Despite angry neighbor complaints, the shrine for self- admitted gangbanger Anthony Morgan continues to grow. A smiley-face helium balloon bouquet, some candles, some fake roses and a mini-teddy bear in a tube were added overnight.
BLOGNOTES: Still no word from Ceasefire Rogers Park. Neighbors aren't to happy about them showing up doing a 'circle prayer' either.
31 comments:
Get this crap up off the street IMMEDIATELY.
I'm sicking of seeing shrines erected to criminals.
Every morning I read the paper and their are at least two murders in this city! Shrines to these criminal is insane and simply glorifies these idiots.
When are the people of this city going to wake up and demand an end to this.
Get to your CAPS meetings, write the mayor, demand action from you alderbeast!
is this someone's property?
Listen you, how can you call me a troll? Trolls are angry little monsters that live under bridges and get pissed off when anyone comes over it because they are territorial. You're a troll because a bunch of flowers and teddy bears are pissing you off. I'm not an enabler either, I turn in people with guns. It's just stupid to have contempt for people. I'm quite used to being ridiculed. Lots of people get angry about my attitude. I just see anger and want to difuse it, its not constructive. People that think like me are running up to the at risk youth and trying to pluck them from the mess. People that think like you are all for shooting them and locking them up when its too late. I'm not against taking down dangerous criminals and I don't think you're against trying to intervene with at risk youth. It's not very impressive to be mean and contemptuous, they'res too many criminals just like him for it to be all bad apples. If you met him when he was eleven and watched his whole life, you'd see. You'd say its a shame. Choices...people are supposed to make mistakes and then learn from them, I really enjoyed listening to some reformed gangbangers at a summer camp for at risk youth. I have compassion because I've seen scary tough guys respond to a way out. Like people said, the way out for this guy was suicide.
The guy was a criminal, but he had friends and family who will miss him. I agree that perhaps the shrine should not be erected on public property.
I'm sicking of seeing shrines erected to criminals.
Ah yes... because criminals' lives are unimportant, right?
And no one cares if a criminal dies, right?
It is not about glorifying criminals. It is about mourning the loss of life. Any life.
There is nothing stopping someone from taking it down.
2:30 p.m., the shrine has been dismantled.
It's finally time, after a half-century of criminal- coddling and victim- blaming, to say it:
THE LIVES OF VIOLENT CRIMINALS ARE NOT IMPORTANT.
The lives of non-criminals are what matters.
I don't care how politically incorrect it is to say that.
This loser pretty much threw his life away when he fired at the police.
To Abe: I didn't take the shrine down because I'm not feeling suicidal today. I've heard about the things that can happen to citizens who take these things down, and I'm thoroughly intimidated. I'm not a police officer, I don't own a gun or know how to use one, and I'm easy to recognize.
I'm glad someone else dismantled it.
and there you have it- the difference between liberals and conservatives, on display every day here at the broken heart-
a liberal sees the humanity in everyone. a liberal knows that we are all in this together.
a conservative only sees the humanity in the guy in the mirror. a conservative think that he can and does go it alone.
except that he doesn't. rather than appreciate the social construct on which he stands, he denies it's existence, and tears it down.
all alone, and afraid to face it.
we are all in this together, people. all of us. care for each other, or be thrown to the wolves yourselves. love, respect and a helping hand lead one way. fear, contempt and a loaded weapon lead another.
don't cry about someone else with a weapon, when you want one yourself. don't whine that someone else is a killer, when you idolize a killer yourself.
Been There - How black and white your world is, where a liberal is a lover of all things and conservative is a lover of only himself. I am sure you are perfectly capable of neatly and efficiently putting all people into one of these two buckets.
If everything we have heard is true, this man opened fire on police. We have all made mistakes, probably more of them when we were closer to this man's age. What we have not all done is pull out a loaded weapon and fire it at someone whose job it is to protect the community. What if he had hit the police officer? Or a neighbor in her window?
Are we to lament the tragic turn of events that lead to this young man shooting at a Chicago Police Officer? I, for one, will not. I feel compassion for those that get caught up and killed in gang violence. This man does not qualify. Whatever turn of events lead him to do what he did, nothing could excuse the actions he took that led to his own demise. I for one am glad it was he who got killed, as opposed to a police officer or bystander.
What a wonderful world it would be if we all loved one another. This man obviously had no love or respect for the rule of law, for the fact that children play on our streets, or for the fact that the people he was shooting at had family and loved ones themselves.
You will no doubt attempt to put me in the conservative bucket. You will be mistaken if you do. I am neither liberal, nor conservative. For those of you out there that have forgotten, it is not necessary to be one or the other.
if you really think that the gang bangers think "we are really all in this together" you are as blind as the rest of the sheep whining and complaining about trash, noise, gunshots and the rest. The gangbangers are out to take advantage of anything and everything they can get their hands on, your property, your piece of mind and your safety.
And the shrine is influencing the "youngsters" that Paradise and FargoWoman want to "save."
I live literally two doors down from where it occured, and around 11:30 p.m. (I had just gotten off of work), I noticed young men being dropped off to stand at the vigil, and then the cars speeding away after they were dropped off at Lakewood and Pratt. They were being very peaceful and quiet, and I stood quietly outside for about 20 minutes to make sure nothing was going on. It's not someone's property, it is a public sidewalk. Although I in no way condone violence or gang activity, everyone is allowed to mourn in their own way, as long as it is peacefully and not on private property. I spoke with two officers at 7-11 (near the scene) that night, and they had their eye on the area while what I am presuming fellow gangmembers and friends of the deceased mourned.
Paradise, I agree with you fully. My cousin was in a gang for years, and was one of the lucky few to walk away without losing his life. For many, the only option is suicide. There are not many outlets for reform while keeping these youth out of danger. Instead of getting angry over a harmless bunch of fake roses and teddy bears, why don't we work together to help these kids so they don't feel like their only choice is to be in a gang or die?
I've read some memoirs on the subject of getting up and out of poverty such as "A Hope in the Unseen" and "The Pursuit of Happyness" or "My Dark Places". In most cases those who can climb out are exceptional in some way. Not everyone is.
I sometimes wonder if all of us were raised in such a environment with such a lack of guidance and opportunites in our near proximity, how great we would turn out.
I think we need to think about that and not judge quite so harshly.
This doesn't mean he was not responsible for his choices or he should get a free pass, but it means we can feel sorry that his life was so short and meaningless.
I think it's possible to feel both anger at criminal activity, but compassion for the criminal as a human being.
I don't think any kid thinks, "I want to be a derelict and drink my life away when I grow up." Or, I want to get killed on the street in a shoot out with police when I grow up. If they do, then I really pity them, but I don't think this is the case. When I see many kids around the neighborhood, I see so much potential in them even from a distance.
its like the teddy bear of death parade,
shrines are for victims
not perps.
also i cant stand the instant,
oh yeah the cops just shot him,
i heard a black dude walking down the street outside my windown saying "yeah they just shot the nigger"
first of all why call yourselves the worst racial epithet?
and most of the time, no they (cops) didnt just off the guy gangland style. ( yes sometimes they do, but that is the exception)
anyways just want to let you know that there definitely is this serious victim to themselves mentally with these lower class people in general,
lower class meaning poor in the socio/economic sense. not in the genetic potential meaning.
its shocking to see this happen in your backyard and to see people sticking up for screwed up people,
if you go looking for trouble you will find it, ever heard of that?
this kid traveled from the far south side to the far north side looking for trouble, and he found it.
I had a conversation recently with a Muslim about gays that I think applies here as well. He can cope with gays, but he is totally convinced that they are a mistake of some sort. I told him that I don't think God makes mistakes, but I do think that there are times when God puts challenges in front of us that cause us to demonstrate the sort of person we are, or are capable of becoming.
My willingness to acknowledge that young Morgan's life choices ultimately brought him to this end in no way changes the fact that he was another human being. Someone out there was his mother, and someone out there had to have loved him even if only for a short time. It's easy to forget that when someone behaves despicably, thus making it easier to dismiss that person as unworthy of compassion. The shrine certainly seems a bit much for a gun-toting, probation violating gangbanger who shot at the police and was shot in return. Yet I think it speaks to the fact that someone out there knew a human being and wanted him remembered as such. Is that so terrible?
kheris said: Yet I think it speaks to the fact that someone out there knew a human being and wanted him remembered as such. Is that so terrible?
No, it isn't. I get what you and others are saying (some more eloquently than others) that whatever his crimes were, his life had some value by virtue of the fact that he was a human being and that should be acknowledged.
But let me ask you this: Jeffrey Dahmer was a human being. So were Timothy McVeigh and Saddam Hussein. Should we put a value on their lives as well, just because they were human beings and they had mothers and maybe somewhere out there someone cared about them? No way. They were cold-blooded killers. Now I'm not really trying to equate this guy to a serial killer, a terrorist, or a dictator. But not all human life has value. Some people are just sacks of DNA with some really f***ed-up wiring. Feel bad for him if you must, or better yet feel bad for those people out there who cared about him and maybe even tried to help him. But it's all just conjecture. Until someone who knew that kid gets on this board or stands out on Pratt and speaks to his virtues, or his mom comes by and starts talking about his crappy childhood, you're not going to be able to put a human face on this guy. You won't convince the rest of us who are going by the facts - that he was a gang member and a criminal violating his parole by carrying a gun, and that he unlawfully and dangerously fired that gun at police officers in a residential North-side neighborhood where any one of us could have been walking down the street or standing by those windows with the bullet holes in them - to care about the fact that he's dead.
And by the way, not only am I glad the shrine is gone just based on the fact that it was unwarranted and tacky, but I found it pretty offensive when I walked past it this morning and saw that someone had left two bottles of liquor there, one empty and one full. I don't appreciate his pals adding insult to injury by leaving a bottle of alcohol sitting around that some other dumb kid could grab and drink.
who is this god character that everyone is talking about?
you guys are starting to freak me out.
Hey Jeffo, I didn't know that the police "offed somebody gangland style". When did that happen? I may have been out of town but can you please enlighten me as to where,when and how this happened?
Wants to know- I actually have found myself feeling sympathy or compassion for someone who seems to be a tortured criminal- in particular if they seem to have genuine remorse (which is not common I know).
Jeffrey Dahmer is not a good example because he did seem pretty remorseful and truly tormented. Your other examples of Sadaam and Timothy McVeigh are better examples. I don't find either of them very sympathetic at all.
The thing is, many people here don't even give this guy (Anthony Morgan) any benefit of the doubt. One can easily say he does not deserve it because his sociopathic actions alienated him from society. But I prefer to think there is the possibility he may have had some good in him and not dance on his grave just yet.
There will just be another like him until we as a society address the circumstances that created him. It makes it alot easier for us to sleep at night if we throw all the responsibility onto the misbehaving individuals, but unfortunately for us it's way more complex than that ala institutionalized racism etc...
Yes, I know...I'm a liberal.
All of the above said, I respect everyone's right to react the way they feel about the incident. I just wanted to share that not everyone reacts the same.
Yeah, Mc Veigh and Hussein were purely evil right wing conservative scum....
Jocelyn - I appreciate your comments. I think the fact that you and others are willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt says more about you than it does about him - that you have a deep capacity for kindness and compassion and that you are willing to try to see even the smallest spark of goodness in others, whether or not there is proof that they really deserve it. People can get into this liberal vs. conservative debate all day long, but I don't think you and others should be criticized for feeling the way you do, just as I wouldn't want to be criticized for feeling the way I do.
I don't disagree with your statement that 'we as a society' have to address the circumstances that created him, and other criminals like him. But I would ask - who is the we? The general society at large, the white community, the black community...? Who takes the responsibility for the creation of these criminals?
Someone in one of the other threads posted text from a Bill Cosby speech from a few years ago, and I tend to agree with that point of view. Parents need to take responsibility for the children they create. Communities need to take responsibility for their own. And above all else, individuals need to take responsibility for their own actions. Otherwise, nothing will ever change, and we'll continue to have these sorts of incidents and the same debate over and over again.
Insert the name of any serial killer you like in the example, but I think you know what I was getting at. Actually the first one I thought of was John Wayne Gacy - now there was a real freak of nature.
Paradise said...
Yeah, Mc Veigh and Hussein were purely evil right wing conservative scum....
Whatever. The point is, there are good people in the world and there are bad people. There are good people who do bad things, and there are bad people who do good things. Trying to put people on the left wing or the right wing just defeats the purpose of any argument. In the end, you're responsible for your own actions and if you do something detrimental to the society in which you live you'll be held accountable for it sooner or later - perhaps in the most severe way possible.
simply being able to produce a baby does NOT make you a mother. And Prattgirl I find it interesting that you say your cousin was a gangbanger and able to get out of the life. Did you help him? He's your family. Did your mother or father, his aunts and uncles, his parents? No one in my family ever turned to violence, crime or the like and we were very poor growing up. We never had our hands out, never took anything we didn't earn.
And honey, there are 49 other states out there, hundreds of citys, millions of other people in this country willing to live decently...this person was an adult who made hundreds of choices which got him a bullet on Pratt street. We should not honor him for any reason. He decided to throw his life away, we're just lucky he didn't take anyone else with him on that day. Move on people.
"And Prattgirl I find it interesting that you say your cousin was a gangbanger and able to get out of the life. Did you help him? He's your family. Did your mother or father, his aunts and uncles, his parents?"
I know he's my family, and yes, the entire family banded together to help him. I did not "help" him; I was 12 at the time, but his aunts, uncles grandparents and parents did. And before you even ask, because I know you will (you seem like the type), he grew up in the suburbs (there are gangs there, too, you know), with BOTH of his parents, a supportive family, middle-class, and his mother took him and his brother to church three times a week. Years later, he says it was the peer pressure placed on him, and he thought he just didn't have a choice. He was lost, confused, scared and young.
But he was lucky to have people to help him, as well as family with the means to help him (they were able to move out of the area when he left the gang). Most people don't have that luxery.
Jocelyn: You know what's funny? If Joe Moore had written your last blog, everyone would be howling
fa all u people hatin on my cousin fuck yall i hope yall go to hell he wasnt dat bad of a person he was tryin so hop off his dick lame ass bitches at least show sum respect he do have ppl dat luv and care about him yall aint gotta dog him bitches and fuck da police dat kilt him dat was my cousin life u took away man he use to fuckin live wit me u dumb ass bitch man i miss u ant aka turtle i love u see u lata :....(
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