Good evening, everyone. I have made this post for two reasons. The first one would be to share this story I have about a hit and run that occurred Wednesday evening, and the second one is to give my opinion/response to the Avondale Park shooting on Wednesday evening.
The hit and run occurred on the 2600 block of N. Kedzie at about 6:50pm, according to this article. A 66 yr old man, identified as William McCann of the 2500 block of N Kedzie. The victim was struck by a car, was injured, then pronounced dead at 7:31pm. According to the article, an off-duty Chicago Police Officer saw what happened, went after the offender, and was arrested. The offender did try to flee the scene, but was unsuccessful. My condolences go out to the McCann family, and his friends. May he rest in peace.
All right, now to the Avondale Park shooting. As all of you know, this shooting occurred Wednesday evening at 7:50pm in the park by the basketball court and the children's playground, as a CAPS meeting for Beat 1732 was wrapping up. A gunman approached the basketball court in a purple van, gang signs were exchanged, and four to five gunshots went off. To our dismay, these gunshots hit two young girls, 2 and 7 years of age. The 2 year old suffered a graze wound to the head and the 7 year old was shot in the upper back. If I'm correct, they both survived and have been released from the hospital. I think we're all happy these two young, innocent girls survived this vicious attack, BUT, shit like this MUST come to an end in our community, NOW! This is my message to each and every single reader on this blog: You need to get involved, NOW. DO NOT waste anymore time getting involved. Don't be apathetic anymore. Come to any and all community meetings. Attend every CAPS meetings, neighborhood meeting, and even block club meetings. If you don't have a block club, form one. I will even help you form one if need be. All you have to do is contact me. But the important thing is BE INVOLVED. We CANNOT let this happen again in our community, EVER. In my eyes, this is the most disgusting attack a gang has ever committed in our neighborhood, and we need to do something right now. This has grabbed the attention of the Chicago Police and quite a few elected officials, and they have held a roll call (on Thursday evening) and a news conference (earlier tonight) in response to this shooting. They are just as disgusted as the community is at this point, and they need our help. So don't stand by anymore and let the community activists do all of the work. ALL OF US have a role to play in improving our community. We must realize that now. So my message is, get involved. I'll say that again. Get involved. Get involved. GET INVOLVED. I can't emphasize that enough. So what can you do? Well, there is a meeting being held on Tuesday, June 14th, at 7:00pm at the park (3516 W. School) in regards to the shooting. At this meeting, I'm told that this meeting will focus on identifying those conditions that may be contributing to crime and disorder in the neighborhood and developing and implementing community-based strategies to address those conditions. So I encourage everyone to attend. Please. All of us as the community need to do something about attacks like this. But on a positive note, the community has been mobilizing and is starting to get involved, so that is a good sign. With that, I'm out for tonight. Good night to you all, and be safe.
1 comment:
Saw the accident shortly after it happened. Thanks to the heroic actions of the officer and the bystander who chased and caught the drunk driver. It was murder--if the driver had stopped after hitting McCann, he might have survived.
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