I know I'm going to help sell a few papers, but so what. New-less Star might as well hired Victor Skrebneski for the new look cover photo, on the new look News-less Star, A Pioneer Press Publication.
The headline is a eye grabber too. "Patrol puts dent in crime."
If this photo-op wasn't a set-up, neither was the St. Valentines Day Massacre.
First off, in the photo, the ratio of patrols to students is 50/50. This is clearly not true. Go out and watch the kids come home on any day of the week and look hard if you see a 50/50 ratio. It's more like 500 to 1. If anyone of these groups of kids started a group mob fight, these three patrolers would be running for cover.
Second thing. Had Allen Kaleta, the photographer, randomly gone out to do this photo, his camera would most likely have been stolen.
The third thing is.... if Katy Hogan ever really walked down the street with a closed fist and a sneer towards a group of these kids like she did in this pose and shoot, one of the kids most likely would knock the sneer right off her face?
So tabloid New-Star, show us actual proof. What facts do you have this group of three has put any dent in crime other than them telling you? Do you have police report figures to back this up?
6 comments:
Craig,
I think you poise a very good question here. Most reports show crime statistics (especially amongst juvenilles) trending downward over the last 5 years city wide. Mind you, some of the numbers are padded in some instances by listing number of arrests being down as opposed # of reported crimes. Also, I am sure some of us have called the police but never had a report filed. According to this report, the 24th district ranks right in the middle of the pack over the last year:
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/Sept05Rank.pdf
The problem is, EVERYONE wants to claim responsibility for this decrease. Do we have any solid data on what programs have been most effective? I think it is important that we increase focus and funding to those programs that are working and re-work or scrap those that are not. I know that collecting data on certain long term programs can take years before you have a measurable result but for those programs that are obviously failing, I really think we need to see significant change. Perhaps this is an issue for the next CAPS meeting?
Hi James,
Again, I would like to say thank you to you and those like you who actually go out and take time out of your day to stand out there and watch over these kids. It's a real service to the community. If only school got out at 5:30 pm, more people could participate (Don't tell the kids I want to extend school hours). Hat's off to you!
Also, you mentioned a while back that there was talk of establishing a Boys and Girls Club around here. Has there been any progrees on that front? I really respect what that organization does.
James said.....> " this is a volunteer group"......
James also said.....> streets with inadequate crossing guards, or police patrols that sit in their cars and watch"
rogerparker said.....> "We have afterschool citizen patrols by Katy and Mary Jane, pet patrols with Margot and Craig, neighborhood patrols with Jane and Paul, North of Howard Partols with the good news kitchen. Where are the police patrols?"
Craig asks, "Then, why are we paying taxes for police services"?
Oh James, doesn't Katy Hogan get paid for working at the 1409 West Morse Polititians office? Is that volunteering?
Craig,
Nobody is asking you to like her but berating someone for trying to help kids get home from school is a bit of a stretch. I imagine if it were your picture or one of your chosen inner circle you would laud the success of the Hellhole in saving kids from the ravages of the streets and then Hugh would ask, "Why is Katy Hogan not in this picture?", or "Why doesn't the Alderman volunteer to take kids home from school?" You know the drill.
Can't we sometimes give credit to those who are trying to do the right thing? If Katy Hogan takes a break in the middle of the afternoon to help kids get home safe, that's her business. I don't know what kind of hours she works and I imagine you don't either. Perhaps she goes back to her office and works or works from home. Maybe she gets in early. Maybe she eats lunch at her desk to justify the time spent with the kids.
As far as the pic being a set up or not, I am sure that a program that the reporter feels is a good one is going to be depicted as having a lot of support from the police. If they showed one woman in a sea of kids without back-up in a scarry neighborhood, I imagine that would not draw a lot of volunteers.
You volunteer with kids, yes? You know how the ads for a lot of those organizations show lots of smiling kids from broken homes playing on the swings, right? You know that's a crock. I used to work with autistic and disabled kids and the posters on the door and the reality inside the facility were like night and day. Why not take a swipe at them? Because it's cheap, that's why.
Let's try and focus on what's working and what's not. Doesn't that seem more productive? Sorry to rant, but I offered you an olive branch with my first statement and you took a pass so I thought I'd try again.
Michael said.....>"Maybe she ( Katy Hogan ) eats lunch at her desk".....
With the poor dining experiences I've have at the Heartland Cafe, I would eat at my desk too....
Sick Nicki,
We pay police to deal with criminals. These kids are not crimnals (well, maybe a few). These folks are volunteering to play surrogate parent for a lot of kids who do not have someone to support them after school and in some cases not at all. They are not trying to be police. They are being concerned memebers of the community.
The police that are there have limited resources mostly because we have a high crime to population rate. Would you like to be a cop who has to live where he works (and yes that is a law)? Raising a family in this neighborhood is not very attractive right now and neither is working in a high crime area if you can avoid it. That is why more senior officers with more experience and probably a lot less fear are not in this neighborhood (we have it made next to the west side). Can you imagine being at the top of your job but still having to clean the toilets?
I am sick and tired of the nation of finger pointers this country has become. Whatever happened to personal accountability? Whatever happened to taking responsibility for your own problems? Let's blame the cops for crime? That is the biggest cop-out (you'll excuse the pun) I have ever heard.
Q: You know who is responsible for crime?
A: Criminals.
Get out there and report violations. Sure, the cops are flooded with crap but if you keep on top of it you'll get a response. Stay vigilant! Sometimes just shouting at derelicts out your window will work over time.
We need to make a lot of improvements in this neighborhood and in our system. Again, I will point out these problems are not unique to our neighborhood or city. These are national if not global problems but it all starts with your building, your block, your street. Get out there! You'll find that most people in this neighborhood are like minded.
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