Saturday, September 10, 2016

Man Grazed By Bullet Near Scene Of Last Week's Shooting; Ald. Osterman To Hold Community Safety Meetings

In a disturbing rerun of last week's violence, a man was grazed by a bullet in the lobby of the Whitechapel Apartments this evening at Ainslie and Sheridan. If you're keeping score, this is the same building behind which two men were shot in a car parked in the alley last weekend.

According to what readers are telling us, two Latino males fired two shots at the victim from a silver sedan. It happened in the building's side lobby, facing Ainslie, around 11:35pm. He was grazed in the back and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Shockingly, it is suspected to be gang-related, as was the earlier shooting.

If you've been out and about in Uptown, you will know that there is an increased and very visible police presence on the streets of both the 19th and 20th Districts.

In his weekly newsletter, Ald. Osterman addressed the gun violence in the 48th Ward:

"This year our city has experienced a devastating and unprecedented amount of gang and gun violence. Over 3,000 of our fellow Chicagoans have been shot and over 500 killed. Left in the wake of these staggering numbers are lives lost, and families, friends, and communities painfully affected. Despite the positive strides we have made together to reduce gun violence and improve public safety, our community is not immune to the violence throughout Chicago. 

Last weekend we experienced three shooting incidents in our community. 
  • A 25 year-old man and a 17 year-old man were shot on Saturday, Sept. 3 around 8:20 pm, as they sat in a car in the alley behind 4927 N. Kenmore. Both have been treated for their injuries. Chicago Police believe this was a gang related shooting. 
  • Early on Sunday, Sept. 4, at around 3:15 am, shots were fired near the intersection of Norwood and Glenwood. No one was injured in this incident and police later recovered three shell casings, which are being analyzed by the Chicago Police Department. 
  • On Monday, Sept. 5, around 11:05 pm, there were shots fire between motorists at the intersection of Ridge and Clark St. No one was injured in this incident. A Nissan was seen fleeing the scene heading east on Ridge toward Lake Shore Drive. 
No additional information is available at this time and no arrests have been made. Chicago Police are are currently investigating each of these incidents. If you have any information about them, please contact Area North Detectives at 312-744-8263 or Marko Zaric in my office at 773-784-5277 or marko@48thward.org

These events last weekend are a vivid reminder that we, as a community, need to continue to work closely with the Chicago Police and to have ongoing vigilance to continue to make our neighborhood safer. The police need our assistance in addressing crime. It is critical that we all report suspicious activity or criminal behavior to the police by calling 911. If you see something, say something. 

It is also critically important that we are aware of our surroundings and the conditions of the blocks that we live on. Being aware as we exit the CTA, walk to the store, or walk through the neighborhood adds to our personal safety. Being aware of the conditions on our block and reporting street lights that are out, problem buildings and businesses, and helping ensure that our neighbors are securing their cars, garages, and homes, adds to our community's overall safety. 

My office and I are committed each day to addressing safety concerns in our community and are working with the local police to target safety concerns. As the City Council prepares for the 2017 budget process, I will be joining with my many colleagues to fight to hire additional police our streets. The overwhelming violence across the city has shown us the need for more police to patrol the streets. 

The City Council is also taking the needed steps to improve the police accountability system in Chicago, which is needed and important to re-establish trust with the police and our communities. I will be working closely with my colleagues to look at the citywide issues affecting the violence on our streets, including employment, education, youth issues, and the criminal justice system. Public safety remains my number one priority. 

As your alderman and a father of three, I want to ensure that every person and every block in our neighborhood is safe. Working closely together with the Chicago Police and other stakeholders, we can continue to make our neighborhood and city safer. In October I will be hosting a series of Town Halls around the ward where I will discuss safety and other issues, I ask you to join me at these meetings."

4 comments:

  1. Bad things happen after 11 p.m.....anyway, this is my take on what's going on. We didn't have these gun shootings until the city was forced to allow conceal carry. And because of that, some people meant that to mean "illegal" conceal carry.

    I consider the landlords of buildings where these gangbangers live to be enablers and accomplices. If they know that bad people are in their buildings, they need to get them out.

    There's no way to stop the madness because of guns. And the guns are in the hands of young teens. If somebody can think of a non-ACLU way of stopping the flow of guns....but as long as we have the ACLU strangling the city and preventing the cops from doing their job, the shootings will continue as is. Notice that ever since the ACLU forced the city to stop the stop and frisk, calling it "unlawful and discriminatory" the thugs have become more brazen. That agreement with the ACLU needs to be torn up.

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  2. I don't think gangbangers need conceal-carry as an excuse for illegal guns, anymore than they need medical marijuana as an excuse to sell heroin. They have a thriving illegal economy up here, and they hardly need a philosophical excuse like CC. There is a lot of evidence that says Chicago guns are coming from states with lax gun sales rules (cough, Indiana, cough) and that the punishment for illegal gun-possession here isn't nearly as harsh as in other major cities. If we could FINALLY fix those things then maybe guns would become less common and crimes less brazen.
    (For the record, I am very, very against guns of any sort, including legal conceal-carry for the average citizen. I just don't agree that there is any correlation with our current violence.)

    Regarding landlords: getting a tenant evicted is extremely difficult in Chicago. You can call the police constantly, you can have blatant drug use, gang activity, theft, violence... and still the case will take months or years, cost the landlord thousands in legal fees, and probably still not end with an eviction. The cops and landlords would love it if gangbangers and dealers could just get kicked out of a building, but the courts make it almost impossible.

    Regarding the ACLU: There is a lot of evidence that stop and frisk wasn't just racist (it was), it was also a complete crap-shoot of effectiveness. For every 10 people who are stopped 9 are probably going to be regular joes who are now angry with the cops and less likely to provide them with assistance in the future. Intimidating potential victims of crime hardly helps the community, and getting 1 "bad guy" through S&F causes confirmation bias that the activity was necessary, when there is a good chance that other police tactics would have caught 1 "bad guy" that day too.

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  3. I remember hearing this as I was going to bed and thinking "that couldn't have been gunshots, there were only a couple." These guys must have been aiming and not doing the usual spraying of bullets.

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  4. Disgusting. I own a home in the 4800 block of N Kenmore. I will maintain my ownership until I see that the most ugly of words - gentrification - works its lovely magic on my now chosen neck of the woods. Completely unacceptable.

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