Another Narcotics Arrest

Wow. We hope the officers out there that believe they cannot get a good, overtime court arrest on 2211's beat are paying attention to Bt. 2211's activity for last night.

They got a crack cocaine arrest on the 10700 blk of Whipple. It is here people. You just have to look and patrol and you will find it. It may not be as prevelant as it is east of here, but it is here. And bangers sometimes come here to deliver, you just have to look. Looking requires a beat car to be on the beat at all times searching. Let's talk about what 2211's arrest last night might have prevented.

The idiot with the crack could have been that potential burglar on the beat that need to get something of value from a good citizen of Mt. Greenwood to buy more crack. That idiot didn't get to do it last night, they were locked up.

The idiot with the crack could have potentially robbed someone for cash or something of value to get some more crack for their addiction. Again, yesterday they didn't have a prayer because 2211 was on the prowl and was being proactive.

The waste of space could have smoked the crack cocaine, got behind the wheel of a car and hit some innocent victim because they were too high to drive. Not so fast asshole, we had a beat car doing the job we ask of them.

We are sure there are many more scenarios to evaluate the arrest of the individual last night, but we are giving the Kudos again to 2211 for the work they did on our beat.

Answering a question

from comments:

Gotcha. But if an incident occurred inside the city limits with an unregistered "handgun" in your home, (e.g., shooting a home invader or something) would that still be a felony if you purchased it legally using your FOID Card in an Illinois suburb or out-of-state?

And if so, would that apply to an unregistered "long gun," too?

Use of deadly force is easy to explain. If you fire your handgun or shotgun, you are using deadly force. Deadly force is force that likely can result in death or great bodily harm. You are justified to use deadly force as a citizen when you feel that your or someone else's life (like family) is in danger.

The city law of failure to register is just a nuisance law. Being convicted of a ordinance can never get you to a felony. Cities are not allowed to have felony charges. Only states can have a felony charge that could get you time in the Illinois Department of Corrections. This state, even though they do not allow you to conceal carry, still has a little common sense and allows everyone else in this state to possess a handgun or weapon inside of their home.

If you choose to use deadly force against someone, you need to be able to justify said use. Example: "Offender bashed in my window and was coming into my house in such a manner that it scared the shit out of me and I thought the offender was going to kill me or my family." That statement of fear of loss of life along with the evidence of the broken window, location of offender, etc. is enough to justify your use of deadly force. If you never feel fear of losing your life or getting seriously injured, then you are not justified in using deadly force. Please, express that fear of you being attacked and potentially losing your or a family member's life and then you will be justified.

However, as of right now, the city can confiscate your gun and charge you with an city ordinance. That would be all.

Here is the Illinois Statute so that you can do some of the use of force research on your own.

Castle Rock vs. Gonzalez

We read in the comments recently, (sorry, we cannot place exactly where in the comments), about a Supreme Court case that stated that the police cannot not be held liable for failing to protect you from a crime. We were aware of the case and looked it up.

Castle Rock vs. Gonzalez

The basics of the case was a woman had a restaining order against her estranged husband and the police failed to act thinking the husband was not a violent person after kidnapping their 3 kids. He killed the kids and then died by cop.

Tragedy....yes. Police liable...not so much.

What can we take from this? Your police are not responsible for protecting you. We are certain that our police will attempt to if they see the crime in progress. Any good police officer would. However, in your time of immediate need, calling 911 does not protect you from the problem at hand. Should you do it? YES! But the fight doesn't stop because you called the police. Protect yourself. Protect your family and your neighbors. If you set yourself up to be a victim, you will be one. If you sit there after calling 911 waiting for the police to come and rescue you, well, you may be disappointed.

The courts have ruled, and we believe rightfully so, that you cannot depend on government for your protection. Our city would like you to think so. They build big 911 buildings, big police stations, hold beat meetings, and have a handgun ban so that you have to turn to the city for protection and not yourself. Reality is, our 1 beat car cannot stop crime. Our 1 beat car can barely respond to crime. Ultimately it is up to you to protect yourself from harm.

However, it is up to us to get our tax dollars back for the smoke and mirrors protection we receive. Hear the sound of those police sirens you pay for going east all the time. Bosses don't care, they are not liable for your protection. We know we could use some of that tax money to buy a gun.

Supreme Court ruling

Our right to at least own a handgun in our home is coming true. But not quite yet. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the lower federal court for a new decision. So, until that happens, the law is technically still on the books.

You can still get prosecuted for the city ordinance but please weigh the punishment vs the 'crime.'

City ordinance

8-20-250 Violation – Penalty.
Any person who violates any provision of this chapter, where no other penalty is specifically provided, shall upon conviction for the first time, be fined not less than $300.00, nor more than $500.00; or be incarcerated for not less than ten days nor more than 90 days or both. Any subsequent conviction for a violation of this chapter shall be punishable by a fine of $500.00 and by incarceration for a term of not less than 90 days, nor more than six months.

We know incarceration scares a lot of people and we understand that. We would not want to be incarcerated either. However, if you are a law abiding citizen of the city of Chicago and you use your weapon to protect yourself and your family, wouldn't a small fine and a little jail time be worth the life of you and your family? Just a thought.

Continuing with those thoughts, we have never seen anyone get punished along the lines of this 'failure to register' law. The worst punishment we ever saw anyone get for violating this provision is the confiscation of the firearm. That is it. If that is the worst thing to happen to you in order to protect your family, is it really that bad?

Lastly, this law is truly dead, just not officially. Will the mayor keep wanting the law enforced? You betcha. Will the average police officer arrest you for it? Probably not, especially if you are not a gang banger or of ill criminal background. Will a judge find you guilty? Probably not because most of the judges are aware of the Supreme Court ruling and know that the prosecution of you would be a futile effort. You still may lose the gun until the law is officially destroyed.

Our disclaimer is that you may still get arrested and prosecuted for possessing a handgun in your home. Reality is that you are that much closer to protecting your family at least at home. True reality is that if you possessed that handgun at home today, you can start protecting your family today with, in our opinion, minimal risk.

Another WTF moment + ALERT

From email:

I live on the 10900-11000 block of Albany. This morning, (07/26) at about 5:10 a.m., a neighbor awoke to find a white male in his 20's, attempting to force his way into her house. He was pounding on her door and kicking it. The neighbor is a female, home with 2 young children, and whose husband was out of town. the man was about 6', slender build, white T-Shirt, tatoos on his arms.
When she called 911, she was told no cars were available, but one would be sent. She called a minute or so later to say the man was now walking around her back yard trying the rear door and garage door, the call taker dismissively told her, "we have no cars available, what do you want me to do?". This neighbor calls another neighbor, married to CPD, to ask what she should do, neighbor #2 gives her the desk phone # at Dist. 22.
The guy at the desk says all cars are busy at a motorcycle accident, and what she needs is a gun. No shit Sherlock! He also said her call was not a priority.
I like and respect our members of the CPD. OEMC not so much. I don't have the contacts to find out who might have been working the desk at Dist.22 this morning, but if true, and I have no reason to doubt my neighbor, what a grade A asshole.
Someone trying to force his way into a home is not a priority call? Well here's a wake up call, you haven't heard the end of this.
In the meantime, area residents beware, you are truly on your own. Have your own plan of protection, and phone numbers of neighbors who might be willing to assist you.

Is this true? We have been saying for the longest time that the one car we have on our beat hardly ever gets to stay on the beat. Reason being is that it always gets moved east. Someone was potentially trying to break into a home and it does not get a priority 1A and deserve a police response? Something tells me the call taker never made this a burglary in progress call and probably made it some sort of trespass so that it would not get a high priority police response.

As for the desk person that answered the phone in the 22nd district, we find no fault there. The person that answered the phone has no control over police manpower and was truly helpless when it comes to the individual calling the station. The desk person can't leave the station and respond. It doesn't work that way. And ultimately, the person on the desk was exactly right, get a gun and protect yourself. We are at a point where no politician, boss, or anyone else is going to have our back but ourselves.

Again, we are the good and the evil is preying upon us. Do not let your guard down and be ready to fight. Start phone trees with your neighbors. Set up email chains for your neighbors. Pass the word around about everything that happens so that everyone knows. And please email or comment us about all that is happening. We will put it on the blog. Keep advocating to our alderman and our police that we need more forced patrol of 2211's beat. It works that way in the 008th District, why can't it work that way in the 022nd district.

Look at the description of the offender. Use that description and keep your eyes open. Call the police if you see this person.

(FYI, we are sure the date was supposed to be 6/26)

The attacks in the comments

We have read the attacks. There are attempts being made to scare our staff out of the blog writing business. The biggest fear to those who are running the show (politicians, bosses, reverends, media, etc) are people waking up to the man/woman behind the curtain and seeing the lies that we are being told by them. Those in power do not want you to see the truth. Those in power do not want you to talk to one another. Those in power do not want you to exchange stories, personal observations or ideas because then you may get the idea that those in power really are not doing a good job and have been lying to you. They fear they will lose that power over you and it scares the shit out of them. Those in power need to realize that they have power because we give it to them, not because they were blessed with it.

We believe that the people in Mt. Greenwood know the score of the game. We believe that we as a community have sat on the bench for far too long and watched our neighborhood slowly get invaded by individuals that just want to prey on the good that exists here. Our community has seen other neighborhoods in the city fall by the wayside and get destroyed. We are done watching the game. We are done being pushed around from one neighborhood to another because the ghettos are jealous of our success. It is time to stop feeling guilty for having success, having family, having homes, having money, having jobs.

This blog helps us to fight back. We are not scared. We will not run. We have not done anything wrong. We believe that what we are doing is right. We are giving a voice to our community the best way we know how. If someone sees something bad going on at a car wash, a grocery store, a neighbor's front yard, then we want to hear about it. If you don't say anything, then no one else will know what is going on. Keep you in the dark. The 'nothing to see here' attitude will not stop the criminal element. It will only embolden them to continue their attack.

No, we are not going away. We are not stopping. We are not afraid of a lawsuit because we can just as easily countersue anyone who wants to shut us up. We really are not into litigation, we just want to exist to help our community, but if someone attacks, we fight back. If you the reader do not agree with what you read on this site, you can do 2 things, either offer an opposing viewpoint in the comments which we generally post or stop reading the site. No one forces anyone to read this blog. Start your own blog or go read the Beverly Review. Continue believing what you want to believe, we do not care. We will not silence you and we would not threaten you either.

Mt. Dope Cemetery

Holy Shit. CPD set up virtual vehicular barricades around the gangbanger cemetery yesterday at 115th and Fairfield. It appears that numerous gangbanger funerals were being conducted at the same time. And where was the Cook County Sheriff?

chirp...chirp...

CPD was there and was providing a barricade for Mt. Greenwood and 2211/2212's beats against the ghetto folk invading, but it truly was a small waste of manpower so that these thugs could have their funerals.

Either way, much appreciation to the boys and girls in blue that helped maintain order in our neighborhood and protect us from the problems. Remember, cemeteries are cook county property. Cook County Sheriff police need to be held accountable for the cemetery problems.

Compliment an Officer

We've taken a little heat in the comments (unjustly as we will point out) about MTGP attacking the officers that work 2211. We refute that as we have time and again posted how the way 2211 is treated is not the officers fault. It is a failure of the bosses, politicians, reverends and will put some pressure on how the dispatchers dispatch cars. (although we are sure they have pressure from their higher ups when it comes to dispatching)

That being said, we are going to quash all of this negativity towards our officers that work our beat and give you this link that will truly show our appreciation for our officers.

Compliment an officer online. Please do this. Even if you are not a victim of a crime, compliment an officer on the arrests they made to help improve the neighborhood. The assistance at an accident scene. Their genuine good advice. They put up with a lot of hell and very often, they are not recognized for the hell they put up with.

However, we will continue to comment on the location of 2211 when they are pulled off of their beat to to all points east. Our community needs to stay informed of where their tax money is going and why it is going there.

Small Milestone

Sometime last night, our blog of 2 months has hit the 10,000 mark. Yay. Sorry, nothing for the 10,000th customer. Our goal of this blog was to post the trouble that exists in the neighborhood and to give our fellow residents a place that they can also post their crime observations. We appear to have reached some residents of Mt. Greenwood and those residents have used the comments section just how we had hoped.

People are posting suspicious people, plates, crimes, and their personal observations of the neighborhood. People are getting the information and they are talking to one another via the comments or in emails. This is a really good thing. If you keep all of your observations to yourself, then the only person that would know about them is you. We need to talk and we need to constantly be on guard for whatever lurks in our neighborhood.

This neighborhood is truly a great neighborhood. We sometimes talk about bad things that happen in the neighborhood, but in general, this is a great neighborhood. We want to keep it a great neighbohood. That is our motivation and that is what has driven myself (the writer) and my fellow staff to constantly keep up with the blog.

This blog will only work if as many residents of Mt. Greenwood as possible read and interact with the blog. We have a small percentage reading now, we are always looking for more. Continue to spread the word about the blog to your neighbors, your friends and your colleagues in the neigborhood. And keep posting what you are seeing out there, no matter how trivial you believe it may be, we would love to hear it.

Don't forget, if those hairs on the back of your neck rise up at what you see, please call 911. You might be saving yourself or your neighbor from a lot of heartache.

2211 Narcotics arrest?

We are getting word that Bt. 2211 made a narcotics arrest on the 10800 blk of Pulaski on June 23rd?!? If this is true, we are sending another kudos their way. We need to start carrying those granola bars around and hand them out to the officers that make these nice arrests in our neighborhood.

Any details of arrest would be welcomed. Great job if this is true!!!!

Beverly Review encourages you not to talk to one another

This is getting stupid. Our blog posted some information provided by an anonymous source and next thing you know, our blog and another were being labeled as business killers.

Now, the Beverly Review is encouraging you to not email. Do not talk to one another about what might or might not be occurring in your neighborhood. Do not trust your friend to make a decision for themselves on whether or not the information that you are emailing to them is true or false. We guess the Beverly Review feels that people are sheep and they believe everything they read and cannot make decisions for themselves.

Look, if you get an email that you determine is true, or at least could be true and you want your friend to see it, email it to them. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO DO SO. You also have a right to email a lie to your friend if you want. You might be labeled by your friend as a liar, but YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO DO SO. The Beverly Review believes that the only place you can get the correct information on the subject is from them.

From Beverly Review

If you have an e-mail address and neighbors with dirt to throw, there’s a good chance that fishy e-mails come your way. We see them all the time, and it’s our job to check them out. But when it’s information about local homeowners and businesses, it is important to not spread false information.

Or else the Beverly Review police will come and get you.

Love the fact that the Beverly Review does not put a byline on this article. They are very poor at sourcing their information.

Update to F.O.I.D. post

Here is the link to the State Police Firearm Owners ID card application. Take your time, fill it out completely and it only costs 10 bucks.

Our blog friend Jim McMahon offered a great idea in the comments with regards to concealed carry.

Because of the un-constitutional gun laws in this state that will not allow a Concealed Carry Permit to be issued to anyone not in law enforcement, (or politically connected) residents of Illinois are eligible for a non-resident CCW Permit from the state of Pennsylvania. And this can be done by mail. All you have to do is fill out the application, send in a copy of your IL Drivers License and your current Illinois FOID Card, enclose a self addressed-stamped envelope and a check for $26 to them, and you’re good for 5 years. I mailed mine out on a Monday, and received my CCW permit in the mail the following Wednesday. (i.e., 10 days)

With this permit you can conceal carry (or open carry) in 22 states that have reciprocity agreements with PA. It’s still useless in Illinois, but if you travel or vacation in any of the following states, you can legally carry a firearm for self protection.

Recognized in: AK-AZ-AR-GA-ID-IN-KY-LA-MO-MT-NC-ND-OK-PA-SD-TN-TX-UT-VT-VA-WV-WY.

We were able to find a .pdf application link for the concealed carry permit. Link here.

Remember, this permit DOES NOT allow you to carry your firearm in the state of Illinois on the public way. You must transport your weapon unloaded, encased in a firearm specific case and you must possess your FOID card. This state is a nanny state and does not want or trust its citizens to truly protect themselves as God has given them the right to do.

However, non-law enforcement citizens can use this permit in the states listed above.

The next question to ask yourself is how are the violent crime rates in each of these states. Probably much lower than in Illinois. However, Arizona has its own problems with the Mexican drug cartels invading.

Either way, there is a 3 day wait period for buying a handgun. Still make the purchase as soon as the law is struck down in the Supreme Court. Don't forget, buy some ammo, too. And take lessons, it will make you a better shot should the need arise.

Remember, when seconds count, police are only minutes away. Except in Chicago where there are less and less police, then they could be too overwhelmed to come because politicians are too removed from the situation to realize how short and overwhelmed our department truly is.

Get your F.O.I.D. card

Hey guys, just a quick note. We just want to alert all Mt. Greenwood residents that they need to apply for an Firearm Owners ID card as soon as possible. As soon as the Supreme Court shoots down the city ordinance against registering firearms, the residents of Mt. Greenwood need to be ready to go out the next day (or same day) and buy a gun to take home. The city council will work quick to implement new laws, but hopefully will allow a grandfather provision. Hence, if you have your firearm before the new laws take effect, you might be grandfathered in. Just a thought.

Arm yourselves!!!

FOID card registration usually takes a few weeks to be processed. There is no law against applying for a card even if you live in Chicago and not allowed to own a handgun.

Does Mt. Greenwood need cameras?

So do we? We have been talking on this blog about the increase in crime and we have seen in other neighborhoods the addition of cameras to attempt to solve them problem.

We here at MTGP say ABSOLUTELY NO! Let us go throught the gammit of arguements for the cameras.

From CBS2

"They're a tool to assist police officers to do their job better on the street," said Chicago Police Asst. Deputy Supt. Howard Lodding.

Really? How many street officers actually view blue light camera footage during a tour of duty? The average police officer does not use the blue light camera that is posted on a pole during their tour of duty. They usually are just sitting on top of the pole zooming in and out and rotating randomly in the hopes that they actually catch a crime occurring. If they do catch a crime occurring, that camera is not going to call 911 or alert the closest beat officer to what is happening. It will sit there and record the crime for some moments before reseting to a new camera angle. They do not exist to prevent crime, they exist to record it (maybe).

From ardamis via Chicago Tribune:

Another 100 police cameras are headed to high-crime street corners as the city expands a security system intended to disrupt crime, Mayor Richard Daley announced Tuesday.

But the new generation of cameras will be less obtrusive than the 200 already on the street. They will be a fraction of the weight and size of the current model and not be equipped with flashing blue lights.

The mayor related it best. They cameras are meant to disrupt crime. That's it. Not stop it. Not intervene. Not report it, just disrupt it. Wow, when we are getting robbed, or caught in gang crossfire, we will just be praying there is a camera there to disrupt it.

If we had police monitor all of the cameras located in the city, we would seriously need one police officer per camera. In order to effectively use the cameras that are in a fixed location and can't move around, we would need to put one set of eyes on each camera so that that set of eyes could watch for crimes in progress and let the police on the ground know where to go and what to look for. So, basically, you need 2 people to do the job that 1 would have been able to do. Not cost effective and not efficient.

To borrow a line from Second City Cop, when was the last time you saw a camera climb down from a pole and put cuffs on someone. Cameras are just there to make the average citizen believe something is being done when really nothing is.

We believe that our police department is comprised of many very good officers that are more than willing to do the work that needs to be done. However, we feel that out police department philosophy has changed. Chicago Police are being led to not prevent crime or be proactive but to report crime and be reactive. Hence why there is an increase in cameras that only report crime and no police to actually prevent crime.

Mount Greenwood does not need cameras, it needs boots on the ground in the form of police officers.

Crime taking a break?

Is there anything that has been happening in the neighborhood that we should all be aware of? We feel that we have been writing a lot about the political aspects of crime and not the true crime. That is a good thing. We hope that the criminal element has taken a break for a little while. Stay alert though!

The Blame Game

It is a game. Everytime something goes wrong, we all look for someone to blame. And sometimes we have to look in the mirror. When our child fucks up. When we don't pay a bill. When our car breaks down and we didn't keep up the maintenance. But when it comes to the public at large, the blame falls largely on the shoulders of the politicians.

From comments.

The responsibility for crime and all the other social upheaval in our neighborhood cant sit squarely on the shoulders of the politicians that we elect. Certainly, you don't want them, or for that matter the police in your living room every time something in our own homes goes wrong. Its always easier to point a finger at someone else as being at fault. I once had an FTO that told me that 95% of everything that goes wrong, is our own responsibility. In his words, "we do it to ourselves". If it feels better to blame someone else, thats just human nature. These are shit times. We have people moving in that dont have the wherewithall to be here. Is that the politicians fault, or the lender who makes his money processing a mortgage that will be sold to another finacial institution? The attitude is fuck it, I got mine. The ones left holding the bag are us, the ones who pay our bills, and our taxes.
But local politicians dont write the script for the private sector, they don't hold approval over the loans given to unqualified applicants.

On another level, the politicians dont send gangbangers and druggies into our neighborhood . After all, they live here too. And the courts basically uphold the rights of these dirtbags to go where they want. The pendulum has swung the other way. The media has spread false sense of fair play.

Look at all the boo-hooing in the papers for murderers of Officers Doyle, Fahey and O'Brien. Look at the comments section following the articles about the Burge trial. They convict Burge in the press and then complain that the Wilson brothers were stereotyped by the police as offenders only because of their race, not their criminal histories. You want to point a finger, theres a lot of directions to go. If I were to boil it down to who's responsible for our neighborhoods going down the drain, I'd have to look at the media, and those who forget that they themselves are a for profit business, NOT A PUBLIC SERVICE. Ive said enough, I have to go watch Maury Povich, he's doing another one of those "whose your daddy?" themed shows that are so relevant to we, the people who work to keep our neighborhoods up. Sorry for the rant, just venting.

The politicians are very responsible for what is happening. They, from the federal level to the local level, control all of the regulation that occurs in society. They are also the same ones that put pressure on the banks to make loans to individuals that could not pay it back if they want to, using your mortgage analogy.

That attitude of 'fuck it, I got mine,' occurs very regularly in politics and the attitude has filtered down through to the private sector. Look at pork barrel projects in America. Say a fiscally responsible republican says no to a spending bill and is staunchly against it. Then with some negotiation later, he is for the bill because he is getting a new airport built in his district, which is hidden in the bill. 'Fuck it, I got mine.'

Look at the police contract. The police are upset because they got shafted on their raise. And they have good reason to be. We don't think the police would be that upset if the attitude of the politicians were truly sincere. The police saw the alderman pass themselves a 6% raise and a significant raise for their staff as well. 'Fuck it, I got mine' attitude took hold. Now they got their raise, everyone else must suffer. If the alderman took no raise to a 2% a year raise, then the police wouldn't have a leg to stand on and would truly understand the financial crisis at hand.

The media is to blame. However, the media is controlled by the politicians. Do you think the reporter at city hall wants to be kicked out of the loop because they reported something unfavorably towards the administration. They are puppets for the politicians because they feel they have to be. That is why the blog world, personal reporting and individual learning has exploded because people know where to find the truth and opinion that reflects what they see with their own two eyes.

As far as the judges and the judicial system, well they are elected....after being appointed or allowed to run by the powers that be. If you don't fit the agenda that the political powers want, you won't win the election or be appointed. And if you get elected and don't fit the agenda, enjoy being a judge at traffic court.

We need politicians that are in their positions for the people they serve. Not for the elites, the money people, the lobbyists, the reverends, etc. Politicians need to start listening to their constituents or start looking for other jobs.

Village Voice said...

Well I for one am not sad that we do not have the parade ... I have no problem with a festival similar to Irish fest at Gaelic Park but the parade was turning into a joke .. If the tradition which was turning into a drunkfest, well sayonara. That is the example it was setting ... PR fest is changing, I worked it back in the day when it was a battle royal, but now from what I hear, it is not that bad ... One thing to remember, the city did not stop the parade ... The Parade committee ended the parade ...

Let's analyze this.

We for one would love to have an Irish fest too. We basically had that. However, some committee cancelled it. Funny thing, can't find the members of the committee anywhere listed. Wonder who was on that committee.

About the drunkfest. Maybe it was turning into a drunkfest. Maybe it always was. Is it a shock that you put a large quantity of Irish people together that they may drink? Our festival was once a year, usually on a cold day and in the morning. It was a major financial draw to the community. It was attended by people from around the country and the world. How can something that was so well attended by so many good people be so bad?

Puerto Rican fest changing? Okay, inside of the park where it is held, maybe. One of our staff have recently worked the fest as well and they tell me there are still roving street gangs moving about through the fest threatening and attempting to start fights. If it was not for the 'overwhelming' police presence, the Puerto Rican fest would be the same as when you worked it.

Immediately step outside the park and you definitely have problems. When the day comes and they invent transporters that beam us directly to the event, we may go.

Lastly, the city did not stop the parade? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Let me ask you this, if the city didn't stop the parade, why did a city alderwoman for the 19th ward make this comment that was found in an ABC 7 news report.

"People are sad but they know it had to happen. It's grown to a point where it can't be held in a residential community like this," said Ald. Ginger Rugai, 19th Ward.

Why would an alderwoman be so quick to be on the side of the committee if she had nothing to do with it? We all know that you need the alderwoman on your side for permits and the like.

Ultimately, the point of the previous article still holds true. We already inundate other neighborhoods in Chicago with police and these festivals just draw more manpower away from the good, tax-paying neighborhoods like ours.

Festivals

We just read this about an Urban festival (which appears to be a cover for a muslim festival) from Shaved. We are also in the midst of the Puerto Rican fest.

Why does it matter?

Hundreds, if not thousands, of police officers are being sent to these events from districts citywide. We are certain that the 22nd district is not immune to it. These festivals are being held in neighborhoods that already have a plethora of police in them. And guess what? You and us are paying for them. Most of us are probably not be going to them because we fear us or our children getting caught up in a gang fight or gunfire, but we sure are paying for them.

Hold the phone, we are paying for festivals that we do not attend and we are paying our police to go to these festivals to leave us unprotected on the homefront. In a logical world, this would not make any sense.

But we live in Chicago.

At least we get this groundswell of police every year during the Southside Irish Parade....er... Fuck, they took that away from us too. The one event that is meant for our neighborhood that we felt safe going to has been removed from our neighborhood. Why did they do this? Because of the minor disturbances and fighting that occured.

Have you been to some of these other festivals? We guess that means that Bud Billiken, Mexican Parades, Puerto Rican fests and every other neighborhood festival will be cancelled based on this criteria. We mean, people get shot at these other festivals, which has to rise well above the level of 'chaos' observed during the Southside Irish parade.

Nope, we get fucked in more than one way here. And we sit here and take it.

We hope our politicians are at least taking us out to dinner first. We hate feeling used.

State Rep Kevin Joyce

The machine is still working. Our state rep Kevin Joyce has announced his retirement. When did he do this? After he was given the nomination, in the primary, to run in the general election. What does it matter you ask? Let me tell you.

Our ward and neighborhood tends to vote democratic and those in power know that. Why, we may never know, but it is what it is. We personally think that these offices would be ripe for the pickings if an independent were to run in a general election against any one of these individuals, but we digress. Incumbents have a tendency, more so because of name, to be re-elected. So, every primary election, the incumbent runs and wins. Then it is a surprise when they retire. What happens next? The machine then gets to choose the next candidate they want to run on the democratic ticket.

It happens time and time again. Here is the rundown.

Rugai was appointed by Mayor Daley after the previous alderman left office.
U.S. congressman Lipinski was appointed by a 'committee' after his father retired. (King passes on to prince)
Father Stroger was kept alive long enough (we think he was alive) to win the primary, then Cook County Board Pres. Toddler Stroger was given the nomination.

Over and over again this happens. The new pick is now beholden to the committee or person that puts them in power. All of this ensures that the machine maintains power and no 'true' challenger can ever break through.

Why do we comment on this on a crime blog? Simple, we are not happy with the current problems in our community and the same leaders have been in power for decades. We can only look to them as the problem, not the solution. We need to stop the machine before it eats everything we hold dear. This machine is always hungry.

Side note: we found a website that has the potential to be beneficial to track our politician's political heritage. Clout Tracker. Could be a useful tool for your own research. It appears they are also looking for information about our politicians, feel free to contribute.

New attack

At first, we were a little concerned with the 19th ward blog that started up recently. We thought they might have been a pawn for the current administration.

We may have been wrong. It appears that they have been the target of attacks from our city and county governments. It also appears that our city and county have people dedicated to determining who these people are that are writing blogs about them.

According to 19th Ward Chicago, their 'Relaunch' article states

At about the same time I was notified by friends that CPD and Cook County Sheriff internet units were attempting to trace my blog to find out my identity. The police looking for me is exactly what the Nazis would have done 70 years ago.

We have internet units? Our tax dollars are funding internet units? It is one thing if you are using these 'units' to track homicide offenders or various other types of offenders, but first amendments writers that protest the current uses of our tax dollars and placement of our police manpower...that is overreaching and kind of scary.

Wake up Mt. Greenwood. We see the man behind the curtain that has been promising us things our whole lives and never delivering, except to their own pockets. Demand those promises be kept or repay us the money we were forced to give for our 'rewards.'

Remember, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." - John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

Mt Hope Cemetery

From comments:


Another In the know item ... Big gang banger leader to be buried Monday at the gang banger burial ground Mt. Hopeless Cemetary ... so beware in the area for there will be a plethora of bangers in the area of 115th st.

A little over a month ago, we know of calls of shots fired when another gang banger was buried there. Extra care should be taken in that area today if above comment is true. Maybe some assistance from the Cook County Sheriff would be helpful seeing how cemeteries fall under their jurisdiction. CPD should be ready for the rif raff in the neighborhood.

*****ALERT*****

We have been monitoring the comments and we feel that the amount of chatter regarding some shady individuals is definitely worth a post dedicated to it.

We are hearing of a male black and a male white driving some sort of yellow van, possibly with Florida plates, going door to door telling people that they have a food delivery. Police were called, (which is good), and they left the area. These individuals were seen at 116th and Homan/St. Louis.

What could this be? Our thoughts turn to looking for an opportunity to commit some sort of burglary or home invasion. They are looking for an easy way in and a way to see what someone might have in their home. They needed an excuse to come to the door and a delivery of food seems to be the excuse.

What we also need to be aware of is that this is definitely not some delivery people making a mistake. They were seen going door to door on at least 2 different blocks asking people about food. That is extremely odd and we need to be on a lookout for them.

Our letter to Patrick Thomas, writer for Beverly Review

We are providing the entire email we wrote to Patrick Thomas after he asked us for information regarding us and our blog(s) regarding the Car Wash and 115th and Kedzie.


We are more than happy to chat via email about anything that we have received regarding crime in the Mount Greenwood area. Most of the information that we receive is via emails and postings on our blogsite, http://mtgreenwoodprotection.blogspot.com/. If you are interested in finding the specifics regarding what was posted, please review our postings on our site.

Beyond that, we do not have any more specific information regarding 115th and Kedzie. It seems that some people have been reporting sightings of gang bangers and just the general ignorance that appears to be invading the neighborhood from points outside. We have our own concerns regarding that corner as posted in our blog. We are just getting ready to post something new that we received from our email. If you were looking for more specific information, we do not have any as of yet. But we are still getting hints from people regarding that area.

As far as who we are, we cannot say. The city has a funny way of attacking those that seem to point out the city's and politician's shortcomings. Our staff is hesitant about revealing themselves because they fear retribution from their politicians, bosses and whoever else might not be happy with what we discover or have to say. We have seemed to have tapped into the pulse of the neighborhood. Residents appear fed up with the lack of police protection they are receiving for the amount of money they are paying. Our main goal is to alert our neighborhood of crime and potential suspects. We have heard through the grapevine that our efforts might have help in the apprehension of a burglary suspect which is great for the neighborhood. Secondary goals are to call out those in power for not giving the residents of Mt. Greenwood the protection they pay for. Our readers may also be in the process of starting some sort of neighborhood watch in order to assist with the security of our community. We would be more than happy to assist them in anyway we can.

Any other questions, feel free to ask.

MTGP

The Beverly Review Article

We just read an article posted on the Beverly Review website and we feel the need to respond to the hit job. Excerpts are in italics from this Beverly Review article.

The owners of a local car wash said last week that information posted on a neighborhood blog is false and that an email message that spread through chain e-mails has damaged their business.

We have no control what people decide to send via email chains. We highly doubt that the car wash business has been damaged, as it is one of the better local car washes that we even said we go to.

The family that operates Quick Suds Car Wash, on the northwest corner of 115th Street and Kedzie Avenue, said the neighborhood blog falsely accused their business of being a street gang hangout and a hotbed for drug activity and other crimes.

Easy there Mr. Mayer. We never accused your business of being a street gang hangout. We just posted what others wrote in the comments and email. We added our two cents, but never claimed it was a gang hangout. Where did you get that?

“Black P Stone gangbangers have taken a foothold at 115/ Kedzie at the carwash,” the anonymous writer stated in an e-mail and blog. “They are targeting whites! Threatening passerbys and customers. Things are getting ridiculous now. Gosh, we can’t even wash our cars without being hassled by thugs.”

Which anonymous writer are you talking about Patrick Thomas? Because if you are saying MTGP, you are surely mistaken. That was from our comments section posted by someone else, don't attribute quotes to something we did not say. Could be slanderous.

The blog posting also criticized nearby Section 8 housing and voiced concerns about recent crime in the area and about an apartment building near 115th Street and Pulaski Road. The e-mail caused several local residents to contact this newspaper because they thought the information was true.

What, do you have infomation that it is not true? Do some research, section 8 individuals do live in that apartment building. Parolees do live there. We never claimed that crime occuring in the neighborhood was attributed to those that live there. Only that our residents of our community need to be made aware of those that live among us. Do not make statements in the middle of an article that have nothing to do with the article to make us at MTGP out to be unreliable. Horrible idea Mr. Thomas. Readers are smarter than that.

Matt O’Shea, administrative assistant to Rugai, who received several calls on the rumors and contacted police officials, said the blog postings and e-mails were “completely fabricated.” O’Shea said the Mayers operate a safe and courteous business.

“One thing I know is that whenever you go to Quick Suds, one of the Mayers is working,” he said. “It’s one of the respectable businesses. They do it right.”

Hey Matt O'Shea, our blog posting is not fabricated. We wrote it. The comment left might have been, but it is a comment. We wrote a blog story about it. We wrote our observations in the blog story. Mr. O'Shea, are we not allowed to write about our observations anymore? Was the first amendment reversed recently and we were not aware? We also wrote a blog story with Mr. Mayer's letter regarding the car wash. We championed Mr. Mayer for the letter. We encouraged our readers to patronize the car wash, and will continue to do so. Any business that brings money, and is a positive influence on the community, needs to be patronized. We do have concerns about that corner and we have expressed those time and again. Sorry if you do not like what we have to say, we have the right to say it anyway.

What we love about the Beverly Review article was that for 3/4 of the article it was a slam against the blog and what we posted. The last 1/4 of the article seems to support all of the reasons that we exist.

While police said there has been no gang activity on the corner, there was an alarming report down the street on May 16. On that evening, a man cutting the lawn at a home on the 3200 block of West 115th Street discovered a .357 revolver. About an hour later, police received a call that another man cutting his grass on the same block had discovered a .22-caliber revolver and a speed loader, a device used to load bullets. The loader did not match the revolver. Police cannot recover fingerprints from an item that has been exposed to the elements for that long, 22nd District Sgt. Dennis Kettering said, and thus, they have not been able to determine the owner of the guns.

“We’ve got nothing to tie these to anything,” Kettering said. “We can only speculate how they got there.”

On Jan. 15, Thomas Banks, of the 11800 block of South Kedzie, in Merrionette Park, was arrested for shooting two people and battering two others in his apartment, but the situation was an unrelated domestic disturbance. Police said the shooting and the recently recovered guns had no connection to the car wash and should not be a concern for customers.

When contacted by e-mail to explain where the information came from about the car wash, the anonymous blogger said only that the information received comes from e-mails and postings. The administrator of the blog would only communicate to this reporter through e-mail and declined to provide an identity out of fear of retribution for comments posted on the blog.

“Residents appear fed up with the lack of police protection they are receiving for the amount of money they are paying. Our main goal is to alert our neighborhood of crime and potential suspects,” the blogger wrote.

It appears that we are libelous, slanderous individuals who are only out to do harm to the businesses in our community. At the same time, we are out to protect are local community from crime that is occuring and encourage our community to patronize our businesses. Hmmm...We don't get it, are we evil or good?


Here are links to our articles regarding 115th and Kedzie, the Car Wash and our comments regarding Mt. Greenwood businesses in the order that they appeared on our blogsite. You be the judge on how libelous or slanderous we were.


115th and Kedzie (5/15/2010)

We are not here for your benefit (5/17/2010)

Car Wash (5/21/2010)

From email (6/6/2010)


A side note for the Beverly Review author of the article, Patrick Thomas. Learn to structure your articles better. We really hope this was an opinion article, because if it was supposed to be a factual article, your true intentions of attempting to hurt our crediblity were obviously made known instead of just presenting the facts and allowing the reader to make their own decision. Lastly, do you or the Beverly Review feel threatened by our presence as a blog? We do this for free for no monetary gain. We do this to make our community safer and better. You guys write for monetary gain. Hmmmm......

Your taxes vs other southside locations

We got an idea from a comment regarding your property taxes and those in areas that receive more city services than us. We decided to pick at random various addresses in various police districts and the total taxes billed for that address in 2009.

Info provided in the following order
Address; 2009 Taxes; Police District; House/Apartment

219 w. 109th st; $372.15; 5th District; house
12015 s. wallace; $1710.08; 5th District; house
7506 s. emerald; $2743.10; 6th District; apartment
8006 s. damen; $1595.88; 6th District; house
8219 s. muskegon; $1737.52; 4th District; house
10812 s. calhoun; $686.55; 4th District; house
7211 s. winchester; $840.44; 7th Distict; house
5543 s. shields; $2065.68; 7th District; house
11223 s. church; $1852.94; 22nd District; house


2211's beat
10414 s. troy; $3022.67; 22nd District; house
10819 s. hamlin; $2706.00; 22nd District; house
10734 s. maplewood; $3506.86; 22nd District; house
11245 s. drake; $3347.87; 22nd District; house

All of this information is readily available online if you know where to look. Our thoughts on some of these numbers. 11223 S. Church St is located on the east end of the 22nd District. That street gets excess police service from the 22nd District and they pay roughly half of the property tax that we do.

An APARTMENT building in the 6th district at 7506 S. Emerald pays less money than 3 of the 4 properties we looked at for Beat 2211. Apartment buildings should be paying a premium as they are investment properties, but because they are in areas that suck everything good away, they get to pay less than a single family house in our neighborhood.

A house in the 5th district at 219 w. 109th st. pays less than $500.00 A YEAR for taxes. The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th districts have smaller beats and get extra help in the form of an outside unit called Tactical Response Unit regularly.

Let's throw more onto the tax fire. A progressive federal income tax. Earn more, pay more. A state income tax that some politicians want to raise. Penalties for working hard and being successful. Wheel tax (city sticker) for owning a car in the city. State Registration. Electric and natural gas consumption taxes. High sales tax. Entertainment tax. Phone taxes. Parking fees. What are we missing? These are all some of the ways the city, county and state rape us regularly for being successful/responsible members of our community. We also know of the roundabout ways of raising our 'taxes' that are not direct ways. Raise taxes on companies and force the companies to charge us more.

Now, say you earn nothing and are a dredge on society, get a Link card, get Section 8 housing vouchers, get free health care at any public health center or hospital, get taxes done for free by city, get job training for free, get a public defender when you are a fuck up, get to keep the cash earned from the drug trade and still get all of the free public welfare because you show no income, get SSI, get government subsidized cell phones, government subsidized daycare when you want other people to raise your children. Extra police protection. Extra fire protection. Where does it stop? Did we miss some? Please fill us in on some of the other stuff the dredge of society receive that we forgot or were unaware of.

After all of that money has burned a hole in our pocket, at the end of the day we are left out here to defend ourselves and have the assistance of 2211 when they can make it out this way and 2211a when they decide to man the car and not detail it to some other beat.

No one is crying (edit for spelling/grammar...sorry, our writer was tired)

We read a couple of comments regarding people 'whining' about the location of 2211. We don't consider it 'whining' as much as pointing out the lack of police service on the beat. One comment called it 'whining' while at the same time stated that downtown doesn't care about us on the west end of the 22nd District.

Exactly our point. We talk about the location of 2211 and the administrative moves in the department because no one cares about us, but us. All of our calls and complaints do not get any action. Yet, at the same time, our money gets siphoned from our pockets while there are areas in the city that get all of the service for less or no money.

What does that leave us with? Well, the only thing that we can do is come together and express everything that we see and know about what is happening in our city and our community. If we all realize that we are upset with the same thing, then we are a mass of people that have a problem that the city has to deal with or...

...we as a voting block, (and a large one at that) will have the knowledge to vote out those in power and put new people in power until we get what we want.

And what do we want? Either more police protection or lower our taxes to a level that truly relfects the services the city realistically can and do supply us. We need to stop funding the city services for people in the city that do nothing but siphon the resources of our citizens for a return of absolutely nothing.

Call in whining, call it complaining, call in whatever you like. We call it a problem and we choose to not sit on our asses and let it keep happening. We choose to make people aware of what is going on. We choose to educate the populace and we trust our community to make the right decisions based on the information at hand.

From email

At the 7-11 at 115th & Kedzie there are African-American men harassing women as they walk to and from the gas station. My wife ran to 7-11 to pick up something for cookies she's baking at 11:05pm.(edited by MTGP, for a last minute need for the next day) One shouted something about coming home with him. Another shouted "Hey Bitch! Get back here!" As my wife ignored him, he proceeded to chase her. As usual we called the police and watched for them to patrol, but after 10 minutes we stopped watching. Merrionette Park police are pathetic. I figured Mt. Greenwood folks should know about this as well. Too bad it's illegal for her to carry gun. Next time she will bring her pepper spray, which is sad because we used to feel safe here...

Again, we have commented on that corner before. We have seen that type of behavior as well. Even though we have been told that the car wash is clear and free of gang activity does not mean that it is still not at that corner. That corner seems to be becoming a gathering spot for some seedy individuals as they are traveling through. Or, those people are living in the apartments nearby in Merrionette Park. Kedzie goes right through Robbins and 115th St appears to be a great route out of Roseland and to all the burial locations for their gang banger friends. Police response may not be good, but calling is the only thing we have right now. We cannot comment on Merrionette Park, but keep calling if you are in Chicago.

Every call forces a beat car to come to the neighborhood.

*****ALERT*****

Garage burglaries are probably are most common offense and something that we need to be conscious of. Just received a comment regarding a particular and an potential offender.

10900 blk between Drake and Central Park. Male, white, 25-30 years attempted to take a bike from a garage. Offender driving a small, older model car. Was scared away by an alert neighbor. Good job!!!

Any plate, make, model or color information?

Keep your eyes open in those alleys.

Did 2211 refuse to leave their beat to take a job?

Just read in the comments that 2211 refused to leave their beat to take a job. Is this true? If so, nice work. Way to stand up against the system that has left us high and dry for protection. If we had ribbons to hand out for having the balls to tell the dispatchers no, we'd be handing them out righ now. We also have to give credit to the sgt. that decided not to force 2211 off the beat to handle the job. Or the field lt. who might have been listening as well. We may attack the higher ups from time to time, but if they do what is right then we will also praise them.

If all of this is true....GREAT WORK!!!!

2211 afternoons kudos

It has been mentioned in the comments about arrests and activity generated by 2211 on the afternoon watch and the effort being made.

We have seen some of this activity and we really appreciate it. They appear to be doing the job that we would like for them to do and it is not going unnoticed. They are just one car but they seem to try hard. Who gives a crap about narratives flying in court. Half of the stuff police make arrests for in Cook County gets dismissed anyway. That being said, the arrests do make a difference. They start to scare the crap out of the criminals that choose to commit crimes in our neighborhood.

MTGP salutes 2211 afternoons for the work they are doing. We have also noticed a couple of times that the residents of 2211 have been calling the police more on afternoons, which in turn forces 2211 or another car to come to Mt. Greenwood. We love it.

Remember, there is more to working a beat car on 2211 than numbers. Quality activity and presence are worth more than numbers generated by the unit.

From Comments...again

We feel the need to address stuff in the comments. An explanation needs to be give to those that worry about calling 911 and why to call 911. We are going to refer readers to our other post about racial profiling vs. criminal profiling as well as a response on this post.

This is why I asked if I should call. I have been called Racist by the police here for calling in about suspicious people who happen to be black in the past. Dispatch has even hinted at that as well. Just because a person(s) who is acting suspiciously happens to be black, it does not mean we are being racist.It means we have not seen that person before and he/she is acting strange. Check them out!Don't give me a lecture on racism.

Those internal feelings that you as a tax paying citizen about not coming off racist or don't want to offend anyone are feelings that have been given to you by the media/politicians/reverends of the world who tell you that you can't feel that way or that you are offending someone.

Ultimately, the person that you maybe offending is the person that becomes a victim because you did not call 911 on that suspicious person.

Years back when we were a more communal society, we used always look at outsiders that entered our neighborhoods and some may even have confronted them. That is human nature. Until that person proves their intentions to the community, we are going to watch and be suspicious. Our current form of confronting the individuals is using the police department to do the confronting.

Know this if you call 911, the police may not necessarily stop the person. Sometimes, they will watch the person too. And that is good as well. There is nothing wrong with a police officer parking on a block and watching the suspicious person move. Then when that suspicious person turns a corner, the police can turn a corner and keep watching. That may be good enough to scare this individual away if they have criminal intentions. The criminal might believe that this neighborhood is well watched by police or the community and it isn't worth the risk.

Believe us, the dispatchers are the last people you should worry about offending. They are responsible for taking the calls and dispatching them out. Their personal views are just that, their personal views. They are not living your life and in your neighborhood and they do not know what you are seeing. Ultimately, dispatchers are just a voice on the end of the phone that is translating what you tell them to the police. We know dispatchers that live in our neighborhood that would cheer you on for calling as they have families that live here as well. You are doing the right thing by calling.

Also, if you do not want to give your name and talk to a police officer, you do not have to. You can remain anonymous. Hell, the people in the ghettos that get all of the police presence make these anonymous 911 calls ALL THE TIME!!!!

From Comments

There was suspicious black pick up driving around last night around 107th and Central Park yesterday. My son got the plate but have not heard if anything went wrong yesterday. Hopefully not. The driver and passenger did see all of us taking the plate down so maybe we scared them off. Are we just being paranoid?

PLEASE CALL. We should not be afraid to call 911. Something went off in your heads and you got a bad feeling. You did everything right. Got a description, got the plate and you are potentially a good witness. However, by not calling, you did not go far enough. You are not paranoid. Stop telling yourselves that. That is the politician/reverend/media talking. By calling, you can be stopping a crime. Here is what you tell 911.

"There is someone suspicious slowing riding around the neighborhood. I've seen them 4 times just driving by slowly, looking at (insert what you think they are looking at, i.e. kids, cars, houses). I would like the police to drive by and take a look at them." Then provide the description to the call taker. Do not take 'no' for an answer. This is your neighborhood.

Had a fun time Saturday watching a drug deal go down as I drove home. The house at 15000 S. St.Louis did the drug transaction right out in the street. Called 911 only to find out 22 was in a backlog at 7pm. 30 minutes after the call the wagon drove by but everyone was gone by then.
The house also has two newer (a couple of months now) pit-bulls in the yard.

For the person that posted this, what is the correct address? MTGP is not concerned if this is occuring in Midlothian as much as if it is occurring in Mt. Greenwood. If it is Mt. Greenwood, would the tact/gang guys take a look at this. That is if they get their arrest east of Bell first?

I'm contemplating running for alderman, I'm extremely tired of this city government!

Love the idea. Can you convince the other 49 wards to change their leadership too? Rooting for some change that we can believe in.

Back to Regular Scheduled Programming

MTGP hopes that you had a good Memorial Weekend. Hopefully it was safe and during that weekend you honored those that have lost their lives serving and protecting our country. We did.

A special thank you to all those that have chosen to serve our country and a somber thank you for those families that have lost a loved one in the service of our country. We can never repay you for what you have lost, but we owe you so much.

For those of you that are serving currently and live in Mt. Greenwood, we promise that we will continue to fight for our neighborhood while you are gone. We promise to try our best to look out for your family while you are gone so that you can have peace of mind while you are protecting us as well as a wonderful neighborhood to come home to.