Shots fired in East Liberty (Pittsburgh, Penn: fit in, top neighborhoods, 2013)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Even though they may not be "making a statement," they're not valuing the lives of innocent bystanders. It's pretty damn inconsiderate to be settling disputes in broad daylight in a busy public area. Why can't they come up with some other way to settle disputes? Challenge each other to a duel or something. Maybe an old fashioned Western shootout at high Noon and everyone has fair warning to clear the streets. Or an Ultimate Fighter cage showdown. Or they could go all Thunderdome, Mad Max style.

^ Agreed. Much agreed, as a matter of fact. Well-said as usual, Hopes! If you're going to settle a drug-related or gang-related dispute at least have the common decency to leave innocent bystanders OUT of harm's way!

[todd00]

OP, very glad to hear you are OK, it must have been a terrifying experience.

Consideration isn't in the gangsters vocabulary. These cowards drive by while firing off rounds at the person they suspect to be their target. To call them men is ridiculous. Sometimes they get the wrong person, sometimes stray bullets go through walls killing youngsters in their own homes or on the street. They are not known for their accuracy or caring if innocent people happen to be in harms way. They quickly shoot and run away. To term it "inconsiderate" is like saying the Iraq war was merely a war of words.

Many things need to change, stop the revolving prison door for violent offenders. Prison seems to represent a badge of honor for these types. But a hard 25 for any gang affiliated person if convicted for any violent crime and they wouldn't be doing any laughing. One of the punks that shot Hadiya should have still been in jail but the lenient system put him back on the streets. Stipends for staying in school and receiving passing marks on the positive side and link the children's behavior to the parents benefits received on the negative side. If the kid gets arrested, x percent is deducted from the parents check for a certain amount of time depending on the crime. If the kid gets in minor trouble and goes back to finish school and gets passing grades that could negate the punishment. Maybe that would be an incentive for some parents to pay more attention to what their kid is up to. Any of you remember that old line on TV, It's 10 pm do you know where your children are? It would be nice to see more people volunteering to mentor at risk young kids before they are recruited and swept away into gang life. In the end it's the individual communities that must stand up and say enough is enough. Think of the numbers of innocent victims killed by these thugs. The numbers are far greater than that of mass shootings yet people aren't nearly as outraged. This year a 5 year old in Omaha, Nebraska sat eating her breakfast when a stray bullet came through the wall and killed her. The thugs showed zero remorse for their actions. I can think of another case where it was a 12 year old doing her homework, the same situation and outcome for this poor child. It's gotta be stopped but it won't happen with slap on the wrist sentences, liberal good time policies and prisons that are far more comfortable than the criminal deserves.

In Chicago they also had a recent mid afternoon shooting near a McDonald's. One person was killed and two more injured. You can see in the video the suspect raising the gun. I feel very sorry for the good hard working people that must live among this kind of violence on a daily basis.

Rogers Park McDonald's Shooting Caught on Surveillance Video - Rogers Park - DNAinfo.com Chicago

[mangmang]

Lot of straight-up racist sentiments in this thread. My heart goes out to Gee Whiz, I'm sorry it happened in the first place and that you were there to be endangered by it.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

You just relocate the ghetto to a less prime area. Bye, bye. It is that simple, if the dumb government would let the natural progression take place. The city needs income to progress, not leaches.

ok, so 'negro removal, 2014'?

i know thats now what you mean, but im playing devil's advocate. what you are suggesting will no doubt be interpreted as a war on, lets see: the poor, black people, east liberty itself, and maybe a few other groups of victims.

its understood that guys have guns everywhere in a place like that. sometimes, they will tap their belt to let you know (no, im not crazy). its a lifestyle. i mean, who the 'f' shoots wanton like that out in the open? what kind of little bizarre world do some people live in ? im sorry to say ive seen something like that a few times, but not here in Pittsburgh. it was always in a black neighborhood, and always a black guy under 23 or so.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

ok, so 'negro removal, 2014'?

i know thats now what you mean, but im playing devil's advocate. what you are suggesting will no doubt be interpreted as a war on, lets see: the poor, black people, east liberty itself, and maybe a few other groups of victims.

Buddy Gray.

Maybe the secret agenda on why Peduto is looking at Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati?

[Uptown kid]

Ask your selves if you would have the same sediment for the white Crips, Bloods, and thugs that room around this city. Mike Adams stabbed by two black guys and a white guy, but when everybody assumed the perps were all black before the report came out people on this forum were crushing black youth. White guy shoots baby in Carnegie Towers, not too much out rage on this forum then. White huy shoots is friend on a friday night on a street full of people in Carrick, no outrage on this forum then. Believe it or not a can go on.

Some of you who posted on this forum have a hatred resulting from fear of young black males from inner city. Beleive it or not there are actually more African American males who are not gang members/drug dealers than those who are. They don't make the news as often, but you wouldn't know they exist if all you do is drive through the neighborhood (rightfully so because your world is totally different from theirs). They work too like their non intercity counterparts: some in fast food/restaurants, some in security, some in labour/craftsman careers, some in night clubs/bars, and other lower wage jobs. Like their peers they go to trade school/community college/the military. Not to mention there are many cases where driven youth from the inner city achieve a higher education and/or are or become young proffesionals in the corporate world.

I felt the need to say this because some of you due to your responses seem like if you had a gun and were in a parking lot and had the same altercation as Micheal Dunn you would do the same thing as a result of your fear and hatred of young black men.

I understand your outrage... In fact, I actually have had non close friends, acquintences and cousins gunned down. And I'm glad whites are mad at the violence which plagues black communities (even though some of you appear to be mad only because this event happened to a white family), although you can't atrribute this event to all young black men or low income black people in the ghetto. If your going to direct hate on somebody, let it be gangsters and next time you see a gangster committing a crime dail 911. Otherwise, bashing all inner city black male youth on the internet is unproductive and doesn't do jack **** to solve your problem. Acknowledging violence in a broad daylight setting full with innocent people is a good thing because that is a problem in our county. But when you slander and atrribute this violence to a group and a demographic as a whole, instead of the realatively small (well over a dozen thousand of black men only 1000 or so a gangsters) population of hell-bound thugs, you are doing wrong.

[pittkid2014]

Great post Uptown kid and very well said. I'm sick of violence in our communities and I believe my sentiment is shared by essentially all races and ethnicities.

[WPANative]

Originally Posted by Gee Whiz

I was driving north on Negley Avenue today around 3:15 PM. I was at the red light at Penn and Negley in front of the old Babyland when I heard a "Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!" Some light skinned black teen standing on the northeast corner of Negley started firing a gun at a car passing by heading west on Penn towards Garfield. People at the bus stop started running. One guy with a little kid ran into the Monroe Muffler shop. I was frozen. I did not want to drive through the intersection towards this kid. Suddenly, before the light changed, the kid ran behind those newer town homes on Negley and disappeared. He was wearing a red down jacket(bloods?) I saw a UPS guy calling the cops. I was too shaken, seeing someone pull out a handgun and start firing at a busy intersection in broad daylight is unnerving.

In my nearly 8 years here, I've heard plenty of gunfire, living so close to Homewood and Wilkinsburg, but thankfully, haven't seen anything like you did.

[UKyank]

Stop incarcerations for petty drug crimes & put a mandatory say 20 year minimum + lifetime probation for any felony committed with a firearm present (& no judicial deal cutting either) & such problems would significantly decrease over time.

No I don't care that such penalty would ruin peoples lives as there's too many good people out there for me to worry about 'a kid that just got caught up with the wrong crowd & made a bad choice' excuse that keeps these losers on the streets even after multiple arrests now

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Definitely some racist stuff going on in this thread by the usual suspects.

In my neighborhood most of the crime committed is done by low income whites. The problem has been discussed over and over, and it ain't skin color. When you have no opportunities in life you'll harbor an IDGAF attitude towards everything no matter what color you are. That attitude rules your life and you end up not caring about any of your actions including extreme ones like shooting at people in public.

This lifestyle is everywhere, from East Liberty to rural Appalachia and everywhere in between. I don't think the demographic that posts on here can relate to having a lifestyle with all roads leading to dead ends (having a PC with steady internet access already takes you out of that equation). So essentially what we get are people who think everything is terrible or people who say everything is great when neither party can 100% relate.

IMO all of this stuff is just the symptoms of a country in decline. Sure people will cite the "violent crime is down" stats but those same people will ignore the fact that it's down because everyone and their mother is behind bars.