City Touts Lower Homicide Stats, But Context Reveals Return To Normal
Teen Mob Action Takes Over Chicago’s Gold Coast
(CBS) — The warmest day of the year so far brings hundreds of mischievous teens to Michigan Avenue.
Police are calling it ‘mob action’.
CBS 2 is learning about multiple incidents in at least four different locations along the Magnificent Mile and in the Gold Coast, yielding a slew of arrests.
Things got pretty bad, very quickly with many innocent shoppers and tourists caught in the middle of a very chaotic situation.
Hundreds of teens littered Michigan Avenue and State Street near Chicago.
Things started to go bad around 6:00 p.m. Saturday, with teens purposely bumping into people, and causing fights among themselves.
Fifteen juveniles and two adults were arrested and charged with Reckless Conduct— a misdemeanor.
Community activist, Andrew Holmes witnessed some of the problems, while shopping with his family.
“You had a group of teens, close to maybe 500. They assaulted a Chicago police officer that was on a mounted on a horse and all of a sudden they assaulted a citizen walking the streets, just a normal citizen shopping and enjoying the weather,” said Holmes.
Later that night, a man was attacked around 10:45 p.m. while walking near Chicago and Dearborn. Sources tell us he was jumped and punched in the face by a group of teens. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
In a separate incident, a group of woman say they were attacked by a mob of girls on the CTA Red Line. The women reported a robbery once they got off the train at the State and Monroe station. Eleven females were arrested—10 juveniles and one adult—and charged with battery. Two of the teens were charged with strong- armed robbery.
“I caution those parents if their child has been arrested which numerous teenagers have been arrested tonight, that you need to think about your child. Just don’t say the Chicago police picked on your child, when we were watching all the assault going on, especially by teen women,” said Holmes.
A total of 28 arrests were made last night surrounding downtown disturbances involving teens. Of those arrests, 25 were juveniles.
Charges range from Battery and Strong Armed Robbery to Reckless Conduct.
CBS 2 has learned since these charges are misdemeanors, many of those arrested have already been released on I-bonds.
Sources tell CBS 2 that much of this activity was planned weeks ago through social media.This type of pre-planned mob violence has become a regular happening in Chicago for the past few years, which the media has failed to adequately report under threat from city hall. God forbid we scare away any tourists.
Why doesn’t media cover Chicago’s poor enforcement of gun laws?
Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president and CEO, who appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, asked host David Gregory why the network doesn’t focus on the poor enforcement of federal gun laws in Chicago.
“I mean, let me give you the real sad thing, though. Let me hold up a mirror right now to the whole national news media and the White House,” the NRA official began. “I just got the track data from Syracuse University on enforcement of federal gun laws. Last time I was here, I brought it from 2011; it just came out from 2012.”
“Do you know where Chicago ranks in terms of enforcement of the federal gun laws? Out of 90 jurisdictions in the country, they ranked 90th,” Mr. LaPierre continued.
“Why doesn’t NBC News start with: ‘Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago’s dead last on enforcement of the federal gun laws?’” he asked. “Why doesn’t the national press corps, when they’re sitting down there with Jay Carney and the president and the vice president, why don’t they say, ‘Why is Chicago dead last in enforcement of the gun laws against gangs with guns, felons with guns, drug dealers with guns?’”
Mr. Gregory then asked Mr. Pierre the peculiar question about whether he supports those criminals being charged with felonies.
“Absolutely,” Mr. Pierre affirmed. “And we want them taken off the street. I mean, if you’re the president and the vice president, and the attorney general, and your job is to enforce these laws against the — I’m talking about drug dealers, gangs and felons that are walking around with guns in the street, and you don’t do it? You bear some responsibility. It is a tragedy.”As the kids like to say, "EPIC FAIL."
Brunswick, Georgia (CNN) -- Two teen boys in this coastal city were charged with murder Friday, accused in the fatal shooting of a 13-month-old boy who was in a stroller being pushed by his mother.
Chief Tobe Green identified the older suspect as De'Marquise Elkins, 17, and said he will be treated as an adult in criminal proceedings. The 14-year-old was not identified because of his age. Both have been charged with first-degree murder, police said.De'Marquise Elkins, the latest adopted son of Barack & Michelle:
Alleged gunman in Hadiya Pendleton slaying was on probation for weapons conviction
By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporterDirector Jesus Reyes, here comes the EXPRESS bus to the end of your career as a county bureaucrat, driven by Supt. McNotMyFault:
7:27 a.m. CST, February 12, 2013
The reputed gang member accused of gunning down 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton last month was on the street even though he had been arrested three times in connection with break-ins and trespassing while on probation for a weapons conviction in recent months, the Tribune has learned.
In two of those arrests, including one just 2 1/2 months ago, Cook County probation officials failed to notify prosecutors or the judge that Michael Ward had been arrested on the new misdemeanor charges and allegedly violated his probation.
The head of the county's probation department acknowledged Monday that his office fell short in its responsibilities and vowed to find out what went wrong.
Reyes emphasized, though, that it was unclear whether any of Ward's alleged probation violations would have led to his being sent to prison for an extended time. The probation department handles thousands of cases each year, and often alleged violations lead only to short jail stints — especially on misdemeanor arrests or if the new charges are soon dropped, as happened in two of Ward's arrests, he said."There should have been a violation filed, but for some reason there was not," said Jesus Reyes, director of the Cook County Adult Probation Department. "Absolutely, we will investigate."
"I don't know if something that minor would have taken him off the street for very long," Reyes said.
Bob Loeb, a veteran criminal defense attorney and former county prosecutor, said many judges are reluctant to clog up their calls with probation violations.
"They'll hold them for a while to show them the inside of the jail," Loeb said. "If the new charge is dismissed, then often they don't proceed on the (violation of probation) because they've already accomplished scaring the guy. So nothing else happens."
Ward, then 17, was arrested in October 2011 after Chicago police officers responding to a call of a person with a gun in the 3700 block of South Langley Avenue spotted him running away in clothing matching the description of the suspect, according to court records.
Officers chased Ward and saw him throw a handgun into a grassy area behind a building, the records say. The weapon, a loaded Cobra .38 Special, was later found under a bush, according to court records. Ward told the officers that he had the gun "because the boys from Lake Park were after me," apparently a reference to gang members from a nearby neighborhood.
Ward pleaded guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in January 2012 and was sentenced to two years of probation by Judge Nicholas Ford. As part of his probation, Ward was ordered confined to his home at night for the first six months, court records show. He also was instructed to complete his high school diploma and attend an anti-violence forum.
Less than three months later, Ward was arrested on the South Side and charged with breaking into a car, but probation officials didn't notify prosecutors that constituted a violation of his probation, Reyes said. At his next court date, prosecutors dropped the charge, records show.
In July, Ward was again arrested on charges he broke into a vehicle. This time, the probation office alerted the state's attorney's office, prompting prosecutors to ask that his probation be rescinded. In August, Ford ordered Ward held without bail, according to the records.
But the break-in charges were dropped the next month when the complaining witness did not appear in court. Three days later, Ford ordered Ward released from custody, records show.
Court records show Ward, now 18, picked up his third arrest in late November. He was charged with misdemeanor trespassing, but probation officials again failed to notify prosecutors, according to Reyes. The charge was dropped in December when a witness failed to show up in court, records show.
Police also arrested Ward numerous times as a juvenile on charges ranging from robbery to battery to marijuana possession, court records show. At least two of those arrests resulted in convictions, and Ward spent time in 2011 on juvenile probation.
Tribune reporter Carlos Sadovi contributed
- Loses consciousness after a beating at the hands of her father, dies on scene with paramedics present, classified as a homicide. But a bloody January weekend and a desperate need to keep homicides under 40 results in the highlighted line in picture #1:
- ME ruled death NATURAL - Pulmonary Embolism, victim was struck in head by father who is in custody.
- Any doctors want to let the readers know if a beating with documented head trauma might be enough to cause or loosen existing blood clots that might lead to a pulmonary embolism - and death?
- We imagine that this one is going to disappear down the memory hole in short order. See that unchecked box at the top left the first photo? "Confidential Incident." Expect that to be changed before 9 AM this morning and expect an order to be cut that ALL homicides, death investigations and similar incidents will be checked as "confidential" until such time as our political and department masters deem it worthy of being observed by the masses.
There's some serious panic at City Hall and CPD HQ. Last year's homicide number went past 500 in the last few day of the 2012, and now even though we're in the midst of a cold wintry season murder numbers are off to a scorching start, already well above last years rate. Chicago's violence "problem" has become national news, much to the embarrassment of Rahm and his former boss and Chicago homeboy Obama. Meanwhile, Rahm is pushing for even more restrictive gun legislation (doesn't Illinois/Chicago already have the most oppressive gun legislation in the nation?) and his Superintendent of Police seems only able to announce weekly tactical changes and manipulate the numbers as best he can.
- Hey Zekman? (fyi: CBS investigative reporter in Chicago) How about instead of picking on coppers going through a tedious process, you look at the manipulation of numbers - you know, like when you used to be an actual reporter. All the numbers Pammy, because you know no one is going to care about a dead black dope head. Maybe you can get Jesse involved to see why Rahman-Noodle and McCompStat are downgrading a case where the only casualty is a dead minority woman.
Mom of 4 murdered children: ‘We need tougher gun laws’
BY MITCH DUDEK AND FRANK MAIN Staff Reporters January 27, 2013 10:02PM
After losing a daughter and two sons to gun violence, Shirley Chambers prayed and dreamed her only surviving child would grow to be an old man.
But on Sunday evening, a day after her 34-year-old son, Ronnie, was shot and killed, she was coming to the awful realization that she would need to buy another set of flowers on her regular visits to see her children at Burr Oak Cemetery.
“I’d pray for God to protect Ronnie and keep him safe day and night,” said Shirley Chambers, a cashier at a downtown Portillo’s eatery who recently took her son into her apartment on the Near North Side because he was having financial troubles.
Ronnie Chambers was the manager of aspiring rapper YK, short for Yung Killa. On Dec. 17, they were featured on an episode of “The Ricki Lake Show.”
He told the TV host that his siblings’ murders — and his own long arrest record — prompted him to “do something different.”
His mother said Sunday her son was following through on that pledge and turning his life around, but she was concerned about his association with YK.
“I really started to worry about Ronnie when he got involved with this rapper, because I saw what happened on TV with that rapper on the South Side getting killed,” said Shirley Chambers, 54, referring to the September shooting death of rapper Joseph ‘Lil JoJo’ Coleman.
Ronnie Chambers was shot about 2:15 a.m. in the 1100 block of South Mozart after attending a downtown “listening party” for YK.
Ronnie Chambers was in a van after dropping off a friend’s son when someone opened fire, hitting Ronnie Chambers in the head and wounding another man in the van.
“He didn’t have no beef with nobody,” Shirley Chambers said. “We need tougher gun laws, where people will know they will be in prison for a long time if they choose to pick up a gun and take a life.”
Ronnie Chambers’ friend, Nicole Smith, said her son was safely in the home when they heard the gunfire.
“I told everybody to get down on the floor,” Smith said.
She said people called 911 and waited for an ambulance while they tried to comfort Ronnie Chambers, whose nickname was Scooby.
“We kept saying, ‘Breathe for us, Scoob,’ ” she said.
Smith said she thinks someone followed Ronnie Chambers from the downtown party to “get him.”
Shirley Chambers raised her four children in the Cabrini-Green public housing complex on the North Side.
Her 23-year-old son, Jerome, was shot to death outside a Cabrini-Green building in 2000. Two months earlier, a 13-year-old boy gunned down her 15-year-old daughter, LaToya, nearby.
In 1995, a 16-year-old boy fatally shot her 18-year-old son, Carlos, on a sidewalk in the South Loop. They both attended Jones High School.
“I can’t take it any more. I need help,” Shirley Chambers said. “If anybody’s out there who knows what happened to my baby, they need to talk."Message to Shirley: Yo boy lil' Scooby wasn't turning his life around. Don't fool yourself. Have a good look at yourself in the mirror Shirley. You got four children shot dead. You think maybe your parenting skills had something to do with what has happened? And now you're calling for tougher gun laws? Tougher than the laws already on the books in Chicago? Your children were a victim of their own lifestyle and the violence that's become a major element of your community. Shirley, this isn't going to change until you accept some responsibility for your children's deaths. But yeah, you go ahead and keep blaming others.
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"ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The New Mexico teenager accused of gunning down five family members over the weekend ambushed his father as he returned home from an overnight shift at a rescue mission, then reloaded his rifles and planned to go to a Wal-Mart and randomly shoot people, authorities said Tuesday.
Instead, 15-year-old Nehemiah Griego texted a picture of his dead mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend, then spent much of Saturday with the girl and her family, authorities said. That evening, he went to the church where Griego’s father had been a pastor, and Griego eventually confessed to killing his parents and three younger siblings.
“The motive, as articulated by the suspect, was purely that he was frustrated with his mother,”
“Don’t answer,” she yelled to her 9-year-old twins playing downstairs.
When the visitor began repeatedly ringing the doorbell, she called her husband at work.
“Get the kids and hide,” he told his wife. As he dialed 911, his 37-year-old spouse, who works from home, collected the children and hid with them in a crawlspace adjoining her office. By that time, the intruder had forced his way into the three-story residence on Henderson Ridge Drive with a crowbar, authorities said. He allegedly rummaged through the home, eventually working his way up to the attic office.
“He opens the closet door and finds himself staring down the barrel of a .38 revolver,” said Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman, who relayed the woman’s narrative to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He asked that her name be withheld.
The woman fired six bullets, five of which hit Paul Ali Slater in the face and neck area, Chapman said. But Slater was still conscious.
“The guy’s face down, crying,” the sheriff said. The woman told him to stay down or she’d shoot again.
Slater, unaware that she had emptied her chamber, obliged as the mother and her children ran to a neighbor’s house.
The injured burglar eventually made it out of the home and into his car, driving away before deputies arrived on the scene. He didn’t get far.
“When you got five bullets in you, it makes you kind of disoriented,” Chapman told the AJC.
Deputies found Slater bleeding profusely in a neighbor’s driveway.
“I’m dying. Help me,” he told them, according to Chapman.
Slater was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center and is expected to survive, the sheriff said.
The Long Island native, who now lives in Gwinnett County, was released from the Gwinnett jail in late August after serving six months for simple battery and three counts of probation violation. Slater has six other arrests in Gwinnett dating back to 2008, according to jail records.
“My wife’s a hero,” the woman’s husband, Donnie Herman, told Channel 2 Action News in a brief statement. He did not respond to a request for comment from the AJC. “She protected her kids. She did what she was supposed to do.”
Chapman remarked that one of his deputies, impressed with the woman’s resolve, told the sheriff she had handled her first shooting better than he had.The "Face o' Truth". Five rounds to the face and still able to drive away.
“That mother’s instinct kicked in,” Chapman said. “You go after a mother’s kids and she’ll find herself capable of doing things she never thought she was capable of.”
532 people were murdered in the city of Chicago, according to statistics compiled by the Crime in Chicago website. The number of people murdered the year before was 441, meaning in the city of Chicago, murders have increased by 91 from 2011 to 2012.
The Chicago Police Department was not available to confirm these numbers today, which is New Year's Day.
The website also claims that, through December 25, 2012, there 2,670 people were shot in Chicago last year. That's also an increase from the year before, when 2,217 people were shot in Chicago that year.
Despite promises of staffing increases, the Chicago Police Department has fewer beat officers in patrol districts across the city than before Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of city data has found.This has been happening at the CPD for a few years now, going back to Richie Daley's tenure. The lame-stream media is so far behind in reporting this story I am amazed to be seeing this even now.
Days after he was sworn into office last year, Emanuel announced the start of what he described as a major shift in how the police department assigns officers across the city. He promised to fulfill a campaign pledge by assigning 1,000 more cops to high-crime areas without reducing the police presence in other parts of the city.
“We cannot beat crime without more officers on the beat,” the mayor said then.
That was May 2011.
But, as of Oct. 15, a total of 6,638 rank-and-file officers were assigned to police beats citywide, down from 6,746 beat cops at the start of 2011, according to the data obtained by the Sun-Times.
