Thursday, October 22, 2009

If You See Something...Say Something

Crime is inevitable especially in a big city. The Chicago Sun-Times had a story today about smokers (who were outside smoking) who saw some form of crime in our neighborhood and called the police which in turn ended up helping them catch the criminals.

Simply put: if you see something suspicious...say something (call the cops or something)!

10 comments:

Carl said...

Once upon a time this was referred to as one's "civic duty".

It was the type of thing that was instilled in children by their parents/teachers/peers before society when to hell and turned into the current "every man for himself" landscape.

Anonymous said...

I was looking for the names of the smokers that did in-fact call the police as I personaly want
to buy them each a carton of smokes for their efforts. Not kidding - if anyone gets their names, please email solomotorrow@yahoo.com.

Anonymous said...

The level of crime in this neighborhood, both petty and serious, is starting to get scary. Unfortunately, with the enormous amount of condos either going rental or being auctioned for pennies on the dollar, the criminal element will continue to grow. Change we can believe in! (?)

Carl said...

How soon people forget . . . this area was considered "skid row" a short 20-30 years ago. It's gotten a hell of a lot better in the 10 years that I've lived here. Pacific Garden Mission has moved and most if not all area SRO flophouses are history.

I look out my window and see literal "change" for the better every single day.

Anonymous said...

Just because this WAS "skid row" 20 years ago does NOT make it okay. Please don't make excuses for the criminal element. These are the types of excuses people in Englewood, Asburn, Grand Crossing, etc. make whenever they have a month when "only" one or two murders take place, e.g. "it's okay because we had 10 murders last month."

Carl said...

This area IS indeed changing for the better . . . sorry it's not moving fast enough or in the specific (myopic) direction that you'd prefer, Anon!

One person's progress in another person's regress.

Anon said...

Please tell me how a spike in muggings, auto theft, graffetti, gang activity, etc. is progress?

Carl said...

It's all relative, Genius.

How did you determine a baseline in relation to your "spike"? You're looking at things way to narrowly . . . how long have you lived here?

No one's saying you have to like the crime situation here but it's like moving to L.A. then complaining about the traffic/smog/wildfires.

Maybe you should be directing your ire towards Daley and his lack of progress regarding police contracts and hirings. Or would you rather have the National Guard lock down the area in a military state?

Anonymous said...

I'm with Carl (and Sloopy). Some time back I had duties as a public speaker for the OEC (now OEMC), and the one thing I consistently told audiences of citizens was to call 911 for things that they considered truly suspicious. Nobody is a better judge of what is suspicious than a citizen familiar with the environment. See somebody strange loitering in your parking lot or scaling a wall or fence? Call 9-1-1. And DEFINITELY call if you actually see a crime while its happening.

As for Carl's point, the neighborhood has seen vast improvements since the 90s. Still, it will only continue to improve if people care to see it continue.

Anonymous said...

"If you see something . . . say something.". Unless, of course, you are part of a community that stresses "don't snitch" over cooperating with police.