Slumlord Bashir Moghul Wounded By Random Gunfire In A Micro-Slum Of His Own Creation And Johnny Northside Is So, So Sad...

Stock Photo, My Son Alex With Crime Scene Tape, Photo By John Hoff

In regard to my headline: sarcasm font.

First of all, I don't wish evil upon Bashir Moghul nor, for that matter, upon most living creatures. So I'm trying very hard to be all Christmas spirity and think, "Oh, Bashir Moghul got hit by random gunfire while visiting his property at 623 26th Ave. N. on December 13? Why, that's TERRIBLE."

But when I try to get into the spirit of Christmas and think "Ho, ho, ho" all I can picture are...

The hoes walking down Penn Avenue North, an area which neighborhood revitalizers are trying SO HARD to change, but it's a long, difficult struggle when you've got rancid characters like Bashir Moghul creating such slumified conditions.

Lately, what I see in North Minneapolis are "micro slums." There are relatively large areas which are peaceful, and getting more affluent all the time, especially since NoMi was named "Gayborhood of the Year" two years running. And then there are rough areas which may consist of a few blocks or an area as small as one crappy house filled to the rafters with crappy people. These "micro slums" are endangered by revitalization as surely as litter is endangered by a stick with a nail, and good riddance, but it doesn't happen overnight. Thugs and slumlords resist the trend. And Bashir Moghul is a slumlord, as evidenced by his dealings with HUD, click here, or a recent unsuccessful legal appeal about one of his crappy buildings that had to be torn down, click here. 

Anyway... 

I got word by text message of some kind of shooting at 623 26th Ave. N., in the area formerly known as "Desolation Row," then renamed "Paths of Victory" in a much-too-obscure Dylan reference, but recently I heard a neighborhood activist named Brian Finstad suggest the area be called "Woodland" after the name of the addition on the plat. Good idea. Done. This area near Farview Park is now called "Woodland." And the Farview Park Historic District is in Woodland. Please make a note of it. 

Was I on a tangent? I was. But isn't it interesting how the little paths of our lives go this way and that way, seemingly without a grand plan, but sometimes somewhere along the path there is some DIVINE RANDOM BULLET OF DESTINY with your name on it or--if not your name, precisely--perhaps the bullet says "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN." And the rest of the message reads: HELLO. I AM YOUR DESTINY. THINK ABOUT WHY THIS IS. THINK ABOUT WHAT GOD IS TELLING YOU.

So, anyhow, I was out on the road doing my driving job, and after I got word of the shooting from Jeff "Hawthorne Hawkman" Skrenes, I sent the information along to my Twitter account while on break. Not sure where I was. Texas maybe. It was WARM. I was wearing short sleeves and loving my job, humble as it may be. All we knew at that point was "some kind of shooting" happened at 623 26th Ave. N., a property owned by Bashir Moghul.

Later, a rumor came from a trusted source--through another party, pretty trustworthy where this kind of information is concerned--and then to a person I frequently use as a trusted source. I say this so the reader may judge the quality of the information, which I judge good enough for blogosphere standards in light of matching info. The rumor was as follows: Bashir Moghul was the person hit in the shooting at 623 26th Ave. N. (JNS blog addendum: Police report now confirms the validity of the information, with the additional info that a relative named Mohammad Moghul was also treated at the scene) 

So this information was matched up with info from the "police highlights," which go out by email weekly and--thankfully--the Minneapolis Crime Watch blog reproduces the highlights so this stuff turns up in search engines. The date and circumstances of this particular incident, see below, matched the police highlights info that none-other-than Bashir Moghul was the person hit in the shooting on December 13.

ASLT2

6XX 26 Av N Sunday 12-13-09 15:30 hrs 09-377412

Officers were in area when a “shots” call came in and flagged down by 2 males. V1/unk race male – 58 yrs. had a gun shot wound to lower leg while getting tools from their parked vehicle. They were not the intended target. 2 suspect vehicles were shooting at each other just south of intersection. Neither had a description of vehicles except a “green” car and a “white” car. Officers located a white Chevy Lumina/MN UCH176 w/possible bullet lodged inside the door. O1 stated S1/unk BM 510” /medium build wearing black Carhart jacket w/black hoodie and red/wh/blk Jordan shoes had the gun and shot 5 – 6 times.

(End of police highlight) 

Now you may think "Random bullets are random" but I say God has a plan. And that plan involves Jeff Skrenes--the Hawthorne Hawkman--doing a photo tour of the slummy properties of Bashir Moghul some time in the very near future, and then me buying Jeff beer.

Oh, I should add this: Get well soon, Bashir--if it was really you who got hit by the bullet, reportedly, allegedly, rumor has it, so we hear--so you can take care of your vast collection of MICRO SLUMS. (JNS blog addendum: info confirmed. It was Bashir. Get well soon, Bashir. Allegedly) 

This post belongs to Johnny Northside alone and nobody else is responsible for its dark, snarkified tone.