Whew
By Mitch Berg
The important part is finding the good news.
For example, it’d be easy to look at this piece, above the mugging and violent assault on crime novelist Laura Caldwell while jogging in Chicago last weekend…
On Thursday, Caldwell, a red-headed attorney who in 2005 successfully defended a man who spent five years in jail awaiting trial for murder, was jogging at Seminary and Altgeld in Lincoln Park when she saw two men — one with a hood pulled over his cap and the other who was lifting his jacket over his head.
Nervous, Caldwell felt the hair rise on the back of her neck. Suddenly, one of the men kicked her from behind, and she fell onto the street.
“They smashed my mouth into the pavement and kicked me a few times,” she said. “They screamed about money, but I said, ‘Guys, I am jogging and I don’t have any money.’ They took my iPod and ran off.”
…and other such stories…:
Police officers told her that muggings are more common in Lincoln Park in late autumn, when the victims are walking in darkness and more susceptible to surprise attacks, she said.
There was an armed robbery at the same intersection just after 11 p.m. on Nov. 6. And over the last month, there have been two assaults and a purse-snatching within three blocks of Caldwell’s mugging, police records show.
In September, the sister of Bears quarterback Rex Grossman was robbed at gunpoint in her garage about six blocks away at Racine and Armitage.
…and of course Chicago’s skyrocketing murder rate and out-of-control gang violence, and think “Wow. Crime’s getting bad in Chicago!”
What you should be thinking is “Whew. Good thing none of those criminals has to worry about a law-abiding citizen being able to legally use a gun to defend themselves. All hell could break loose, then!”
Chicago; governnment so good, we now have it nationwide!
November 19th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Yesterday’s Strib reports of armed muggers in downtown made it sound kinda fun to be in Minneapolis nowadays too. I thought the world was “born anew” Nov 4th and all would be happiness and light…..please get that under control by March would ya? We like to come down and have al ittle fun about that time of year and getting clunked on the head isn’t part of the plan!
November 19th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I second what Colleen said about the muggings. There has been a surge in just the last week in Minneapolis although the YTD on robberies still makes it look like a grade school playground compared to Chicago. Something the stats don’t show is the increase in ferocity of of the muggings which seems to be on the upswing in the descriptions. Mugging with pistol whipping (for no reason other than the robber’s tweaking or having a bad day or something.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:08 am
U of M sent out an email to students warning of armed robberies of students in the university area.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Ah, the Audacity Of Hope!
If it had happened in Grant park near Soldier’s Field, the Juxtaposition of a thug smashing a woman’s face into the ground right next to Balbo’s Monument would have been a spine tingling reminder of where collectivist thought has taken the world in the fairly recent past. I guess a little further north on Hutchinson field near East Balbo Drive would have had the same effect.
Hey, Didn’t someone just make a speech in Grant Park? Coincidentally in Hutchinson field on East Balbo drive?
http://www.takotron.com/balbo.html