We were forwarded an email that claims that bombs were found behind McDonalds at Sheridan and Wilson and were detonated by the police. We had our doubts about running it, as it seems very urban mythic. It doesn't seem likely that this could happen without someone noticing, but ... this is Uptown and stranger things have happened. In any case, Second City Cop received the same information as we did and has posted about it. You can follow the saga there.
Update: A commenter reminded us that Second City Cop is pretty raw as far as language and emotions. Probably should add a NSFW warning re the link to the blog. It's cops talking to other cops and the comments are funny, graphic, often profane and often offensive. Travel over at your own risk.
Update #2: See "MacGyver" Type Bombs Explode in Uptown Alley via the Sun-Times
Right as I was walking out the door, believe it or not, I heard three pops, each about two seconds apart.It being Uptown, I thought they were gunshots.Over an hour later, I went out into the parking lot (which is behind where I live) and noticed it blocked off by the police. Was told they discovered an explosive device.
ReplyDeleteSlightly off topic...I followed the link from your site to Second City Cop. I read his piece on the incident. I also read the comments and then a few other posts/comments. A lot of offensive posts/comments on that blog.
ReplyDeleteYou run a nice blog...I'm not sure that's the crowd you should be linking to.
I've been reading the scc blog for a couple years now, ever since an article in the Daily Southtown clued me in to it. It's the best source I know of for finding out what really goes on in this City.
ReplyDeleteStories break on the blog before they do in the MSM, which frequently rips it off.
If one is so easily offended, then by all means don't read the scc blog. Nice try at censorship, Impact.
You run a nice blog...I'm not sure that's the crowd you should be linking to.
ReplyDeleteWhat an utterly bizarre comment. I don't think I've seen arrogance/classism so blatant in a comment before -- especially not when the "crowd" being spoken of first responder personnel, who deserve more respect than that.
Censorship? I don't care if those guys write a blog. They can write anything they like. Remember, they don't allow people who disagree with them to post.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Uptown Update should link there because, read the comments, there's a lot of underlying racism there. And, yes for us Uptown liberals, way too much right-wing stuff there.
Read it all you like. It's kind of interesting to learn how cops really think. But, if I ran Uptown Update, I wouldn't want to associate with it.
SCC is the most reliable unfiltered blog as a crime news source the city has to offer. As Therese said, stories break there long before the news hits the major press.
ReplyDeleteTherese, you might want to look up the word "censorship" before you start lobbing accusations.
ReplyDeleteBombs? At McDonald's?
ReplyDeleteWell bombs in Uptown. Not the first time.
Probably just some local kids or some idiot trying to strike back because of our attacks on Libya.
As for the SCC blog it's often offensive. If you don't like it don't read it. The Supreme Court said the idiot anti American/anti gay Phelps family can picket funerals. What does that have to do with SCC? It means that Freedom of Speech is damn close to being an absolute right.The first amendment is the FIRST amendment and the minority of idiots who
post at SCC can say what they want as long as the moderator doesn't squash it. There is often a lot of good information in that blog if you look beyond the idiocy and the whining.
I happen to know the cop who coined the phrase Phil "Old Country Buffet" Cline at that site. He used to be a stand up comedian, but became a cop because he needed a steady source of income. Some of the stuff he posts there is raunchy, funny and often shines a light on what really happens in our fine city. Other commenters there are also great. Some are idiots. Such is life.
As that great American idiot Donald Rumsfeld said "freedom is messy". If you don't like the SCC blog don't read it.
Hopefully my last comment regarding SCC.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against this blog or its existence. I plan on reading it more often.
My post was intended to suggest to the owner of Uptown Update that he/she/they (sorry I've to bother to find out who owns this blog) that he/she/they be careful not to appear as if to endorse what's said there.
Uptown is a very diverse neighborhood with a lot of hard-working community activists trying to change things for the better. I'd hate to think someone who reads this blog might follow a link over, read the posts and comments as I did, and misinterpret Uptown Update's link as an endorsement of that type of thinking.
I've visited SCC before, but had forgotten about it. Uptown Update led me there again and as I said, I'll probably visit more often.
But, as a blog owner myself, I can't stress the importance of blog owners choosing their friends and links-to carefully. To paraphrase another poster...it can get messy.
Also, sorry for pulling everyone away from the original, more important story.
ReplyDeleteNext time, I'll send an email.
Dumb teens I would guess.
ReplyDeleteSomething as simple as putting mentos in a diet coke bottle, and sealing the bottle, will make a spectacularly loud noise. (Big bang)
Hopefully, these were on the more benign end of the spectrum, and not incendiary in any way.
Whoa...the police are saying there was acid in them...that is more on the criminal end of the spectrum.
ReplyDeleteIf there is any silver lining to situations like this, it is that the people who make amateur devices often hurt themselves...and they deserve it.
@ Impact... "I also read the comments and then a few other posts/comments. A lot of offensive posts/comments on that blog."
ReplyDeleteWOW!
JUST, WOW!
From George Orwell:
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
The mental and emotional scars that cops carry with them after a career of having to deal with the unspeakable evil in this world is truly amazing.
All I can say is if you can't deal with reality then stay away from SCC and probably coppers, as well. Trust me, their reality is probably vastly different than yours, and SCC is where many of them vent and de-stress.
People, lay off of Impact and go back to the topic. Impact already said that next time, he/she will e-mail.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of service to the readers of the UU - even Impact.
ReplyDeletePoint of fact though - we cannot prove, nor do we intend to prove, that every visitor to the SCC blog is a Chicago Police Officer or associated with the Department in any way, shape or form. Witness the numerous readers here who have visited and aren't the police. We aren't for the thin skinned and a lot of stuff is truly "inside baseball" type chatter. We have our trolls popping in and out, no doubt the same as here.
In any event, stop by again ladies and gents.
>> Whoa...the police are saying there was acid in them...that is more on the criminal end of the spectrum.
ReplyDeleteLemon juice is also an acid.
I used to make these in high school (though we'd blow them off in a field rather than behind McDonald's). You just need an empty 2 liter bottle, a certain type of household cleaner (which I will not name) and another certain household product (which I also will not name) to cause a chemical reaction that produces a gas. Seal up the 2 liter with the cap and wait about 10 minutes. Huge, huge bang. It's a prank akin to TPing someone's house.
Looks like some kids figured out how to make these; hopefully it won't catch on given the real crime in the area (no need for the cops to be pulled away for this type of thing). They also can pack quite a punch if you'd be foolish enough to hold one when it went off. But, this is clearly a case of kids with a little too much knowledge for their own good. The "acid" in question is nothing more than what you can pick up at Jewel in the cleaning aisle.
Can we maybe re-focus on "there were homemade bombs left the alley behind neighbors' homes"?
ReplyDeleteThat's the real scary stuff!
I know we're all in "argument on" mode, but ... SOMEONE LEFT BOMBS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!
So many "monitors" trying to tell everyone what to say or whining about the whining of other posters....
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the details UU provided about this incident and the link to further info about it - I also very much appreciate the police who put their lives on the line for us.
Uptown History Note: The mansion that originally stood on the site of the McDonald's on that corner was twice firebombed around 1920. It had belonged to plumbing family scion Christopher Wolffe.
Frank Cuneo (previous to that time, a resident of Buena Park at Hazel & what is today Cullom) bought the house from Wolffe around 1910-11 and after a few years, at great expense & political clout & the closing of Sheridan Road at night for a week, moved the house on temporary rail tracks north up Sheridan Road to Castlewood & Sheridan - Uptown was getting too commercial & violent & too full of entertainment venues (where today the public school & the Boys & Girls Club is. Cuneo bought the house because his daughter liked its 3rd floor ballroom.
Frank Cuneo founded Chicago's South Water Market with his father-in-law (the Garabaldi family), Frank Cuneo's son founded Cuneo Press, and Maryville was originally Cuneo Hospital, the result of the family's largess to their native Uptown.
Once located on Castlewood & Sheridan, this house was twice fire-bombed - presumably because certain workers at the South Water Market were pissed about some issue.
Many other bomb incidents in Uptown's history - one at 741 W. Gordon Terrace because the home's owner was School Board President.
Around 1930 the schools tried to open cafeterias to feed Depression-era hungry children, but local vendors and shop owners near schools feared this could destroy their business selling junk food to kids (my interpretation), so a group of them bombed the School Board president's home at night (the front porch at 741 W. Gordon had to be rebuilt).
History is often a window to the future.
He did it.
ReplyDeletenot to beat a dead horse, BUT
ReplyDelete"Censorship is the suppression of speech or other communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other CONTROLLING body." :)
And how cool that scc posted here.
@ El said...
ReplyDelete"... this is clearly a case of kids with a little too much knowledge for their own good. The "acid" in question is nothing more than what you can pick up at Jewel in the cleaning aisle."
If I may, UU, this is a different and vastly contrasting opinion about the bombs found in 023 that was posted in SCC. This is also why cops talk to each other on their own blog... to express the concerns they witness every day during their career and to gain insightful information that may save their lives. Cops must ALWAYS look and prepare for the worst case scenario in order to protect themselves and everyone else.
" Anonymous said...
I did 5 tours in Iraq/Afganistan in EOD(Explosive Ordnance Disposal). The only details about this is what i have read on this site but man, does it sound familiar. What is actually scary and should be feared is that if bomb scare is from a legit group then watch out in the next couple days or weeks. Im gonna go ahead and say that in the surrounding buildings someone was video taping the entire response from beginning to finish. We always had to switch up our approach, our response, staging area, triage areas containment areas etc because they started to know our every move from dummy devices set up days before in the same type of location.... of course cpd will respond same way everytime. If they wanted it to blow up it would have blown up.. this is a classic probing and recon mission.. be extra careful out there. never approach or respond to a suspicious package or object the same way twice. change your tactics everytime and be careful!
3/20/2011 02:30:00 AM
I agree with TrumanSquareNabr.
ReplyDeleteI want to know who were the bombs left for?(Community, for the heck of it, etc)
IF there were made by some random "kids" just being destructive...that is still frightening. You just may never know what could of happened and thank goodness, no one was hurt.
I guess we all just need to be on the outlook for one another and our surroundings.