I was sorry to see that a woman was attacked in Washington Park yesterday. But I wasn’t surprised. That’s not because I think Washington Park is a particularly dangerous place, but because, well, shit happens. And it happens everywhere to some degree. We don’t need to go off the deep end here.
After 9/11, I was amazed at how panicked and shocked so many people were that terrorism could happen here. Well, duh. Terrorism, like shit, happens. Even here. And while it was fine that people finally understood this, it was pathetic how many overreacted to what happened. It was fear born of ignorance mostly. A blindness to what the world is like. It was this fear that the Bush administration has cynically harnessed for its own purposes (and continues to exploit).
Crime is going to happen. Planes are going to crash. Cars re going to wreck. Nutcases show up places with guns and shoot people. We can take steps to minimize these occurrences, but they are still going to happen sometimes. It does no good to let the fear overcome you and disrupt your life.
Which gets me back to Washington Park. It’s still a wonderful and relatively safe place. It’s no more dangerous than it was a week ago. Taking a few minor precautions, that should be taken anywhere, is all you need do. Enjoy life.
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7 comments:
This woman got very lucky. If we had concealed carry laws in Illinois, this woman could have stopped this thug in his shoes. More likely, the thug would not have attacked her. Violent crime and assaults decline drastically when states implement concealed carry laws because the bad guys are basically cowards. This lady has our liberal lawmakers to thank for not passing concealed carry.
Conceal carry does not reduce crime. And who the fuck jogs carrying a gun? But thanks for the report from wingnut fantasyland.
Oh, and this is not going to degenerate in to a debate over gun laws. I’m getting tired of having my posts hijacked by trolls with agendas. Any further off-topic discussion will be deleted. My blog, my rules.
Hope this gets past the CENSOR.
I've noticed that the neighborhoods just east of Walnut have gone down somewhat of late.
Don't like Section 8 vouchers as it puts people who do nothing all day and night right in the same neighborhoods of those who own, and improve their own homes using money they word very hard to get.
I Don't like subdividing a home into multi residence apartments.
If it wasn't for some of the more expensive homes along that area Washington Park would have gone down the gutter long ago.
Many of the neighborhoods we grew up riding our bikes and playing in - homes where parents worked, and sent their kids to schools like Blessed Sacrament - are now becoming gangster territory.
End section 8. Make our neighborhoods safe again.
Protect single family zoning.
JP
DEAR JP!
I am not going to have my blog highjacked by someone talking about section 8!
Where does it end?
I used to live on Walnut, about a half-block south of Lawrence. While it wasn't a bad neighborhood, it wasn't getting any better. We moved.
I used to love walking my dog in the neighborhoods bordering the park. Just some fantastic homes there.
I heard the lady was wearing an old school U of I hoodie bearing the Chief logo and that the assailant was offended by the image. I blame the U of I trustees for the attack. This could have been avoided.
Work consumes time, and energy. It also generates wealth that due to being earned by labor is valued by those who earn it.
That wealth is then traded for a home. Home owners see their home not as just a pile of carefully organized wood, and glass, but also as a manifestation of all of their hard work.
They also see it as an investment which will help them as they grow older.
Now I'm not putting down renters, but I do believe that those who own their own homes have the greatest connection to their homes, and even renters feel the pain of having to work to pay their rent.
Renters and homeowners want a safe, quiet neighborhood.
Section 8, like other forms of entitlement were meant to be temporary help or at most permanent help for those who could not help themselves (disabled for example).
However section 8 vouchers have become a way for millions of people with no intention of ever getting a job to live in neighborhoods they couldn't otherwise afford.
The effect has been very bad on lower middle class people.
Well to do landlords buy up, then subdivide single family homes.
Section eight is a type of subsidization to landlord as they know no matter what eventually they'll end up finding a renter - since there's never a shortage of people with section eight vouchers.
Whole neighborhoods that were once made up of beautiful well kept, safe single family homes come to be filled with welfare families which don't work, stay home during the day with little to do but stare at their working neighbors belongings - coveting that thin screen t.v. that the welfare check won't pay for.
And that's where crime comes in.
Soon more people are moving out of the hood. Poverty fueled by handouts spreads like a virus destroying older neighborhoods.
Landlords don't care, and they stop maintaining those properties, and over the course of a decade or so we have slums.
End section eight. Save neighborhoods.
Congress just pushed new legislation that would force people who take section eight to show that they have worked, or tried to in the last FIFTEEN YEARS!
This is considered an improvement?
I guess this makes me sound like a conservative, but really what I am is just a poor guy barely making ends meet and watching while once beautiful affordible homes are slowly destroyed - a process subsidized by our tax dollars.
And like everything else crime is related to propinquity (did I spell that right) That is Crime is like marriage, auto accidents, placement supermarkets, etc.
Crime increases in areas where criminals live.
So I doubt it had much to do Illiniwek.
JP
The real question here is: where were the police? Washington Park isnt that big. All it would have taken would have been for the park district police to circle every once in a while in the morning and the attacker probably would have been deterred.
Regarding section 8 housing: I do not understand the density of the program. But, I really dont see a problem with small scattered section 8 houses in decent neighborhoods. One would think that just because you are poor you dont have to live like a scumbag. Now if you put a bunch of section 8's close to each other then I can see where a problem might arise.
I wonder if the intention was to also help the section 8 families "learn" how to live better by putting them closer to decent families. (I also wonder if that is morally correct)
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