Can we get another polar vortex, please?
Update: Two pieces of good news last night:
Update: Two pieces of good news last night:
- According to the Commander and alderman, no one was hit by the shots fired.
- A man is in custody.
Just got an email (and phone calls) from Truman College - I am a student there - regarding this development. Thing is, it says that the shooting occurred at 7:30 pm...
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a typo. I was leaving Truman at about 6:45 and the place was heavily surrounded. It's not even 7:30 right now.
DeleteWhile I'm waiting at the bus stop by the Wilson Red Line station,I'm always looking around,as there are often people walking up and down Wilson several times in a short time frame. Anyone who stands near me who looks to be up to no good,I will step a few feet away from,in case he (or they) could be a target. As many of us realize,many of these punks can't shoot straight...
ReplyDeleteI meant to type, a couple of people who will walk up and down Wilson several times in a short period of time...
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed a typo. A bit after receiving the first set of emails and phone calls, I received this message in my personal email:
ReplyDeleteA message from TRUMAN COLLEGE
The correct time of the "Shots Fired" call was 6:30pm not 7:30pm. Please always be aware of your surroundings.
Instead of wishing for another polar vortex, I wish we could warm up to the idea of these "gangbangers" as people. Honestly. I want to see more uplifting in the community. Let's not expect our community members to 'hibernate'.
ReplyDeleteTo call a member of the community a "gangbanger" is to separate that person from the community.
Fearless44--instead of tracking the people walking down Wilson, and the frequency with which they walk, why not consider why someone would be walking up and down Wilson instead of backing up and hoping they learn to shoot straight?
This is a city-wide problem; this is not just in Uptown. We cannot continue to distance ourselves from the problem; we must,address these issues at their root: why would someone in our community want to join a gang, or run down Wilson shooting people? What can we do to support our fellow community members so that they don't look to violence as a solution to their problems? It can't start with wishing for a polar vortex. It can't start with singling people out. It can't start with fear.
KateS is absolutely right and we need to extend her idea of warming up to me. I no longer want to be referred to as a cannibal. I want to be seen as a person and a valuable member from the community.
DeleteWe must ask ourselves what drove me to kill, dismember, and toss bits of pieces of my fellow community members on the grill? Calling me a cannibal only separates me from the community and also lessens my opportunities for tasty interaction with my fellow community members.
Instead of tracking the people walking down Wilson and the frequency in which they kill and eat their neighbors why not consider why someone would walk down Wilson killing and eating people instead of popping into the local eatery for a bit of more socially acceptable dining experience. CLASSISTS! ANTI- CANNIBALISTS!
This is a city-wide problem; this is not just in Uptown. We cannot continue to distance ourselves from the problem; we must,address these issues at their root: why would someone in our community want to dismember his neighbors, or run down Wilson eating people? What can we do to support our fellow community members so that they don't look to "cannibalism" as a solution to their problems? It can't start with wishing for a polar vortex. It can't start with singling people out. It can't start with fear.
(Belch, wipes sleeve across mouth.)
I can't believe I just read that. I made me make my "AFLAC duck" face.
Delete1) I echo what Irish Pirate says, 2) I am not an expert, but I am pretty sure a lot of these douchebags come from outside our community. Those that do live her, the very fact that they commit these acts means they are not part of the community anyway. I'm all about helping people out, but you just don't go around shooting people!!
"we must,address these issues at their root: why would someone in our community want to join a gang, or run down Wilson shooting people?"
ReplyDeleteKateS, to the extent you don't like the word "gangbanger," I'm pretty sure you're not going to like the honest answer to your question. It has an awful lot to do with parenting.
Best. Post. Ever!
ReplyDeleteKate, it's great that you have idealism, but reality continually smacks this community in the face. And the gangbangers--no need to put in quotes, because they are who they are--are emphatically NOT a part of this community, except for spending their time shooting indiscriminately and acting like dogs marking their territory.
ReplyDeleteThis is a problem that is more than just city-wide--it's all over the place. And I don't think that we get anywhere by feeling sorry for those guys and the choices they make, or by trying to dole out group hugs to them or by having focus groups to help them sort out non-violent conflict resolution. The fact has been clear for years--perhaps you haven't been here long enough to learn it--the gangbangers are in the business of distributing and selling drugs, and they shoot at each other to "protect" their "business territories" from rival gangs. They don't care if YOU happen to be wanting to give them hugs and love out of sympathy--if you're in the way when a rival goes by and a gun is handy, YOU don't matter, even if you're bleeding on the sidewalk from the shots meant for someone else. They don't care about the community--we've provided them with subsidized housing, with programs to get them off the street, with social services for them and their families, and more. They don't appreciate the hand-outs they've gotten, they don't take the opportunities they've been given, and they would just as soon tag your building, climb your fences, damage your car, and intimidate your family/friends/neighbors from even walking the sidewalk in front of your home.
We've had the hand-wringing over these people too many times before, and it is pointless to be doing again. The only ways to solve the gangbanger problem are to hold landlords' feet to the fire to keep gang activity out of their buildings, keep the pressure on the drug dealing to make it more of a problem for them than it is a profit, and keep the police and State's Attorney (and courts) doing arrests and prosecutions to get them off the streets. The gangs are here because they were almost welcomed by the previous alderman (and her staff and family and supporters)--the only way to make it stop is to make life so difficult for them (gee...just like they have made life difficult for the entire community?!?) that they use their heads to look at alternatives. If that means that they actually use the resources they've been given to get out of the gang lifestyle, that's great...if it means they leave Uptown for different digs, that's fine by me. But don't call them members of this community--they contribute NOTHING to it but grief for others who ARE members of this community, and until they do something constructive to help make Uptown a better place for everyone who lives here, they will never be seen as anything worth saving.
I tell you what Kate, why don't you invite these "people" to your house for dinner and discuss with them why they are shooting other people. I'm sure, with your fantastic ideas, you will definitely make a difference. You go with your bad self girl! SMH.....
ReplyDeleteKate you literally walked straight into the line of fire...
ReplyDeleteShe sure did....
DeleteI had a 30 second moment when I thought I should invite the gang-members-of-the-community over to the house,sit around in a circle and sing Kumbaya, and afterwards eat muffins and drink tea while they tell me about how life has dealt them a bad hand.
ReplyDeleteAfter coming to my senses, I decided to just try to protect myself instead and be aware of my surroundings.
All of a sudden, looking out for number one has become taboo. I almost wish that Ted Nugent was in this forum...
Yep! The guy was from Joliet!!!! http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-400k-bail-for-man-accused-of-firing-gun-in-uptown-20140215,0,7219599.story
ReplyDeleteOh? Please, someone tell me, what gang was this man in? Do you know? I don't know. I wouldn't call someone a gangbanger unless I knew what gang he/she is in.
ReplyDeleteI'm not suggesting having anyone over for dinner--a member of a gang, or any of you for that matter.
I asked for a conversation about the root of the problem; why is our community a habitat for violence? What is at the root of this? And I'm an idealist or a tree hugger? I apologize--clearly Uptown Update isn't the platform for a productive conversation. Go ahead--continue to yell and scream about these 'gangbangers', and rally from behind your computer for more arrests, more jail time, and more involvement from the police. And then, every single time there's a shooting this spring/summer, you all just keep doing the same thing; keep yelling and protecting yourself. Keep calling people names. Keep 'protecting yourself"...whatever way you think you're doing that. See where that gets you.
That is a good point--I wouldn't call a person a football player unless I knew what team he/she were in.
DeleteOur community is a habitat for violence because we have a large demand from certain community members who are buying narcotics in Uptown. The main suppliers of narcotics just happen to be gang bangers. Gang bangers control their "turf" with violence. Ipso facto we have a community rife with violence.
So far promoting more arrests, jail time, and involvement from police has cleared up the JJ Peppers a few blocks down from me. So that is one thing I "got."
Kate, tell me what gang affiliation his intended victim was, and I'll tell you what gang he belongs to. In case you hadn't noticed, there are at least three gangs who like to shoot at each other right around Wilson and Broadway...fighting over "territory". We don't normally have suburban soccer teens or Lincoln Park yuppies or Englewood thugs making recreational target practice trips here to shoot a few rounds for fun at Wilson and Broadway, OK? Go through the crime reports...or even through the past few years of posts to UU...and you will find that nearly all the shootings around that corner are gang-related. I also suggest that you spend some time reading back through the violence-related posts to UU over the past several years to brush up on your background before you go off half-cocked about "asking for a conversation". Like I said before, it has been discussed into a stupor, and "discussing" it again without there being any significant change in the factors would be like beating a dead horse. Or, in your case, walking into an accounting class for the first time after you've missed half of the semester, and demanding to go over the first 5 lectures in class again because you don't know what accounting is about and you need to know. The rest of the class doesn't need to repeat 5 lectures on your behalf due to your failure to show up for class and do your reading...pull some all-nighters, borrow someone's class notes, and catch up on your reading so you don't fail your exams, OK? Our community is a habitat for violence because our previous alderman tried her damnedest to pull in as much subsidized housing and populate it from CHA projects closed across the city, in some form of socialist urban utopian experiment, and the Social Worker Extraordinaire seemed to have missed the class on "urban gangs" that described how they love to have "territories" and that they fight to maintain them. When you drag in a half dozen or more different gangs into new territories in a small area like Uptown, they do violence to drive the others out. That's the root of this, in two paragraphs or less.
DeleteNow, for your next assignment, someone will perhaps recall the websites that discuss Chicago gang history and territories...read it before you feel another group hug coming on, and before you feel the need to feel more sorry for the shooters than you do the terrified mother with the baby in a stroller who had to dive behind a car to avoid being accidentally shot by mistake...or the homeless men who were shot coming out of Uptown Baptist Church down the street...or the mother around the corner from me grieving over her son lying dead in the street in view from my back porch because of a gang drive-by shooting. Do. Your. Homework.
Kate,
DeleteYou asked for a conversation, and it appears your wish has been granted.
As for why people tend to distance themselves from someone running down Wilson shooting at people, I suspect you already know the reasons for that. Physically, they do so in order to not get shot, and in the "us vs. them" mentality, they do so because they believe themselves a step or two ahead of you in solving the problem. They have realized that it isn't everyone equally who run down Wilson shooting at people.
UU and many posters used the term "gangbanger" to describe these individuals, and perhaps you are correct, and that label was provided incorrectly. Personally, I prefer "sociapath" but I'm not legally authorized to diagnose thet condition.
However, the "us vs. them" concept is necessary - you use it yourself. If we can admit that shooting people is bad, why not distance ourselves from that behavior (and yes, I support the police, courts, and prisons as a component of that)
I certainly don't have the answers, but I really get irked by people who ask a bunch of questions, make no attempt at answering or offering suggestions, then dislike the result.
"Someone (else) should do something!" gets old very quickly.
Kate,
ReplyDeleteYou want to know the root cause. Go down to Cook County Court on California. Just sit in the area for all the defendants. Just sit and listen. That's all. Gather all the information you need just by sitting there.
What you will learn is the root cause.....the upbringing and mentality of the average low life thug in Chicago. The lack of a proper upbringing and normal parental situation creates these savages that roam and cause havoc in our streets. They have no regard for life...yours or theirs and it's the street life. You nor I can change that. We have to deal with it. These people only care about the thug life and their drugs and money. So go ahead....defend them. Ask questions about root causes. It's not going to change anything. Uptown is a cesspool of 3-4 major gangs fighting over a triangle area of territory from the lake to Broadway and from Foster to Montrose. Any thug doing anything in that area is a gangbanger. Don't like that term...tough...it's the plain truth. I personally prefer savage myself. Feel free to use it.
First of all, I have sat through bond court at the Cook County Courthouse on California, and then at the Cook County Jail down the street. I spent almost a full 24 hours over there. The night before, my boyfriend had been arrested after we got caught smoking a joint in an alley. A group of us were back there, and the one single black male in the group was the only one arrested and brought to jail for the night. Here are a few things I learned:
Delete1. Racial profiling is a serious problem when it comes to Chicago Police jurisdiction
2. The Cook County Court system is unbelievably overcrowded, outdated, and unorganized
3. Marijuana needed to be (as it now has been) decriminalized.
If you are interested to read more about how flawed our county’s court system is, WBEZ has literature on the outdated court filing system, the overcrowding in Illinois’ prisons, as well as an excellent series on exonerees. If none of those peak your interest, it appears Bear60640 has a lesson plan in the works that we can all learn from.
To say these ‘savages’ are created from a lack of a proper upbringing and normal parental situation is not only a generalization, but completely unfounded. No one is born into this world a savage. We are shaped by the society and environment in which we live. Which means, the environment you & I contribute to and live in has shaped ‘gangbangers’ and ‘savages’, 3-4 major groups of them apparently. Maybe you spend your life blaming other people such as your parents for your flaws, but I don’t. You are probably right in assuming they have no regard for my life, just as you clearly have no regard for theirs, but if they had no regard for their own lives, then what the hell is the gun for? It’s to protect their own lives! You, me, the shooter from Joliet, the ‘thugs’ in our ‘triangle area of territory’…we all live in a culture of fear! But no one is coming for my head. I don’t leave the house with the possibility that someone’s aiming for me; I leave the house knowing there is a chance someone’s aiming for someone around me. But am I going to treat a ‘thug’ any differently than I would treat you if I saw what you looked like? Probably not. Now that conceal & carry is in effect, you might both have guns on you for all I know. I don’t claim to have the power to change any person but myself. I know drugs are a main proponent of the gang warfare and I know I am not capable of taking drugs off the streets any more than a cop is. However, both ‘gangbangers’ and cops stand to lose millions of dollars, leadership positions, and/or members of their faction, all depending on whose holding the drugs. I don’t.