Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Police Earning Their Money Today On Sheridan

Warm weather and teenagers fighting at Sheridan & Leland... they just go together like love and marriage, a horse and carriage...

A reader writes:  "I'm sure I wasn't the first person to call 911 around 3:15. Once school was out, a large group (mostly girls) decided to gather on Sheridan for a warm-weather beat down.  In the first photo, a girl is lying in the street while the rest are circled watching. In Photo 2, they start to break up, and Photo 3 shows a happy threesome checking out their photos and videos from up close and personal.  The police arrived after the fight and you could hear the officer over the loudspeaker saying, 'If you want to fight you should go home and beat up your stuffed animals.' Good to see they have a sense of humor."

But, wait, there's more!

"Another incident (not sure what it was about), but the police were loading people into the paddy wagon at Sheridan and Wilson later this afternoon.

Then a few minutes later the police had three men in cuffs at the corner of Leland and Sheridan.

Good times."

26 comments:

  1. I am furious that the police do not have a car there every day after school..this has now been going on for 3 years.. will it take a student or a bystander getting killed for the police to be stationed there?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funny , it seemed like there was going to be trouble by Senn today as there was a very strong police presence there at end of the day.
    Guess things just blew up in a different place.Hard to keep track of all the disputes , arguments, fights ,rivalries, etc , etc. It does seem whenever there is trouble outside Senn at the end of the day, it will carry over to Uptown an hour or so later.And often when the trouble begins in Uptown, it will carry over to Senn the next day.Drive around the city, and see the necessary police presence around so many of the schools at the end of the day. What happened with all those parent safety patrols , special programs for at risk students , and gang interventionists? Doesn't seem to be working too well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Are these teens students at Uplift? Given the strong comments defending the school on previous posts, I would hope the timing and proximity are pure coincidence. If not, those defending need to recognize a problem exists. Having walked by after school, I have noticed police from Marine to Malden along Wilson and Leland. I find it more disturbing that attacks like this happen with ( what I perceive as) authority figures present and along busy intersections with no regard or respect for others. This behavior is inexcusable.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah yes.....
    Not sure what time the main event took place, but I was driving by Sheridan and Leland about about 6:15, and numerous 'lil-thugs were converging.
    One squad car did pull up.

    Wouldn't it be wonderful if these kid's parents could be available to get them? Though I realize that's not always possible.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. that third pic where they're examining their pictures and videos -- it looks like an ADULT there too! WTF?

    ReplyDelete
  7. And please tell me that someone is going to reach out to Uplift administration about this. At my cousin's school on the South Side, they have a zero tolerance for this. To the extent that if its found on youtube, those involved are suspended.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Something happened at Lawrence and Ashland at the Citgo. Unmarked patrolling the alleys. 3 squad cars, ambulance and a fire truck on scene. This was around 7. I was on the way to target so i could not gawk any more

    ReplyDelete
  9. @ Guapo

    Apply second step thinking - if the police maintain a fixed position, where do the fights happen? Somewhere else.

    @ Meg

    But in this case, who would get in trouble? There's like 30 kids there.

    @ Everybody

    Teenagers are stupid. Even as an upper class kid, I got in fights. I just had the good sense to do it in private, where it wouldn't be video taped.

    Fights happen in high school. I wouldn't read too much into it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Its spring gang recruiting season. Aren't beatdowns standard gang initiation rituals?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am thoroughly amused by Jon Trott's exhaustive commenting in the previous post regarding how Uplift students aren't causing problems in the community and that everyone is overreacting to perceived instances to violence. I do not suggest in any way that all Uplift students are troublemakers, nor will I even generalize that Uplift is more of a problem school than other city schools with similar issues. I do, however, find it amusing that Jon Trott has gone silent just one day later when his storyline got more difficult to repeat. The reality is that not all Uplift students are problem students, but at the same time we (and the school administration) need to recognize that there are problem students. Fix the issues or continue to face public scrutiny.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I would caution against making the comments in this post JPUSA/Uplift versus residents, the sequel.

    Jon has not weighed in on it, so bringing him in doesn't seem fair.

    We don't even know that the students were from Uplift -- although there are enough identifiable faces in the photos that school administrators should, and I hope do -- examine them to see if their students are involved, and take appropriate actions if they are.

    For those who saw the Derrion Albert gang beating video, and who also attended the Girls in Gangs seminar last month, these photos are absolutely chilling. Textbook cases of young women on the brink of making some very bad decisions about their lives.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rob Ross, your logic to Guapo is silly.. to take it a third step, then police should not be at any corner at any time because it just moves the problem ... that is truly a silly, silly comment to make. Particularly if you do not live in the'line of fire' as I have the last 3 yrs.. think a bit more about your posts next time...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Rob,

    This is gang initiation, not just simple high school antics. The fact that there were 30+ people there is another cause for concern. They are literally blocking Sheridan road access when they have these gang fights. Sheridan is one of our main arteries on Uptown. It's already clogged by cars and buses, does not need to be clogged by gang fights too.

    If there's 30 recognizable faces in the crowd that attend a school, they should be appropriately disciplined. Would your high school have tolerated it?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Meg,
    How do you know this is a gangfight? Looks like two girls met after school to fight and everyone knew it was going to happen.

    ReplyDelete
  16. @Rob

    Michael Carroll and I spoke at length about police tactics in Uptown. In particular, he said that alderman often say "there's too much crime on this corner. Put a patrol car here." That, he said, was a totally ineffective strategy because it allows people to anticipate and avoid police. So, maybe you and Guapo are right, and Michael and I are wrong. But I think Michael knows what he's talking about.

    @Meg

    What evidence do you have that this is gang related?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Now we can all stand around our iphones or whatever and look at them looking at a beatdown.

    Really dumb.

    That third last picture is just embarassing, it makes me embarrased to be a human. Yeah lets all look at the still frame of someone getting beat up, looking all smug and self satisfied.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Rob Ross, so I guess that is why the police (lots of them) are stationed all up and down Wilson from the school to the El stop? Hmmm. Whereas I respect Carroll, obviously many other in the department agree with me as you can see by their actions in front of high schools around the city... I guess you are wrong... it happens...

    ReplyDelete
  19. @Rob

    Excellent logic - the police do it, so it must work.

    More to the point, police may want to reduce visible fights, not overall fights. That is, you want to beat someone down, do it somewhere it can't be seen.

    I'm not sure I like this sort of strategy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. So Rob Ross.. when it fits your argument, you are for what police say (i.e. Carroll comments you made earlier) When it does not fit your argument you are against what police say (your last post).. LOL Enjoy your day, RR... GWG

    ReplyDelete
  21. @ Rob
    There's a difference between citing someone's opinion and citing actual police tactics. Michael's point is that what the police actually do is wrong. That's also my point. And police do the wrong thing because residents just want to see "something" done about "crime." What they actually want is to not see crime. That's why public beatings by teenagers gets UU post after UU post, but the number of domestic batteries, which is disturbingly high, goes unnoticed.

    Do you see where I'm going with this? If all you react to is what you see, rather than what actually happens, you influence police tactics away from good policing and towards image policing.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wait a second.... doesnt Cappleman have something to say about this??? Is he just sitting around silently like Shiller??? I mean its been a full 24 hours already!!!!!

    This is a joke btw........ sorta

    ReplyDelete
  23. Exactly, what does Cappleman have to say?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Clady, I think the person you want to ask , who is still cashing her $10,000 a month paycheck for another month and is supposed to be the one commenting on this and actually doing something about it, can be reached at 773.878.4646.

    Just ask for Helen

    After May 17, give it a call, then ask for James...

    ReplyDelete
  25. As I said in a previous post, we need to address the moral decay of today's youth, it seems their whole lives revolve around violence, "street cred" mindless pop culture. No substance in their lives, no morals.

    ReplyDelete
  26. @ C.P.

    Well, I wouldn't be as pessimistic as you, but in general I agree.

    ReplyDelete