Wednesday, May 6, 2009

More about Weis' visit to Chatham

In an e-mail from the Greater Chatham Alliance forwarded this time by our own JP Paulus:
Here's an eyewitness report from our GCA CAPS participant, who attended this 6:30 P.M. Roll Call with Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis:

"He said that outside of the dignitaries, approximately 20 residents were there. As a matter of fact, our GCA CAPS representative said that most of the residents were neighborhood CAPS' representatives. CAPS contacted our rep and he and his wife rushed over to this Roll Call. (Bob Hearns, GCA CAPS Rep.)"

Here's Carl's questions for us to consider:

Why wasn't our community group notified? We strongly believe, because of our e-mail list members like you, that we could have gotten at least 100 people or more to show up to support our alderman in her efforts to convey the Chatham community's concern.

We know that all of us are dedicated to preserving the safety of this community because of the great turn-out at our last meeting.

C'mon, it was a Friday evening! But a day's notice or even a morning shout-out would have produced more than 20 residents!

Who dropped the ball?
Read the original post from the CAPCC blog that I linked to over the weekend.

I still would like to hear account from Weis' meeting with the Park Manor Neighbors Monday night! Leave a comment or an e-mail, PLEASE!

1 comment:

  1. Freddrenna M. LyleMay 7, 2009 at 9:26 AM

    NO ONE DROPPED ANY BALLS on the Weiss appearance. At my request, Superintendent Weiss came out to Chatham. The Walk and Talk was never planned to be a march. It was to be and did in fact turn out to be a group of 15-25 people who walked with the Supt. along 79th St., north on Rhodes to St. Dorothy's and back to 79th St. so that he could get a first hand understanding of our concerns. The roll call was a CAPs event, the Walk and Talk was not.

    Walking with myself and the Supt. were Commander Johnson, Chief Ernie Brown, Dep. J. Jackson, Chief D. Dugan, Area Chief Dana Alexander, CAPS personnel and others residents of the area. Pres. of Chatham Avalon Park CC, Keith Tate; Pres. of Park Manor Neighbors, Darlene Tribue; State Rep. Constance Howard; 6th Ward Supt. Brian Garner; 79th & Vernon Block Club Pres. D. Macklin; and Beat 623 Facilitator Bill Smith, walked with us. Fr. B. Miller (St. Dorothy) and Rev. McCoy (St. Mark's) also joined us in talking to residents and businessmen. We visited Captain Hardtimes, Franklin's Barber Shop, DeJaVu Hair Salon, McDonalds and then knocked on doors on Rhodes, 78th, and along King Drive. We talked to seniors, young adults, teens, homeowners, renters, business owners and customers.

    During the Walk and Talk, Pres. Tribue asked the Supt. to attend a Park Manor Neighbors meeting and he did. More than 200 residents attended to hear from the Supt., Commander Crump-Hale (3rd), Commander Johnson (6th), Chief E. Brown (Organized Crime), and others. After I introduced the Supt., he spoke to the group expressing his unhappiness with the increase in violent crimes in the area and explaining his plans for attacking that increase. He told them that we have been assigned additional resources through mobile units that basically stay in the Police Districts in Area Two. He stated that he was giving the Commanders greater flexibility in the assignment of their personnel to respond to community concerns. He then took questions for approximately 40 minutes. Residents complained of slow response time; that the Police allow young men to loiter (and by implication sell drugs) on the corners; the loss of a feeling that they are safe; gave the Supt. certain streets and addresses where problems occur; and in a few instances thanked the Commanders for responding to particular concerns.

    On Tues. I met with 3 other Aldermen at the Superintendent’s Office for an Area Two Violence Suppression Meeting. At this meeting each of our Commanders was present. (We have 4 Districts covering the 6th Ward). Additionally, every Chief or Deputy was present to respond to our demands for more manpower, more effort, more missions, more attention on quality of life issues, etc., etc.

    To close, on Apr. 7th, I met with Ron Huberman about the necessity for opening up our schools as community centers after school hours and on Saturdays. He agreed that we will start moving in that direction. On Tues. Apr. 14th, I was working on approval for a new after-school and summer program for community youth across from Ruggles Elementary. South Central Community Center will start this program in the next month. On Thurs. April 16, 2009 I asked Police Command staff for a dedicated car to be assigned to 79th Street from State to the railroad tracks, at a City Council committee meeting. On Fri. the Library shooting occurred. On Sat. a dedicated beat car was assigned to patrol 79th St. The following week, I was meeting with the Park District about free open gym at Tuley Park and a Tennis program for our community on the courts at Tuley and Ruggles. Today, I was informed we have hired a Tennis instructor. Last week, I was in discussion with Kubla Toure (Amer-i-can) and Minister Muhammad (Nation of Islam) about violence prevention and suppression programming efforts in our community. Understanding that the causes of violence are numerous, it will take long term action on various fronts to attack the roots. In future posts I’ll discuss in detail some of the actions we are going to be taking in the 6th Ward to stop the violence and ‘reweave the social fabric’ that strong communities must have to raise healthy, educated, well-adjusted children.

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