
ReplyDeleteI don't think its mourning what this guy represented as much as mourning more life lost which tears this community apart and really mourning what could have been. People mourn that this guy went down the wrong path and chose a lifestyle that destroyed him.
Was he a scumbag? Oh yes, but that doesn't mean it isn't sad that this community gets rocked by another tragedy and then the possible retaliation.
This is part of a larger point. Its very easy for some like Derek Davis, the aforementioned lady/idiot who used this event to lash out at middle class residents and those like the small number of biased morons on this site who make their little comments (which don't help) comparing Wilson Yard to Cabrini Green suggesting grandma and and everyone in the building are criminals.
But why did things become so divided? It doesn't have to be. That vigil had people of all classes and colors there. This should be a teaching lesson for us all.
Irish Pirate said something regarding that shooting that made sense. The overwhelming group people who live in subsidized buildings are more likely to suffer than anyone because they are more likely to get caught in the crossfire.
They are more likely to have to live in fear because one group can ruin a otherwise peaceful building until the residents put that fear aside and push these sycophants out just like recently happened at my building on Sunnyside.
I live in a building that is majority low income. Everyone in this building are good honest upstanding people who I've known since I was a little kid. Its sad to look around this summer and not see children being children because some choose to not care and blindly shoot anywhere and possibly kill a child. Its heartbreaking to see kids like Robert Freeman, who's only crime was riding his bike and mowing lawns like his dad wanted him to to teach him about hard work, murdered.
This neighborhood doesn't have to be lost. Its the little things that count. Vigils (despite some saying they are useless), volunteering at Alternatives and the Boys and Girls Club and just showing that you will not be intimidated counts.
I worked hard. Went to college. Got a nice job as a radiology tech. I could leave and go to a nicer apartment but that's admitting defeat. I don't admit defeat. I have no plans in leaving a place were I've lived since I was 13.
Despite the Helen Shillers and a small few who make comments suggesting the poor are not welcome in the neighborhood, Johnny King really said it best. Put money, condos and Wilson Yard aside, the vigil showed the haves and have nots can find common ground.
Did anyone notice that on CCDOC he was supposed to be jailed without bond? I would think this was a revenge murder.
ReplyDeleteI mean lets be realistic Aarons Carters death was nothing short of "Gang Related"!! Aaron was a known "gunner" for his gang. This is one of the reasons why he will be missed dearly by his counter-parts. Still all in all Aaron has also been on the other side of the gun so many times before. He not only leaves behind loved ones he also leaves behind victims as he has contributed to his "Gang" and the deterioation of the Uptown community. Lets remeber "A man lives by hi desicions ALONE". and to answer the questions of the community?? You can always count on the street Reporter for the REAL on the Streets.
ReplyDeleteThe young man who died had and extensive record, extraordinary for a person of his age.
ReplyDeleteHis last stint in jail began on May 11, 2009. He was charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
He tried to kill someone.
Jail ID 2009-0030418.
BUT..... Sweet Aaron will be back.... to vote for the Beast or her surrogate.
ReplyDeleteThese people just don't get it. They aren't willing to join civilized society.
ReplyDeleteWhile their focus on this incident may be misguided, to say they "aren't willing to join civilized society is also a bit misguided. Sure they may be mourning the death of a thug, but unless ALL of them are also out blasting away as well, "these people" aren't doing anything uncivilized. Misguided, perhaps...
To say this was not gang related, when most of the visitors to the vigil over the past few days have been blatantly flaunting gang colors, and even the balloons are red... it is just a slap in the face to the community. This man died because of his actions, and now we have to pretend that it was a loss to the community. What is a loss to the community is the loss of security. Many of my neighbors have had enough and are just cutting their losses and going. To think that for some reason this pocket of the northside is being allowed to be a gang zone just makes me sick. GANGS OUT OF UPTOWN. We have had enough. What will it take?
ReplyDeleteConnie, thank you for that information. It just solidifies a comment I said on another story. This kid was a piece of garbage that would have done the same thing had he been strapped himself. We would only be talking about the same thing with a different name. My thoughts are that there is one less piece of S&*t on our block.
ReplyDeleteJosh,
ReplyDeleteWhat I wrote was:
"The biggest victims of the criminal element in our community are the decent folks living in subsidized housing. It's bad enough having bangers on the street. Imagine how much worse it is to have them living across the hall or the courtyard."
My main criteria for people I want to live in this neighborhood is simple. Don't partake in serious criminality and don't make a mess. In other words leave me and your other neighbors the hell alone.
No shooting and/or violence, no loud gatherings, no drug dealing, no potato chip bags tossed on the ground etc.
It really doesn't matter to me whether people own, are market rate renters or subsidized renters. Just live by those simple rules.
As for the abundance of mentally ill people around here the more serious cases need to be forcibly medicated or institutionalized for their own good and more importantly the public good.
We had that fire in Wrigleyville in March 2007 that killed four people. The person who started it was a sometime Uptown resident and had serious mental health issues.
The people with the less serious mental health issues, such as my self medicating self, really aren't that much of a concern to me as the problems they may cause are minor in the larger picture of things.
Whoever the next alderman is their first priority should be forcing property owners to have draconian management policies regarding crime and bangers.
You get rid of the bangers and the rest of it is minor.
The second priority should be rebuilding the Wilson El stop.
The funny thing MOTS is that I debated weather or not to use the term "These People" is my description. I new the "everybody is a victim" side of life people like yourself would point that out.
ReplyDeleteThe "These People" that I was referring to are the EXACT people "blasting away."
I call them "uncivilized." Refusing to abide by the laws of the land. Terrorizing neighborhoods. You call them "misguided." If that is not the understatement of the new millennium I don't know what is.
Misguided is the 9 year old local youth who dropped an "N" Bomb in my yard yesterday. "Uncivilized" are the bangers who live by the gun and wait impatiently to sell rock as others hold a candle light vigil for one of their fallen homies.
Or Maybe I'm just "Misguided."
We have a culture of kids, raised by parents in the late 70's who decided after they gave birth that they need to live their teenage years, raise their babies as friends, and give it up to wishful thinking that they would turn out okay.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone notice the RED that was predominant in this memorial, I live on Magnolia and know for a fact that I have called the police on Mr. Carter and some of this co-horts in crime from the alley and on Malden.
NO ONE DESERVES TO DIE THE WAY THIS YOUNG MAN DID, but maybe just maybe had he not been allowed to drop out of school, had he been given the tools to cope with peer pressure from teachers who would not have to worry about his parents gettin' an attitude about their skills as teachers.
So now you have another kid DEAD, and of course all his homies who are looking for revenge, will hoop and holler for another week, and AARON and his family will be forgotten.
How about taking some of that energy and give the police what you know about this killing, I assure you the person who aimed the gun knew who he was after-BROAD DAYLIGHT-PLAYLOT FULL STREETS FULL AND NO ONE ELSE GOT ACCIDENTALLY HIT??????
Mourning the loss of a life... This "life" was one filled with non-contribution to community... Life is more than a word. It reflects your contribution to making the world a better place for you having been a part of it. I agree that the real sadness lies in "life" actually resulting in destruction of community. I don't believe in propagating a community dependent on the so called "haves". If the "haves" did not exist, what would happen to the "have nots" given the services provided to them. The Wire should be required viewing for living in this community. As far as Helen, she has all but packed up and moved on. I have fought in her office with the lovely Denise and bat boy. How she cashes a paycheck as a civil servant and feels good about it is beyond me. She is dismissive, but most of all scared of us. Perhaps she should read The Art Of War. I have two young children and have called the police several times to report prostitution and drug dealing in the neighborhood. In one instance, I stood across the street from Godfather Pizza in plain sight with my kids giving full descriptions of what I saw down to the fur coat the woman was wearing on a 90 degree day. Waited... No police passed by. It was 8:40AM. I read this blog everyday and have never posted until now. The concerns are frightening. We are not talking about complaints of dog owners not picking up after their animals. I lived in Wicker park for over 15 years and never recall anything quite like this. I worked trauma at Christ hospital and our first line was always " I was MMOB and these two dudes..." The story never changes, just the names.
ReplyDeleteOne very disturbing thing about this memorial was all the trash on the ground in front of the memorial. It showed a total lack of respect for everyone.
ReplyDeleteWell, those people just cost me a tenant. They got freaked out by this BS and will not renew their lease. Who do I sue?
ReplyDelete