Violence reaching the North side? (Chicago, Springfield: crimes, neighborhoods, dangerous)

[PCH_CDM]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

If you think the mainstream Chicago media downplays crime, particularly in affluent white areas, you are not following the mainstream Chicago media. They have a new scare tactic every day, just like most local news. Fear gets ratings and sells advertising, after all, and nothing scares people like sensationalistic crime reporting.

They apparently just don't take it to a far enough extreme of flat-out fabrication for your tastes. Unlike random blogs, actual news outlets are still held somewhat accountable to some minimal threshold of truth-telling.

This is definitely false. There was a race-based beating on W. Briar Place (one of the prettiest and most expensive blocks in Lakeview), just off the Belmont/Broadway intersection in late July. My brother-in-law, who lives on this block, actually helped one the victims. Two skinny white kids were silently attacked by a gang of African Americans playing the "knockout game" (basically a suckerpunch game).

The cops came and said the "knockout game" happens all the time in Lakeview. Wasn't even a big deal to them, and obviously never made the news. I had never even heard of this, but supposedly this happens every weekend night in Lakeview.

No one was arrested, victims went to the hosptial, and that was that. The news will never report on the "little stuff" because they risk the Wrath of Rahm and they need their advertisters to stick with them.

[chet everett]

...that more than a few kids and their families are routinely advised by the cops that "well you know even if we do catch these kids and even if the State's Attorney does file formal charges odds are that minors will get little or no punishment and you would have to come testify and then everyone would know you went to court and we really can't predict what would happen when these kids, who may have friends in gangs, tell their friends what they'd do. Do you go to a public school now? Are you sure you want to stir things up? Of course we can mark the report "juvenile" and if everybody was a minor that will keep the details out of the news. Is that the way you wanna go? OK then. "

Less a conspiracy than an accommodation / wise use of the courts...

Originally Posted by PCH_CDM

This is definitely false. There was a race-based beating on W. Briar Place (one of the prettiest and most expensive blocks in Lakeview), just off the Belmont/Broadway intersection in late July. My brother-in-law, who lives on this block, actually helped one the victims. Two skinny white kids were silently attacked by a gang of African Americans playing the "knockout game" (basically a suckerpunch game).

The cops came and said the "knockout game" happens all the time in Lakeview. Wasn't even a big deal to them, and obviously never made the news. I had never even heard of this, but supposedly this happens every weekend night in Lakeview.

No one was arrested, victims went to the hosptial, and that was that. The news will never report on the "little stuff" because they risk the Wrath of Rahm and they need their advertisters to stick with them.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by chet everett

...that more than a few kids and their families are routinely advised by the cops that "well you know even if we do catch these kids and even if the State's Attorney does file formal charges odds are that minors will get little or no punishment and you would have to come testify and then everyone would know you went to court and we really can't predict what would happen when these kids, who may have friends in gangs, tell their friends what they'd do. Do you go to a public school now? Are you sure you want to stir things up? Of course we can mark the report "juvenile" and if everybody was a minor that will keep the details out of the news. Is that the way you wanna go? OK then. "

Less a conspiracy than an accommodation / wise use of the courts...

So what are you saying, Chet? Even the cops are on-board with a "no snitching" policy?

[TBideon]

Chet is correct on this one. I smoke with some cops at the Hubbard Cigar Shop lounge, and we talk about all kinds of issues. Half sports, half crime-related stuff. Lakeview has come up a few times, and what they say more mirrors the pessimists on this and other sites more so than the "all is well, it's a big city, just use street smarts, it's your fault for being alone/drunk/living in an urban area" types. It's certainly influenced my opinion somewhat. Informing victims that the forthcoming headaches of an investigation and (unlikely) criminal charges will far outweigh any kind of justice is not a new concept.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by TBideon

The violence in Boystown, and frankly large chunks of gentrified Lakeview, of the last few years is certainly at a ridiculously unacceptable level. Walking on Halsted at 3:00am after seeing the Road Warrior at Music Box and grabbing a quick drink on Saturday morning, I can vouch for all the concerns there. It was truly the hood. Bad and bored ghetto throughout in different size groups. Very high tension.

Plus I read there were quite a few incidents AGAIN this weekend despite the "walk for peace" or whatever rubbish was organized at midnight.

I'm sure the 70s were no picnic in Lakeview, with Neo Nazis and bikers fighting Puerto Ricans on Belmont on a nightly basis. But that was then; the area is supposed to be semi-gentrified and safe now, (there are some damn expensive condos if it's not) - not just for 18 hours a day.

Yeah, I never use to think anything of it, but especially this year I'm extremely aware of myself when walking around Halsted after midnight, and especially after 2am. I mean it's ALWAYS a good idea at 2am, I'm not stupid, but like you said, it's a total "WTF!?" moment on weekends now when you see that street at 3am compared to 3pm. "Bad and bored ghetto throughout" is a perfect way of putting it. Had another friend get jumped at midnight last Thursday wandering home from dinner with me and some friends. His incident was reported and the police managed to show up, although he hasn't appeared in any blogs or anything. We have signs up on our door now on Buckingham making sure everyone knows that the Boystown police beat was #1 in the city in robberies the past 90 days. In the top 2% of violent crime during the past year.

[DoubleMakers]

The bad guys go where the money is, and there's plently of money up north for thugs from other neighborhoods to make the journey. Taking money or a Rolex off a someone in LP, Lakeview or other northside neighborhoods is like taking candy from a baby for a group of armed thugs. People on the north side need to practice basic big-city street sense, especially when it's dark and you're on foot. I've had two friends robbed on the northside and both times they were walking, at night, by themselves. Carry throwaway cash/wallet, keep your phone hidden, be aware of your surroundings, carry a tactical flashlight and leave designer watches/purses at home. Or mitigate the risk even further and simply take a cab from point A to point B. 90+% of the people who live in the northside will never have a problem, and despite those odds I continue to do things to reduce my risk even further. I don't have to be the hardest target out there, I just have to be a more difficult target than the the rest of you. By the way, I live in north LP and have never had a problem, but have seen plenty of sketchy people stalking others in LP/LV (my job requires counter surveillance training, so yes, I know what stalking looks like).

[Chi-town Native]

...just to reiterate on the common sense thing, north siders in general seem to really enjoy the obliviousness that comes with iPods cranked so loud I can hear the music even through the Dr. Dre headphones.

[andrew61]

Wow, the tone on this board has really changed in just the past couple years. A poster named SmartGXL told us all these things about the Boystown area having become sketchy at night, and most everyone on this board pooh-poohed him. Didn't he move to Texas or something? Looks like he's been vindicated now.

[chet everett]

...some kind of "proportionate response". In a perfect world the exact details of every incident would be captured by a dispassionate third party that witnesses everything and there would be video / audio to back things up. That pretty much never happens, but when it does the chance that the video ends on TV means there is either going to be a pretty swift call to bring the bad guys to justice or one of those terrible missteps like with Abate and the little barmaid. The "try to get every thing quiet" reponse is the standard CPD procedure and when it misfires it makes the brass look much worse than they really are.

The majority of the minor violence is really not messing up the life of victim and the perptrator. We may call the attorneys public defenders or "advocates" but the reality is once things do hit the couets the nature of our legal system is about an ADVERSARIAL struggle with the "prosecutor" and cops and public defender all getting paid out of the same tax payer funded pot. The victim has nobody in their corner, if the perpatrator really does have gang ties the cops don't have the resources to assign a protective detail to the family. So the cops, often after they "take a statement" go back to the parents of victim and have the kind of conversation I laid out. The same sort of thing happens regardless of race / income disparity. Cops have a pretty good sense in most neighborhoods of what sorts of kids have a habit of being out late and such. They tiptoe around a line that blames the victim. Ask anbody that grew up in rough parts of Chicago and the reason that concerned moms/dads/grandparents don't let the good kids out is mostly to make sure they never get a bad reputation with the cops as much as anything. I am not saying I approve of the cops' old school "boys will be boys" rationalization, just that it happens regardless of the victims / perpatrators are of the same or different races.

If the violence is more than the standard kicking and punching or it truly is one of the pretty rare cases where it is not a kid but somebody's grandma or a handicapped person there is a greater liklihood that the cops will handle things differently -- those are probably the biggest the reason that the rap sheets of some kids get them escalated out of the juvenile system and into the criminal courts. Cops and prosecutors tend to not look kindly of people that don't follow the "pick on some one your size" rule of thumb...

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

So what are you saying, Chet? Even the cops are on-board with a "no snitching" policy?

[rparz]

Something is going to snap sooner or later and things will get ugly.