This neighborhood is getting more violent by the day, from what I can see. There was a large gang fight that broke out around 1:30 this morning at the intersection of Diversey and Ridgeway. At 1:20, as I was wrapping up things on the computer and about to go to bed, I heard shouting in the distance. It sounded like it was from the west, possibly right at Koz Park. Within a few minutes, the shouting got louder and closer. Then, at 1:30, that's when the fight broke out. I had the scanner on, and the first call came from 3740 West Diversey, with a report of 50 people in the street fighting. At first, I couldn't really see anything from my view, as there's trees in the way, and the center of the brawl was at the address on Diversey. However, in about three to five minutes, the fight came onto Ridgeway.
As the fight came onto Ridgeway, you can imagine I was watching from my window (not to worry, I also called 911). Quite frankly, I have to say this fight was a bit terrifying. I saw this large group fighting in front of a garage, and in the street. At one point, they were fighting in the north alley of Diversey, just east of Ridgeway. There were punches thrown, guys shoving, tackles, etc. It was like a free-for-all wrestling match. Then, the scariest part was when my mom told me (I got away from the window at this point) that some guy had a gun, and fired off a gunshot. I didn't hear a gunshot, but then again, that group was so loud that you couldn't hear anything else. I was also told that there were objects thrown around.
A squad car came onto the scene within three minutes, and there were about three or four squads with an unmarked unit out here within six to eight minutes. Although I stayed away from the window, the shouting stopped within a minute, and you heard people's feet walking off, some arguing and the squads driving off. The fight was broken up. This was at about 1:40. Right after, I went back to the window, and saw the large group turning off Ridgeway and going back west on Diversey. The fight was over.
As you can imagine, I was scared. I think I had the right to be. NEVER in my near 20 years of living on Ridgeway have I seen a brawl with this large of a group erupt in front of my own eyes. I have to ask this, but what kind of neighborhood do we live in? Really. What good community puts up with this B.S? None. So, having said that it's really time for those of us living in the area of Diversey and Ridgeway to come together to try to end this. Go to CAPS, join the block club that Ridgeway has (if you'd like to learn about it, contact me), keep in contact with the police, and most importantly, remain vigilant! Remember, this is OUR community, not THEIRS! We are the eyes, the ears and the heart of our communities, and I think it's time we all take that seriously.
By the way, just before I close out, I'd like to mention this is NOT the first incident of violence in the area. We've had two incidents of gunshots being fired last month also, the first one with five to ten Cobras involved, and the second one happening at 11:30 in the morning.
In the meantime, I'll be making phone calls to the 25th District, and the alderman's office, about this. I will NOT tolerate this.
15 comments:
That's a crazy story Timmy. Did you call the alderman? What did they say?
What they always say nothing, they never do anything about it they dont care they dont live here.
Their office is closed on the weekends. I'll call tomorrow.
Of course there's gangbangers in the park. Koz park has been a dump for years. On the west end of it you got bustouts sleeping and drinking from the large apartment building at Harding and Diversey. And the eas end is gangbangers shooting hoops.
Oh, anonymous 11:47, if they know better, they'll respond to my call. Otherwise, they will get embarrassed on this blog in front of their constituents.
Anonymous 12:29, 100% agreed. All of that is true.
Hi TImmy - I follow your site from down in 14. Yesterday on chicago breaking news, I saw a report about an arrest of someone firing shots at Diversey and Mozart around 3:30 Saturday morning. I'm particularly interested because Friday night, around 7:30pm, I was walking along Diversey when I heard what sounded like 4 or so gunshots. As I got to Francisco and Diversey (somewhere in the area of where the shots sounded like they came from), I noticed tons of squad cars (many unmarked) cruising the streets and alleys. No lights or sirens, just cruising and asking if anybody saw somebody running.
I tried to tell myself it was probably an isolated incident of some stupid kid carelessly firing a weapon, but the fact that, just 6 or so hours later, someone was arrested just a block from that same intersection for firing shots, well, that makes me think that nothing about the incident was random.
Have you heard of anything heating up in this area? Typically in my years living here, this has not been an area of too much trouble.
Hey there, anonymous 1:43. I did a blog post about this shots being fired over there as well. To answer your question, to be honest, I haven't really heard of anything going on in that area. Though, there were a lot of shootings about a year and a half ago around Diversey and Albany, involving MLDs. Maybe that tension is moving east.
I don't think this is an isolated incident, either. I mean, two incidents of gunfire a block from each other, 6 hours apart? Something went down, and I'm going to try and find out what's going on over there.
Probably only a few kids talking loud while walking down the street. You guys make mountains out of mole hills when calling the police.
Excuse you? Probably only a few loud-mouth kids? You've got it wrong big time, buddy. This was no loud-mouth talking kids simply walking down the street type of thing. This was a real fucking fight, and it was a large crowd. They were even throwing objects. Not to mention, one guy may have had a gun. So don't even sit here and accuse me of calling the police for nothing, I know what I called the police for. Always have, always will. I'm not someone who calls for everything. I only call on loud-mouth kids unless they're loitering or about to fight. If you still think I'm wrong, call up the 25th District station, and they'll tell you there was a fight involving a large crowd. Why do you think we had about five squad cars and a Tactical unit on scene? The first arriving officers had trouble breaking the fight up.
I got in contact with the Alderman's office, and the Commander of the 25th District, today. They tell me they're going to have Tactical units in the area, and are contacting the Gang Enforcement Section to request them to patrol the area also.
LMAO this isnt Uptown buddy were there big fights consist of yelling and chasing each other up and down, the rumbles down here they actually throw punches and get rowdy.
aldercreatures dont care about the citizens of LS
Anonymous 4:34, yep. We actually get punches thrown in big fights here in Logan Square/Avondale, and they do get rowdy here. Uptown may have these fights more often than we do, but our fights get much worse.
Anonymous 5:10, I agree, but I'm trying to remain positive that my alderman at least knows it's a problem.
Let them fight. Let them finish each other off. I'll gladly bring the shovel, mop and bucket to clean up their dead carcasses.
Probably just two guys fighting and the rest of the crowd watching. Just like the old days while in school.
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