Thursday, June 9, 2011

Downtown Rowdiness Spreading North?


After this report of several "flash mob" attacks downtown this last weekend, it is disheartening to hear about a similar occurance right on the border of Uptown and Lakeview. According to a story in the Chicago News Report, a woman and her baby were shoved down the stairs at the train station by two black males on Wednesday.

At approximately 9:13 p.m., a woman carrying a baby, was pushed down the stairs at a North Side CTA train station.

The incident occurred at the Sheridan Red Line station at 3940 North Sheridan Road, near the Uptown, Lakeview border.

Two black male offenders, purposely pushed the woman and her baby down a flight of stairs, said police. Then the suspects went through her diaper bag looking for money, said officials.

It's unclear if anything was stolen and the severity of the victims' injuries, if there were any, was not disclosed.

Both suspects are in their early twenties, approximately six-feet-tall, and 180 to 200 pounds.

You can read the rest of the story here.

39 comments:

  1. Unfortunate and sad, Chicago needs an increase in police in the worst way. Hopefully Rahm gets the picture.


    ....and wow @ some of the comments on that site, talk about unmoderated hate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. While it hurts me to read this story to no end, I don't think I'd call 2 people pushing somebody down a 'flash mob'.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2 offenders is not a flash mob. But yes, robberies are bad.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was thinking the same thing - how are two individuals a flash mob and/or related to the downtown incidents?

    That being said, I was wondering if this latest "trend" would spread north....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just because they only arrested 2 suspects doesn't mean more were not involved.

    I think the older "wilding" is probably more fitting as this isn't a completely new phenomenon.

    Flash-Mob is more about a bunch of people participating in synchronized silliness...for the most part harmless.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Call it what you want but being pushed down the stairs at a train station could be fatal. It is a very long way down on metal steps. I can't believe someone would do that to a women caring a child. Very sick!

    I believe a women was killed at Fullerton a little ways back after being pushed from behind so the thief could grab her iPod.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The racial divide grows larger by the day.. dozens of similar stories are popping up all with similar suspect descriptions(read Second City Cop blog). What does this cause? Further racism, skepticism, fear and doubt about young black males.

    I am in a interracial relationship. If my future mixed/black son ever is faced with prejudice because of his color, I will blame these bastards of today.

    I also do not understand why the black community does not step up in times like this. Want to end racism, prejudice, racial bigotry, profiling etc etc.. take care of your kids, teach them respect, educate them. Standing back and allowing members of your community to run wild and rampant throughout a city hurts everyone. Race is TOO sensitive in this country/city to do nothing, why not do what you can (control and educate your kids) to help make the collective face of your community look better? I don't understand..

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is all a development of the media. They are creating another thing for people to be scared of.

    Now it's urban terrorism in the form of "flash mobs" brought to you by the new police commissioner no doubt whose job is to create fear especially among "white people".

    It's all going to get out of control and we will read daily about attacks by "black people" on white people and a few "white people" attacking "black people", and the whole city will be talking, the news will go crazy and things that happen normally will be magnified into great history changing events.

    What is happening is normal crime.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I use this station on a daily basis and those stairs are bad enough as is without someone pushing you down them. The infrastructure at that station is a mess, and now that I know it's in Tom Tunney's ward (thanks to Alderman Cappleman for the info) I will be contacting him frequently. I understand that resources are drained and it's not easy to redo a station, but he could at least express some concern regarding its condition. I hate how some stations get flat screen TVs and train trackers yet we can't even get a basic LED info screen (like every other station) or speakers that work when announcements are made.

    ReplyDelete
  10. There is a speaker at the Sheridan stop however it sounds like the teacher in Charlie Brown whenever it's used.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Now it's urban terrorism in the form of "flash mobs" brought to you by the new police commissioner no doubt whose job is to create fear especially among "white people".

    Why?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Fear & Loathing - every other station has an LED screen? I don't think there's one at Lawrence, and we're feeling you on the stairs.

    ReplyDelete
  13. They have a security guard there in mornings-DUH-what about the nights,thats when it is all happening.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Seriously Stu-Pidddy?

    The media is conjuring this up? Then why did the same media cover up the story when the city closed North Ave beach on Memorial day? From the numerous comments on most of the media websites North Ave beach was overrun by thugs that day and the situation was about to erupt. Didn't you find it odd that they closed North Ave and none of the other beaches? It was only 87.

    The Media isn't making up these reports. In fact, it's in everyone's (except the thugs) best interests to not have this happening. With tax payers leaving for the burbs and beyond in droves this city is going to have to rely on more and more tourist money to survive.

    If pushing a woman and a small child down a flight of stairs is "normal crime" then we better all start packing heat.

    ReplyDelete
  15. @Weekend: Good call. Let's say "most" have the basic LEDs.

    Again when I found out this was in Tunney's ward I was floored since it's in such poor condition compared to the Addison stop in his ward. And yes, I get that the cubs provide an incentive to have a nice station and possibly even kick in money towards maintaining the area but still. The purple line stops here during cubs games and I hardly feel the Sheridan stop is a nice welcome to the area.

    ReplyDelete
  16. If this continues to happen, I predict another Bernhard Goetz episode. The cops can't be everywhere and you're not going to get more cops on the streets with just the snap of the fingers.I'm noticing also that many of the perpertrators (like the one who lives on the South side who attacked a woman in WILMETTE recently) are attcking in so-called low crime areas that they live far away from.

    ReplyDelete
  17. In an ideal situation I would love to see more CTA specific transit cops from the CPD like they have in NY and other major cities. But again, with a giant police shortage that's wishful thinking. Here's another incident from today as well on the red line

    http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/news/local/chibrknews-man-mugged-on-l-train-on-near-north-side-20110609,0,5229666.story

    ReplyDelete
  18. Folks...do yourself a favor, buy and carry pepper spray on your key chain or just keep it ready to use. I carry mine at all times when I'm taking the train or out walking. It doesn't matter where you are... in the Loop, Michigan Avenue or Uptown. Be aware of your surroundings!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yes, and when you're out walking after dark, take the IPod earphones out your ears, look around you while walking down the street talking on your cell phone...

    ReplyDelete
  20. The police commissioner job is to present a threat which he has to "fight" in order to give his personal profile a focus. This is not a low profile commissioner, this is a guy who wants FOCUS. He needs an enemy.

    Blackwater, now called Xe has trained the Chicago Police Department. The intensity and nature of what it means to be a "policeman" is changing and has changed to more of a security officer who is armed, armored, and anxious to do battle against either real or imagined "enemies".

    He's wants to be seen as the commissioner who is going to fight urban terrorism in Chicago under the heading of Flash Mobs or just Mobs.

    He's going to take ordinary crime and give it a new name whether it's Flash Mob...which he first used and then stopped using, or Mob or Urban terrorism or just black kids beating up rich white men and women for their Ipads.

    It's the worse thing you can do in this city. To create more racial tension instead of trying to ease racial tensions.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I got as far as Blackwater ...

    ReplyDelete
  22. Stu Piddy - oh please. The Batman movies might be filmed here, but this isn't Gotham. You're adding drama where there isn't any, as is anyone who thinks this 'flash mob' thing is anything new or worth staying off the streets for.
    Agree with previous posters: all we can do is be aware of our surroundings, use common sense, and hope that lightning strike violence, like this mother unfortunately experienced, doesn't happen to us. And be supportive of our cops who, for good or ill, are human beings too.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Summer means the thugs will be out in force. Just as the news and papers show. If you venture out in the streets it would be advised to hide your electronics and jewelry. Carry some means of protection as a large can or two of mace for a good starter.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Red Line Station = Crime

    Just look at the Trulia crime heat map - crystal clear.

    I wonder why ?

    No I don't.

    ReplyDelete
  25. The term "flash mob" is being overused and is probably giving these low life thugs more credit for social media sophistication than they deserve.

    These kind of incidents have been going on for a year or two. The previous mayor didn't like a free press, so he pressured the media, whenever possible, to keep the lid on these stories. Maybe this explains why the media is FULL of these reports ever since he retired. After all, you don't think this is a three week old phenomenon, do you?

    Some of what you're seeing is simply criminals looking to be more successful during a time when the number of police officers has dwindled to lows not seen in decades. And how, you ask? How about the criminals migrating to MORE AFFLUENT neighborhoods where it has been reported that the police districts have been stripped of their manpower to send to the ghetto?

    Essentially, in an attempt to quell the savages from killing each other, they have created a "perfect storm" for these savages to prey on richer victims, score bigger and better proceeds for their efforts, and face less of a chance of being caught. And this isn't even touching on the fact that many of these criminals are juveniles who often don't even see the inside of a courtroom as they are treated with kid gloves!

    @ Stu Piddy - Your comments TOTALLY explain your name...

    The police commissioner job is to present a threat???

    police commissioner's ... job is to create fear especially among "white people"???

    BLACKWATER???

    [the police commissioner is trying] To create more racial tension instead of trying to ease racial tensions???

    I know UU doesn't like name calling on here, but have you lost your mind???

    ReplyDelete
  26. We all need to look out for each other in these times.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I also do not understand why the black community does not step up in times like this.

    why just the black community? Do you hold the white community responsible when there is a crime involving a white criminal? What about Latinos?

    This isn’t a issue of race, it’s an issue of crime. EVERYONE should stand up. Your interracial relationship notwithstanding, it’s borderline racist to blame the criminal actions of these two guys on an entire race of people. It’s not a black-only responsibility, it’s the job of EVERY decent citizen in the neighborhood to stand together and band against these thugs. It’s not black vs. white, it’s good citizen vs. bad citizen.

    ReplyDelete
  28. "What is happening is normal crime."

    Normal is groups of thugs attacking and stealing at will??? Yes these kind of attacks and other incidents of "wilding" are becoming more prevalent. Not just in Chicago. Reminds me of the book "Lord of the Flies", groups of lost youth,(I know there are exceptions, but most of these teens never recieved proper guidance growing up.) who have never learned respect for the basic rules of civilization.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Stu Piddy... You are STUPID.

    This is "normal" crime?? You say. Give me a break! You wouldn't be saying this is normal crime if you were the one being pushed down the stairs. Society should never consider crime normal. That's when everyone sits back and just says well, it's normal, there's nothing we can do about it.

    I'm disgusted with Chicago. In the past 13 years I have lived in this city I have never seen it as bad as I have in the past 2 years. Getting worse every day.

    My parents and grand parents grew up in this city and they can't even go back to visit there old streets because the neighborhoods are so bad.

    I have lived in other countries and traveled around the world and have never witnessed the disgusting behavior of youth the way I have here, and in particular black youth. Someone with some power needs to stand up and say enough is enough, and start making these young black people accountable. If we do not it will only get worse.

    I fear that it will get worse much worse before it gets better because I see Americans as docile, uninvolved people. They have come to accept violent crime in the city because that is "normal". Well it's not. I have lived in places where the worst neighborhood was like Disneyland compared to any Chicago neighborhood. When there is a violent crime against an innocent person the city is out protesting immediately.
    Yesterday two little girls were shot near Avondale Park... where is the city up in arms over this... only in America.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Obviously......what kind of 'mental defective' would push a mother and child down a staircase?
    (Clearly a drug affected thug/loser)

    From what I've read, these 'flash mob' losers seem to be in big white T-Shirts?

    Of course....the folks in Uptown know this uniform-from-hell all too well.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I hate to say it folks, but you're losing site of what this really means. It's one thing for a group of guys to attack another guy, but to cause a harm to mother and infant. I don't care about race here. This crime shows a blatant disregard to humanity. I think that's what pushed me over the edge on this one. Aren't there enough guys walking around that 2-3 can't attack for their money and other belongings? It goes to show how little these thugs care about other people.

    ReplyDelete
  32. This is very disturbing. In 25 years living on the north side neighborhoods of Lakeview and Rogers Park, I have never witnessed nor experienced this. It sounds like an act motivated by sheer malice.

    The penalties for violent acts are much too lenient, and the perps know that there will be few to no penalties for this crap.

    Time to revise our sentencing laws to reflect the seriousness of the crime involved. A murderer shouldn't be released after 20 years or less, and someone who pushes a person down the stairs should be looking at 6 months minimum.

    ReplyDelete
  33. thank Helen Shiller for the concentration of the gangs in Uptown and the horrible legacy we are left with at this time... and those that 'tape' the police and those that sue the police.. they are all, in my opinion, culpable and should take responsibility for the horror they have left for us living in Uptown

    ReplyDelete
  34. @ UPTOWN ACTION YOU REALLY NEED TO WACTH HOW YOU WORD THINGS ITS NOT JUST THE BLACK COMMUNITY WHO SHOULD STEP UP ITS VERY ONE IN THE COMMUNITY. AND YOU DONT KNOW HOW THESE PEOPLE ARE RAISNING THEIR CHILDERN THEY MAY ACT ONE WAY IN THE STREETS AND ANOTHER IN THE HOME.RACE IS SENSITIVE BECAUSE OF IDOTS LIKE U MAKING DUMB COMMENTS. NOW LETS SAY IT WAS TWO WHITE BOYS WHO HAD PUSHED THE LADY DOWN THE STAIRS YOU KNOW WHAT THE ARTICLE WOULD HAVE READ THEN TWO UNKNOWN MALE PUSHED A LADY AND HER CHILD DOWN THE STAIRS. THEN SOMEONE LIKE YOU WOULD HAVE SAID OH I BET THEY WAS BLACK.THAT'S ARE PROBLEM EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR THE BAD BLACK KID STORIES BUT THEY DONT WANT TO WRITE ARTICLES ABOUT THE LITTLE WHITE BOY THATS DOING WRONG. I HOPE WHEN OR IF YOU HAVE YOUR KID YOU DONT TEACH THEM THE GARBAGE THAT COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Natasha,

    Chill on the caps...

    Are you assuming I'm white then? Should I consider you racist? Should I call you an idiot making dumb comments as well? Don't be so obvious where you're coming from, think beyond your bias.

    You also say that a child's behavior has NO direct correlation to how they were raised at home?

    "AND YOU DONT KNOW HOW THESE PEOPLE ARE RAISNING THEIR CHILDERN THEY MAY ACT ONE WAY IN THE STREETS AND ANOTHER IN THE HOME"

    If that is the case then why should parents try to raise kids properly at all? Why try to instill good morals and behavior into them if they are just going to run the streets and be criminals anyway? Do you not think that children are products of their environments? How do you think children learn?

    Frankly your comments shock me

    ReplyDelete
  36. can't we all just get along?

    I think everyone is concerned about crime in our neighborhood, lets focus on how to help deter it, not turn on each other and make it a race issue that divides us. That helps nothing and no one.

    ReplyDelete
  37. @StuPiddy, I think everyone said enough, lol.

    @Jeannies blog, if your so disgusted in Americans then go live wherever you were when you saw the 'disneyland' of ghettos. You talk about Americans as if you are not one yourself.
    As far as it being worse than ever here, it is not. Stop believing the hype! I've been here all my life. Crime is a problem, but it isn't getting worse. It is shifting around, and now it has shifted squarely upon Uptown.

    @Guapo, you said "and those that 'tape' the police and those that sue the police.. they are all, in my opinion, culpable and should take responsibility for the horror they have left for us living in Uptown"
    What the heck are you talking about?! How does taping the police make you responsible for crime? Are you insane? I guess that guy in Miami that taped (on his cellphone) 20 officers repeatedly shooting a man in his car over memorial day is somehow responsible for the crime? And if it weren't for that man, we would never have seen one of those officers come up to the car and put his gun to the mans head and demand his cellphone. IF YOU SEE IT, TAPE IT! Video has saved many people, and it has put dishonest, criminal cops in jail as they should be.

    @Natasha, I agree that not just the black community, but the whole community, needs to step up in these times, but can you deny the fact that as a whole, in Uptown at least, there is a lack of black leadership in our neighborhood that is stepping up and telling people we need a change? I'm not talking about the preachers and teachers that are always doing this. I am wondering where are the young black men, my age (26) stepping up and taking a stand? As a white male, I just don't have the same influence that my black counterpart will have on the youth in Uptown, and that is a fact. I mentor two young boys (11 and 15) from Magnolia/Malden block, teaching them to skate and stay out of trouble. And you know what? Every time we leave or arrive at Bronco Billy there are guys my age making fun of them, or talking shit. That is the problem in my eyes. Being an asshole and a thug seems to be the cool thing, when its not. Being a good man, responsible and compassionate, and helping others, that is cool! So yea, there is a need for more YOUNG leaders in the black community, you just can not deny that. Young men like myself are ones that need to step up and show kids that being a man isn't about who can whoop who or shoot up the VL's or Stones. Being a man is all about taking care of your business, treating people with respect, and ultimately feeling good about what you contribute to those around you. That's why I urge you to make it known, being a g isn't about being a gangster. Being a G is about being a man! So I stay G'd up Natasha!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Sorry... I meant to type 6 YEARS MINIMUM time for pushing this woman and her kid down the stairs.

    Really ought to be 10 years- this was a brutal and potentially lethal assault.

    ReplyDelete