Flickr.com photoThis happened a week or two back, but I am now in possession of a firsthand account of a disturbing incident which happened in the Hawthorne Neighborhood...
Here is the account, which is anonymous:
There was a fight between 4 kids on Saturday, the 2nd at about 7:00 p.m. (A female minor, let's call her Rose) and her friend were walking another friend home. The friend lives halfway down the same block.
Two girls from the house at 2955 Colfax came out onto the sidewalk and told Rose that she's "a ratchet" and that she thinks she thinks she's all that because her hair is long. Then she pushed her onto the ground and started punching and kicking her and scratched her face.
All 4 girls were fighting in a matter of seconds. I heard the noise and run outside to see what was going on. There were 2 men in their mid-twenties encouraging the fight and filming it on the cell phone cameras. I broke the girls up and yelled at the men asking them why they didn't stop the kids and what was wrong with them that they would be filming it all.
They told me I should be proud because (Rose) had "handled" their nieces and this round goes to her and her friend. I told them they were sick and I was going to call the police. They said that they were sorry and that I didn't need to do that - they would make sure the kids didn't get into it again. I asked if the kids' mom was home and they told me that she wasn't.
Well, the very next day at about 12:45 p.m. I was on my way home from church and when I pulled up to my house there was a group of kids (about 5 of them) on the east corner of Colfax and about 15 kids in the front yard of 2955 Colfax. The mother of some of the children in that house was out there and talking to the kids across the street from her front porch steps. Again, the 2 men in their mid-twenties were standing on the sidewalk in front of 2955. The Mom was
saying to the kids across the street "Come over here and shake hands with my kids. We don't want any enemies in this neighborhood. We want to be friends with you." Etc.
Well, as soon as the kids walked into her front yard, she yells "1,2,3, JUMP!" and all the kids that were there in her yard already jumped on the kids from the corner and started pounding on them. The mom was holding a pink belt ready to jump in I guess if her kids started getting the worst of any of the beating and the 2 men (which I am told are uncles of some of the kids who live at house) were on the sidewalk yelling to the kids to encourage the fighting and filming the whole scene with their cell phone cameras.
I ran into the house and grabbed my phone and called 911. I was told by the dispatcher that 3 calls had already come in and officers were on the way. It took them about 5 minutes to get there. When they finally arrived the uncles had jumped in their Explorer and left and the Mom was just sitting on the steps acting like nothing had happened. The squads ( 2 of them) stopped in front of the house and sat there for a moment or two and drove off...
I was at the 4th Precinct meeting each week since and there wasn't anything specific on the address. The house at 2955 was calm but now the kids are back hanging out in the yard like before and the uncles are back as well. This is NOT going to be something we are going to be putting up with this summer. What kind of adult would not only encourage the fighting but film it as well? It makes me sick. I spoke to 2 officers at meetings since then and they said to call CPS if
anything like that happens again.
JNS blog says: This is disgusting, unacceptable behavior and when I get firsthand accounts like this, I'll be slapping that stuff on my blog. I don't see the system working like it should, here. There needs to be further police involvement, and this needs to be on the radar of Child Protective Services. I have every reason to believe the firsthand account is accurate in every detail, right down to the color of the pink belt.
Post the license plate of the explorer and I'll bet their names, or at least the name of the registered owner, will show up here in the total, completely anonymous comments section - then perhaps more info will flush out after that.
ReplyDeleteUs northsider's need to take a stand that we WILL NOT TOLERATE unacceptable behavior - not from our 'community leaders', not from the residents of the neighborhood, not from the relatives and guests who are visiting and not from the business owners.
If you want to be here and act right, then we can all get along. But if you want to be here and act anti-social, criminal, dispicable - YOU WILL BE CALLED OUT AND IT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
It's about behavior. Behavior IS NOT a protected class.
Call me a 'behaviorist' cause I will discriminate based on behavior!
Yeah, I don't have the license plate but maybe somebody who knows the deal can get it...
ReplyDeleteIf it happens again, call 911 and demand a squad be sent and a police report be made and sent to the child abuse/domestic assault unit. State law mandates that the police inform child protection of the incident as well. This is outrageous and it is child endangerment. If the officers give you any guff, tell them to check out State Statute 609.378. If the uncles are are posting the video on the web, there may other laws broken as well.
ReplyDeleteOh my, this sort of behavior, from adults! Really bothersome. Maybe you could get a squad car to patrol and keep watch over the neighborhood just to make sure that things are orderly. This kind of behavior is really unacceptable and these adults should be held responsible.
ReplyDeleteYes this is outrageous and disgusting behavior, but I think you'll find this is very common amongst a certain segment of our population. From a very early age, kids are encouraged to fight. I guess the justification is survival.
ReplyDeleteI once witnessed a little girl running home to her mom crying because some other kids had beaten her up. Instead of hugs and words of comfort, the mother wouldn't allow her back in the house until she went back out there and fought those other kids. It made me sick.
More recently, we're seeing this type of behavior at the infamous 2207 6th. I've never been able to do an accurate count of how many children are living in this house, but everyday, the little ones here have been verbally assaulting the little girl next door because of her grandmothers involvement in the block club. So far it hasn't gone beyond really nasty name calling over the fence, but it has the little girl so upset she doesn't want to go into her own yard to play.
With all the problems and history and the drug raid at 2207, it's beyond my comprehension why social services has not been brought into the picture. If you remember, this was part of the resolution passed by the Hawthorne Board and sent to our council member. To my knowledge, it never received a response.
Disgusting. The fact that this behavior is now being passed on to another generation makes it even more troubling. While this goes on, the "leadership" is more concerned with making a buck off the city via it's sham "legacy institutions" rather than working to intervene or prevent this sort of behavior. I get so mad I could spit.
ReplyDeleteI think that we all deal with that sort of sickening behavior. Over on Fourth and Twenty-second, my kids were outside playing, and one of the neighbor kids was throwing stuff at our house, so my oldest daughter told them to get out of our yard, and throw stuff at their own house, well the littlest of them all told my daughter she didn't have to, and she was going to pull her hair.
ReplyDeleteSo, my daughter responded with, you pull my hair I will pull yours... My daughter then came in and told her dad what was going on, and he went outside, told the neighbor kids that if they can't all play nice together then they had to go home.
Shortly after my husband told the kids that, he hid on the porch sort-to-speak and the kids started on my daughter again, this time, the littlest one told her big sister to BEAT THE HELL out of her, cause she was going to pull her hair.
My husband then went outside, and told that little girl to go home, then went next door and told the parents of the two girls, the parents said well your daughter told my daughter that she was going to pull her hair, he then told her that she only stated that in defense of what was being said to her.
My husband said, well here, to solve this problem, if your kids come back into my yard, I will call the police. We do not tollerate our children to act like animals. Then amazingly used my line, "Just because you live in the hood, doesn't mean you have to act hood."