Sunday, July 10, 2011

And The Beat Goes On

It seems to us (knock on wood) to be a much less violent summer so far than the past couple years have been. What's the difference? CeaseFire, more police on Uptown's streets, two major drug sting operations, cooperation between the aldermen and the police, all of the above, none of the above?

But yet there are reminders that the gangs continue their urban terrorism in Uptown. At least this incident was confined to the park, not in front of our homes and businesses.
At 10:06 p.m. Saturday in the 4500 block of North Simonds Drive in the Uptown neighborhood, an 18-year-old was shot in the lower leg by a person in a vehicle who was shouting gang slogans, police said. The victim was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital and was treated and released.

7 comments:

  1. The violence in the park is just as bad as on the street. Chronic vagrancy and the sale of cheap alcohol contributes to Uptowns violence. My police friend told me about a guy who was arrested over 200 times for panhandling & other anti-social crimes. The judges NEVER gave him a jail sentence.

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  2. After some sketchiness in the spring things have quieted down, whether it's a combination of the above mentioned factors or dumb luck who knows. But given how much play the crime wave in Chicago has gotten, it's nice to have had Uptown avoid any major headline grabbing incidents so far. The perception of Uptown as a dangerous and rough place is hurtful to future prospects for improvement, so we shouldn't be afraid to mention when things are going well.

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  3. Do know that several of the major juvenile players are presently in custody . Amazing how taking only a few of the worst off the street can help calm things down.

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  4. Please share with us what has Cease Fire done for the community?

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  5. We at UU have no idea as to the specifics of what Ceasefire has done. We know they got funding to work in Uptown for a year. Anything beyond that would have to come from Ceasefire or the people they're working with.

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  6. Ceasefire is doing a fine job. What do they do?

    They reach out, engage, listen and discuss. A thankless job...difficult to measure.

    They are doing the good work quietly, it is a one-on-one type of thing. Not to be confused with the tactics of the Guardian Angels who made it a point to be seen in pseudo paramilitary fashion.

    But the Guardian Angels were monumentally ineffectual. Ceasefire is possibly the most cost effective measure we can have in the neighborhood regarding crime prevention. Prevention thru intervention....not rocket science.

    In my humble opinion.

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  7. Quiet work is the type of work that ends up on Fox News Investigations.

    My humble opinion is that the recent police raids on our local gang members have scared them into hiding. More raids like the uptown girl is what we need to support around the uptown community. My observations of Cease Fire in this and other communities have led me to the conclusion that the organization’s philosophy is rooted in appeasement. My personal belief is that appeasement is typically unsatisfactory when dealing with tyrants and urban terrorists. Bending and coddling only serves to embolden those who are already taking liberties within a community. Ask Neville Chamberlain how appeasement worked for him.

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