"I've been shot," said eleven-year-old Dean Gill as he was playing with his friend in Pottawattomie Park. Young Dean was taken to the fieldhouse and then to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. Luckily, the eleven year old was hit in the upper arm and isn't in too serious condition.
"I don't even want to be in this area," said Dean's mother Pam. She said the violence is too much around the area with all the gangs. "I've kept him inside all week, I let him out tonight - and I regret it," Ms. Gill said.
From the vague reports still coming in, a 18 year old was also allegedly hit by flying bullets tonight at the corner of Jordan School, (Wolcott and Fargo) around the same time. This victim is in critical condition. It is reported, the alleged shooter threw a gun in the trash can. Pottawattomie Park was evacuated soon after. It's alleged, two cars were involved and shooting at each other, in a wild west style, gang shoot-out.
The story here is kids and guns. Kids shooting kids with guns for stupid reasons. How are these kids getting guns? Who's watching over these kids with guns? All the kids I talked with tonight said the same thing, they're all "kinda use to the guns and shootings." It's believed that the two kids that were hit, weren't even the intended targets.
Twenty minutes after the shooting, multiple 911 calls came in regarding 20 or so youths involved in a major brawl at the Dominick's on Howard. My inside source speculates this might be connected to the shooting. Stay tuned to your local news. All the reporters were, (and still are) on location. I'll link them up as we go. Joe Moore says crime is down. Stay tuned.
21 comments:
Channel 7.
Channel 5.
Channel 2.
Craig, when you get the chance, check out the storefront monstrosity with the hanging BTU and dangling pink paneling at Damen and Rogers. There is also the three liquour outlet triad at Damen and Rogers.
Within a one block area, there are no less than five liquor outlets: The Ho, Pantry, Pakistani Store, Lamplighter, and another store on the east side of Ridge and Touhy. And of course, the neighbors have to pick up the empties. Moore has been warned repeatedly and seems unwilling or unable to get the nuisances abated, so the results are rather clear.
I have less concern about the Lamplighter, but the single can sales at the three storefronts create an interesting backdrop.
Open liquor in Potawatomi Park is easy to combat, but just does not seem to get much attention. Of course, once the malt liquor flows, bullying and bullets have followed. He could do a little better by getting the neighborhood to limit liquor sales to the two bars.
The entire field house was just hit with graffiti. If you look at the top section, you can see the remnants left by the mess.
For what it's worth there has been a lot of work done to improve Pottawattamie Park in the past year by both the Park Advisory Council and the new Park Supervisor a very pro-active woman named Shannon.
This incident wasn't a "Park" issue; it was an incredibly stupid thuggish, ignorant, movie style running driving, gunfire between two moving cars through the streets. As can be expected, an innocent gets hit by a stray bullet. Thankfully the victim was only hit in the arm with a "flesh" wound. Thank goodness for that.
Also, there has been a work order in with the Park District to have all the recent graffiti painted over properly for over three weeks. The Park District is not very responsive to the official channels of "work orders". I ask everyone who reads this blog to call 312.742.PLAY to complain/request the paint crew to be assigned ASAP to Pottawattamie to paint over the field house.
Also, the 2424 CAPS meeting will be held at the Pottawattamie field house either this Thursday, or next. Not sure, but the more of us who attend the better.
Community input is welcome. Thanks for the tips La Few and I live here too.
When I was there, there where like 40-50 kids outside Dominicks.
Lots of unknown teenage kids in the area over the last few weeks. Like they are trying to move into new territory.
Community action is needed from everyone in the community, not just long time residents. New and old need to get off their asses and start taking a stand to make a point that this is not welcome in this neighborhood.
We need safe desirable activities for the kids to do. The kids also need to learn an important lesson that blame can be spread as much as one would like for the problems, but personal responsibility is the bottom line. You are also a product of your own bad decisions.
I think we probably have a lot of good kids in the area, but there's no role models. There's little hope. There's a small amount of people out there trying to help, but it's too much.
It puts people in a strange position as I believe that a lot of long time residents don't want the diversity of this neighborhood to disappear. There are even a lot of new people in the area that don't want it to disappear. Not everyone who moves here, came because they are looking for an "up and coming" neighborhood to flip a condo in and make some money. Some of us came because it's one of the very few places left in this city where we can afford to buy and get away from our past slumlords. Some of us just wanted a home where we felt like repairs could get done and we didn't have to be constantly worried about the day we'd be given first right to buy as the building goes condo.
Everyone in this community needs to be involved from removing grafitti to picking up the trash blowing in the wind. It helps everyone out. We also need to continue what we are already doing.
The Alderman's office does play a part in this. I'm not taking any sides or making any endorsement of any candidate here. I'm trying to keep this whole thing neutral. If you don't like Moore, fine. If you like him, fine. This isn't my point. The office is there to serve the community. If you need help call. If nothing happens, call again. It's not worth abandoning your efforts if you feel you get no results. If you have to whine like an annoying dog, do so. You may eventually get what you want. On the other hand you may even be surprised to find that you get what you asked for. If you are discouraged by performance, don't let it get you down. You still have a voice and at the very least, they have to listen to you.
I've had results go both ways with the Alderman's office, but I have to say it was better getting something taken care of rather than absolutely nothing at all. Had I not called, I wouldn't have received any services at all only because I would have given into the mindset that nothing gets done.
I know that we have a lot of good people in this community who want to bring the right kind of positive change that will benefit everyone of our community. In order to have that, we need to use all of our resources.
I'd really be excited to see people from both sides of the political arena unite to work together to find solutions and not just find them, but work on them. There are a lot of simple things we can start to do and encourage others to do to improve our neighborhoods. To start we can do things like pick up trash, pick up after other dog owners who don't pick up, say something when we see someone not pick up after them, learn who our neighbors are and who really should be hanging around, block parties, watching out for neighbors property, and many others. There are plenty of things that can be done. One that absolutely has to be done by everyone is we MUST call police. Bitch all you want about the response time, but if you don't call and report it by 911, you won't ever get more officers for Rogers Park. If we want more staff to be around, we have to send a message to the city in numbers that we have a problem. The more calls, the more we send a message that we need more police. We also need to give these guys a break sometimes when we call. It's frustrating as hell sometimes when it takes 20 minutes for a response, but then you find out that they were just arresting several individuals at once and they had their hands tied. We don't have enough officers for the crime in the area.
I know this is a long rambling, but my bottom line is that we need to form a startup group to work together despite differences to make a change in our neigborhood. If we don't it might well get worse. It isn't the worst place in Chicago, but it does have its problems. Apathy will only feed the problem.
The other day I was driving down Howard Street and saw about 40-50 teenagers at the Howard L stop. I thought it might be a field trip until I saw a Chicago police cruiser shining a spotlight on the group.
If people are out other than the kids, it can also have the effect of neutralizing their presence. It also makes those who want to fill a vacuum realize that they may be in the wrong neighborhood.
The bottomline is be visible. Walk, don't hide. If you live in your neighborhood, use it or lose it.
If regular people who care about the neighborhood are not out on the streets creating a positive presence, the thugs win.
This community is going to hell under all this violence, and Joe Moore is making even less of an effort, now that he can sit comfortably for another four years.
I saw one member of the firmly entrenched homeless mob in the park by Lunt beat a fellow member over the head with a cooking pot over the weekend, knocking him unconscious, so that he could take his money. An ambulance had to come take him away to a hospital, if he wasn't already dead.
These aren't a bunch of choir boys who are down on their luck. They are crack addicts who will do anything to anyone, even their own friends, to get the money they need for drugs.
The same goes for the kids shooting each other. Their mothers all moan that they're really good kids, but I don't honestly know any "really good kids" who run around trying to murder people.
Yes, Joe tells us he is keenly aware that half of the community voted against him and is working to do a better job for the betterment of us all.
That's just not true. Rogers Park is getting worse by the moment. If Joe had the least bit of dignity, he would resign immediately and let somebody else do some work for a change.
CAPS 2424 Beat meeting: Thursday May 24
Meetings are held at 7:00 PM., Pottawattomie Park Field House - 7340 N. Rogers Avenue
I've lived in RP for almost 4 years and until recently have only had time to go to work. I am all over east RP and there are so many things I love about this neighborhood. I just started reading your blog last night and it's all very negative- very real- but very negative. What to you love about living here??????????
Note to rogersparking: If Alderliar Moore had any decency in him, he would have resigned in disgrace over a decade ago.
Repeated calls to Moore's office are not the answer. Repeated calls and letters (with needed details) to Patrick Fitzgerald's office is what is needed. Put the pressure of Fitzgerald to investigate this SOB and his sleazy cohorts, and don't let up until Moore is wearing the orange prison jumpsuit he has so richly earned.
Hey Capt Closet, You bore me with your Joe's not responsible and the election's over bullshit.
Your same ole, same ole comments are getting tired and old. Please, go away.
I have a friend who lives not far from Jordan School. She and her husband remained on their block when the rest of the white residents moved because they didn't want to be around the African-Americans who moved in back in the late 1970s. The ones running out complained that the area was going to turn into the projects.
She told me that she and her late husband went out to meet the new neighbors and told them they would be fair with them, as long as they were fair with them. They made friends with all, and she and her husband became the neighborhood parents to the kids. Most of those kids, now adults, still come back to visit to her and inquire about her well-being.
The way she and her late husband treated the neighbors around them and looked out for their block is an excellent example of how things could be in RP. It also points out that we can't depend on the politicians or lean on the police all the time to bring about change.
Okay. Let's bring this down to earth. The kid who was shot was ELEVEN years old. Go look at his photo on the Channel 5 website - this is a little guy who was out playing. His mom regrets letting him out of the house on a nice spring day to play in the park - because he GOT SHOT. Every mother's nightmare, right? How about a little sympathy for Dean and Pam Gill.
With all due respect to boxing tomboy, I don't think white families making friends and becoming the "neighborhood parents" of black kids is going to defuse a situation where 20-50 kids have gathered in a public place spoiling for a fight. For one thing, Dean Gill had parents already. I do agree with what I think is your more general point, which is that neighbors should reach out to each other, work together and treat each other like human beings rather than acting based on fear and stereotypes.
But back to the 20-50 kids and the shooting itself. I guess this is one situation where I would expect to lean on the police and the politicians for a solution. Craig's right that the CAPS meeting is probably the best venue we have to lean on them, flawed though it may be. If Mr. Moore is serious about leading this community, he would be well advised to make an appearance at this meeting himself, rather than sending a staffer. Given that a child was shot while peacefully playing in the park in broad daylight, it's hard to imagine what more pressing things he might have to do.
I agree with Rebecca. Moore's habit of only appearing somewhere if he's going to get something out of it and his general "hands-off" attitude towards the area is not going to help in this situation. Hey, I can't make the CAPS meetings because they usually take place during evenings that I already have standing obligations going on. But I'm not the alderman, who claimed in his campaign literature that he was about working with and supporting the police.
Craig said,
Hey Capt Closet, You bore me with your Joe's not responsible and the election's over bullshit.
Your same ole, same ole comments are getting tired and old. Please, go away.
You're such an asshole I promise never to blog on your stupid full of shit site again. You fucking go away!
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