photo's by Margot Hackett
The reports are coming in fast and furious. Actually not really. No one wants to talk about it. Crime in Rogers Park that is. Shootings and stabbings. Kids shooting kids. In this case a couple of shootings occurred. One in Touhy Park on Thursday afternoon/evening. One on Ashland Avenue on Tuesday. There could be more for all we know.
On the Touhy Park shooting . Blood was gushing from the victim everywhere. Bloody foot print after bloody foot print. All the way down Clark Street past Chase to Touhy. By the time the victim got to Touhy and Clark gas station, it looked as if he lost his entire nine pints of blood. The victim was still dripping blood while running through the gas station. The red trail of blood stopped at 1738 W. Touhy Apartment gates. Neighbors couldn't tell what the outcome of the victim was going to be as he was taken away in an ambulance. All they could tell is the victim lost alot of blood.
Margot Hackett version [ A young male in his early 20's was shot yesterday afternoon in Touhy Park. The young man managed to cross Touhy and make it down the back alley between the 1700 block Touhy and Estes leaving a grisly trail of bloody footprints and pools of blood from 1730 W. Touhy through the alley. The young man was taken away in an ambulance before I arrived on the seen. What little information I was able to obtain came from onlookers at the scene and Scott, our CAPS Beat 2423 facilitator. After speaking to witness, the police converged on Touhy Park, seaching for clues. I and a few other citizens, walking their dogs were told we had to leave. I asked the officer who asked us to leave if the shooting occured in the park. He said "yes".
I understand that this is the 2nd shooting in a week. Scott heard this too but hadn't seen the stats to confirm this. He has also heard rumors of several homicides in the 1700 Estes area that he is also trying to get stats on.]
Also, a couple of days ago, a Sullivan High School student was shot in the leg around Ashland and North Shore/Albion area according to a source. The kid went home, hoping to hide the situation instead of going to the hospital right away. When the kid got home his mother was mad and took him to the hospital. The kid knew who the shooter was. Extra police patrols were noticed on Ashland after school yesterday.
9 comments:
This is really sad. I hope the kids are OK. Do we know if there have been any arrests made? I know that it can be especially hard to get information when juvenilles are involved.
I have noticed a beefed up police presence on Friday evenings. I also have noticed that a few dealers that I used to watch openly selling drugs on Howard near the traffic light under the El, are no longer there (or have become more discreet). I am a frequent visitor to chicagocrime.org and it appears that drugs and violent crime in my neck of the woods is slowly shifting to other areas. Unfortunatley, lately it seems that this kind of activity is becoming more concentrated in and around parks.
Not tell us about ownership of a mall, or zoning changes is one thing. But, when there has been a rash of shootings in the neighborhood, EVERYONE should be notified!
Back-door real estate deals are not going to kill anyone, but shootings do! This is complete BS, that the police, CAPS, the alderman's office, whom ever are not giving the community the information we need to protect ourselves, our families and our neighbors! Absolute BS!
The worst part about these shootings is the kid not going to the hospital right away because he didn't anyone to find out he'd been shot. The kids are afraid that if they get one thug arrested, all his thug buddies will come down on him. The kid could have died because he was too scared to go to the authorities.
rogerparker spewed......The blood is on Joe's hands.
That is the weakest most inane comment ever written on this blog.
Have you no shame......
Dear Nicki moaned: The coppers don't want to talk because they don't know shit. When did they arrive on the scene? 20 minutes after the shooting? Of course they don't want to talk.
This is not a Hollywood movie.......are you expecting the Cops to anticipate these things?
What exactly are the Cops supposed to be telling bystanders and gawkers on the street?
Huh?
Yeah, it's silly to blame shootings on Joe. That kind of hyberbolic invective doesn't accomplish much of anything, and mostly just makes the accuser sound crazy.
However. . . we should hold Joe accountable for not having openly dealt with any of the shootings this summer. To the best of my knowledge, he didn't even weigh in on the shrines, nor make any comment about the gang activity, nor support the police when they tried to remove the shrine. While Joe's been enjoying foie gras free dining experiences with the likes of Miss Piggy inspiring celebs and padding his resume, we've seen shootings and gangland funerals. Use the c-word within hearing distance of Joe and he responds like a NOW lady who has had her womanhood insulted. If you're really lucky Dave Fagus wil join in the "how dare you, crime is down in RP" chorus. Claim you witnessed drug dealing and they'll both insinuate you are prevarcating and can't possibly know what's going on in the 'hood as they do (unless you are Craig and have pictures).
Any attention on crime is not good for Joe because it's not good for developers and real estate agents and business. There is every incentive for those with political and money interests in RP not to shine a light on any crime, but particularly gang crime or shootings which scares the hell out of middle class folk of every stripe. And, honestly, if the devlopers go away, if people don't buy property here, if people don't come to RP to frequent the few businesses we do have, we all lose.
There is simply nothing to gain by focusing attention on these shootings and everything to lose. And, honestly, how many law-abiding citizens are the victims of these crimes? I haven't had anyone pull a gun on me in about 12 years; no one has broken in my home in 10 years. My fence hasn't been completely dismantled in 3 years (mostly) though there was the unfortunate car window smashing incident a couple months ago though that was probably just a fluke. So, yes, crime is definitely down in RP -- among the monied class.
Sadly, it is the less fortunate who are the victims of these crimes. No politician can stop gangs from shooting at each other or beating up and intimidating kids. To expect that from Joe or anyone else is unfair.
But what a politician can do is lead and take a position -- of zero tolerance toward activity that smells even a little bit like gang activity. A politician can put pressure on the police to be more proactive, to pursue w/ a vengence, initimidation of children by gangs. A politician (and his developer and real estate friends) can put pressure on city hall for more resources to fight the drug and gang activity to help protect the children. If Joe and the Citizens for Joe have been doing this then I admit to being ill-informed. However, I just haven't seen the public statements, the leadership here. One sees Joe's comments about the evil Walmart all over the place. He made the NY Times over geese. He's been on numerous shows on Fox News and CNN over the war in Iraq. For all the media that I'm saturated by every day and periodic visits to his website, I've not seen/heard/read even lip service on the subject.
Joe's not wrong not to focus on the shootings in that magnification of such hurts the neighborhood. However, there comes a point where you stand at the fork in the road and you have to make a decision -- continue ignoring the problem to the overall benefit of the neighborhood or shine a light on a problem that will hurt the neighborhood but which left unattended will continue to claim lives (literally and figuratively) of the disadvantaged.
Maybe a politician could ask the police to have our beat cops walk the beat a bit more. There is always that. I think we've all given up on that simple solution though at this point.
I have to say I appreciate the patrols I see on Morse at around rush hour. I like to see certain loiterers looking over their shoulder.
John posted...
> ... the patrol group ...
I don't understand why you would want to do that, post disrespecting someone else's efforts. Are the patrols wasting any public money? How are you sure the patrols are not making a difference? Please tell us what you are doing.
>There is simply nothing to gain by focusing attention on these shootings ...
step 1 is admitting you have a problem
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