June 28, 2010 - What are the politicians in Chicago's 46th Ward have to say about last night's double shooting in Uptown?
Virtually nothing, that's what.
Chicago's Uptown is all abuzz with talk of last night's senseless shooting. Around 9:25 p.m. on Sunday, a man fired a pistol into the intersection of N. Broadway and W. Wilson, the scene of many shootings in the past. Two men were injured, one with minor shoulder wound but another with a serious bullet wound to his abdomen.
Uptown is notorious as one of the most violent neighborhoods on the northern lakefront of Chicago. The issue of violence - especially gang violence - is guaranteed to be a major issue in the 46th Ward in the February, 2011 aldermanic election.
The only aldermanic candidate who returned my phone calls today was Don Nowotny.
Alderman Helen Shiller's website has nothing about the shooting (as of 8:45 p.m.). Shiller's website does not even have a "news" section (most aldermen's websites do.)
James Cappleman's aldermanic campaign website has nothing (as of 8:45 p.m.), nor did his
Facebook or
Twitter pages. Cappleman's partner,
Richard Thale, is the CAPS facilitator on police beat 2312 and leader of a small group of "
positive loiterers." As such, one would think that both he and Cappleman would have been aware of the shooting within minutes of it happening last night. Both men are gay, so it's hard to believe that neither would have anticipated the mass exodus after the big Gay Pride party in nearby Lincoln Park last night. That would have been the ideal time to have their "positive loiterers" loitering at Broadway and Wilson.
But to be fair, even if they had been there last night, could they have -
would they have - pounced on the shooter as he pointed his gun?
Neither Cappleman nor Thale ran the two short blocks from their home to the scene of last night's shooting to see it for themselves. Did nobody call either of them? I know for a fact that both men were aware of the shooting by 11:00 p.m. last night. Why no public statement yet? My 5:00 p.m. voicemail to Richard Thale's phone today has still not been returned.
This evening, at 7:00 p.m., about a dozen of Thale's positive loiterers were standing with their dogs at the intersection of N. Broadway and W. Wilson, the scene of last night's shooting. Why? To deter another shooting? While hundreds of people passed through the intersection last night in a peaceful and orderly fashion, acting in effect as positive loiterers, a lunatic opened fire into the crowd.
Do James Cappleman and Richard Thale really believe that twelve people are a deterent to crime on that very troubled corner? Or is it just political opportunism in play, a chance to get out there to show the world that they care so much about that corner? (If they care so much, why did it take them 22.5 hours to walk over there after the most recent shooting?)
I walked up to the group and hung around from 7:12 - 8:00 p.m. Thale and Cappleman both saw me. Both men know me. We made eye contact, nods were exchanged. I took their photos. They said nothing to me. In fact, they did their best to ignore me.
Don Nowotny is also running for alderman in the 46th. He was good enough to return my phone call early this evening, even though he was at "an event." Like Cappleman and Shiller, Nowotny still has nothing on his
website,
Twitter or
Facebook pages.
Unlike Cappleman and Shiller, however, he has a good excuse. As the 46th Ward Superintendent for Streets and Sanitation, Nowotny gets up at 4:30 a.m. to be at work by 6:00 a.m. Because of his schedule, he was in bed before the shooting. He said that he learned about it around 5:15 a.m. when he read a news story online. Being in a hurry to get to work, of course, he did not pause to post something on the web.
"Shootings are something that everyone in the ward is outraged by," Nowotny told Chicago News Bench by phone. Amongst other things, he said,
"we need to work together to eliminate the gangs."
"Police cameras, CAPS, the alderman's office and the 19th and 23rd police districts are all very important," Nowotny said.
"Safety is at the top of my issues in my campaign."
There is currently no police camera at the intersection of Wilson and Broadway.
"I would put a police camera at every corner where there is know to be gang activity," Nowotny said.
The Cappleman-Thale Loiterers were gone by 9:00 p.m. this evening. Had a gang gun battle broken out, which is not unusual for that corner, could they have -
would they have - pounced on the shooters as they pointed their guns? Had the local television news crews shown up tonight, would Cappleman-Thale have declared that they had made that corner safe?
There was a candlelight anti-violence peace march in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood (a section called Sheridan Park), as reported here earlier. It was the production of Johnny King and his "Commissioned for the Community" group.
The event was oh-so-predictable. A crowd of 80 to 100 people gathered at the southwest corner of N. Magnolia and W. Wilson at 7:00 p.m., then moved to the middle of the 4500 block of N. Magnolia. That's where the two young men were shot on Wednesday.
A modest police presence was there to monitor the situation; some detectives and a few uniformed officers stood around, out of the way.
Politicians present: 46th Ward aldermanic candidates Michael Carroll, James Cappelman, Don Nowotny and Molly Phelan, as well as Adam Robinson, candidate for State Senate in the 7th District (photo right; click images to englarge them). The Critical Mass biker riders, by the way, did not pass through Wilson and Magnolia until 9:15 p.m., well after the vigil ended. It was feared earlier that they would get in the way of the vigil, which was a silly fear inasmuch as the vigil was a long half block off of that intersection.
Some of the speakers, including King (photo left), gave the usual speeches. Why is their such hate? they wondered aloud. Why do they shoot each other? they asked collectively. Now is the time to come together and do something about this, they vowed 60 years too late. We have a voice, the group muttered, and we have the ability to make a difference. We must come together.
Blah blah blah, talk talk talk, and meanwhile the code of silence in the Black community continues. I see more "Stop Snitching" than Che Guevara tee shirts in Uptown. The shooting is almost exclusively black-on-black violence, but the code of "the Black man's law" keeps many in the neighborhood from helping the police (The Man) from preventing the next black person from being gunned down. Nobody at this vigil had the guts to address this fully.
Look, these are nice, well meaning people. It's hard to fault them for their good intentions and their kind spirits. The fact that these are good people, who truly feel the pain of a community that is wrenched by violence in a society that gets number to it every year, just makes it all the more difficult to watch. Otherwise intelligent people who would laugh at the notion of superstition stood around on a sidewalk tonight and essentially appealed to the gods to intervene. I have nothing against prayer, but the real roots of the violence were not addressed.
Photo above, left: Molly Phelan Photo above, right: James Cappelman
Photo below, left: CFC members get the message out Photo below, right: The vigil on Magnolia.
At no time did we hear mention of the morally decaying influence of Hollywood over the decades, nor of the coddling of criminals by politicians and activist judges. At no point in the ritual tonight did anybody rant righteously against lazy parents, a justice system that lets the shooters go more often than not with minimal or no punishment, and at no time did anybody scold the ACLU for making it difficult for police officers to do their jobs. I did not hear anybody say anything about the sick culture of gangsta rap and the encouragement it gives to the animals and savages who so wantonly kill each other and the innocent bystanders who are rude enough to get in the way of their bullets.
Photo below, left: Discarded pizza box, empty juice and beer bottles.
Photo below, right: This dog's trick was as effective in fighting gang violence as were the tricks performed by the humans at the vigil.
What we did see was a repeat of what has happened thousands of times across America in the wake of some tragic and senseless murder. What we will see again, as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, is another round of insane violence in Chicago. It might be tonight, tomorrow, or next week, but you can safely bet your mortgage that it will happen. In fact, as the vigil was still in progress, I crossed the street to stand with three CPD officers and a civilian.
"Gee," I said sarcastically to them, "I feel safer already knowing that this vigil has stopped all future violence in Uptown."
They laughed. "For now," one said, "I give it three days before there's another incident."
Another officer said, "I'm betting on two days."
Two days, three day, whatever: Somebody will die again. Perhaps there will be another vigil then, too. Perhaps next time we can build a big bonfire on the beach and sacrifice a cow or something. Perhaps State Senator Heather Steans, the Machine Democrat who Adam Robinson is running against, can hold another of her useless public safety meetings.
RELATED:
At least 10 wounded in separate Chicago shootings, Aug. 2, 2010 Chicago Breaking News
Cops ID Suspect in 13-Year-Old's Murder MyFoxChicago
'Scary' growth of gangs in war zones - Chicago Sun-Times
Street-Gang Mentality A Mosaic of Remorseless Violence and Relentless Loyalty FBI.gov
