Another "Tales From the SouthSide"...
Imagine that, you fine readers get a "two-fer" this week...who could have seen THAT one coming, eh?
But before I get into that, I want to thank SLAMDUNK for pointing out in yesterday's post that the one perpetrator in the security video was wearing an ATLANTA BRAVES hat and NOT an Oakland A's hat as I mentioned.
(good eye - I must be getting old...or I really need to follow baseball more, if only to stay up-to-speed on sports logos...LOL)
It's been documented for some time that a LOT of "gangstas" gravitate to team apparel from major league sports clubs.
Guess any form of "originality" doesn't exist with such human refuse, and THAT alone explains a lot about such vermin.
The Latin Kings, for example tend to favor the logo of the L.A. Kings basketball team (like I said...how frigging original).
Sure beats going to the silk-screener joint and PAYING for something YOU thought the hell up, right?
But, I digress.
*** What I want to relate is just another instance where this neighborhood (our block primarily) was needlessly placed AT RISK, because some "locals" have decided to make our streets their "arena" for their brand of urban gladiatorial games.

Early this morning, around 12:50 AM (0050 hours), the Missus was startled awake by gunshots that she said were "right outside the house".
Oddly enough, I fell asleep with the TV on, and did not hear any of this...then again, operating in constant "sleep-deficit mode" has become SOP for me over the last few years. Hell, I can nod out right after dinner anymore.
My wife went to the window and looked out, seeing neither a shooter on foot, nor a vehicle zooming past, but she did hear more gunshots "farther north" as she said. She did not remain awake to see if any FWPD cruisers responded, but did take note that the neighbor's lights were on, and one house had someone peering out the window (welcome to the "Badlands", people).
Now, just to make things more "interesting" around here, back on the morning of 26 October, around 0115 hours, there was a shooting one block down from us (at the bar maybe?) that never showed up in ANY media source...at all. The control number for the call was 10F 155441.
Just prior to THAT call (about fifteen minutes to be exact), there was another run for a signal *113* - (shots fired), in an area very near where the *58* took place. The control number for THAT call was 10F 155433
So the ONLY way YOU will find out about it is to read THIS here blog, until the media reports what I tell you in advance (if ever).

My source informed me that the shooter in this morning's fracas WAS cuffed and stuffed after a "shoot & scoot" (he bailed but was apprehended and gave up the person he was shooting at - nice guy), and an SKS (7.65mm round, semi-auto) tossed from his vehicle was recovered from shrubs nearby. Apparently it was a situation between "rival factions" (local gang activity) and not related to the gunfire on 26 October.

They were shooting at one another (and damn any people trying to sleep or other things that happen to get in the way).
(( Editor's Update - 1300hrs - My ONE good neighbor called me up to give me the skinny on what SHE saw go down this morning. She also awoke to gunfire and then a minutes later, saw a car left at a nearby house with the lights on, and saw someone bail between the houses. Police rolled on scene, running silent, and set up a tight perimeter, and found the one shooter, who was wearing of all things...a Kevlar vest! Imagine that. The officers then spent the next 2 hours scouring the area for evidence, like the SKS they found that had been tossed. Nice job by ALL the LEOs involved. Damn good collar, people. ))

Now, we obviously have a person or persons with a LOT of time on their hands after midnight, don't we?
And, I've stated (seemingly for-EVER) that we in fact NEED more patrols in THIS area, because, as I said to our quadrant captain a few years back....crime IS coming down here, and the best way to keep it at bay is to let it know that it is NOT welcome here.
Naturally, you will NOT hear any outcry from the BLACK community, because, as we ALL know, black crime never affects anyone, unless a white person commits it against a black person. It's never the other way around though, right?
(rolls eyes)
Now I would be astounded beyond belief *IF* any white person is driving around shooting off guns after midnight around here...there's just too few of them, and no one is importing them down here...that's a given.
So, one can ONLY surmise that the shooter(s) is BLACK.
The law of averages just favors that to no end.
If an officer pulls anyone over for a traffic violation, the odds are that in THIS part of town, the driver of said vehicle WILL be BLACK.
You've got a 20% chance of pulling over someone who is of another race...at best.
So, what is being done to stem this tide of rampant firearms violations?
Glad you asked.
I sent an email to our quadrant captain in the hope of getting SOMETHING done, because if I have to act (alone)...there...will...be...trouble.
And I will not be on the receiving end of it, make no mistake.
I will do whatever I need to do to ensure the safety of this house and those living inside...
That seems only fair, don't you think?
I mean, from a law-enforcement standpoint, if you have a SPECIFIC area that has become a problem, don't you ADDRESS the issue by utilizing the proper RESOURCES and place them IN that area, until the problem is dealt with?
Am I missing something here?
Or, do we all just look the OTHER way, in the hope that the situation will either "just go away" or that we can somehow manage to "desensitize" ourselves to it in the end? either way seems like a LOSE-LOSE scenario.
And, like Admiral Kirk once said..."I don't believe in a no-win scenario".
What I DO believe in is something that was said in another movie - The Punisher:
"...In certain extreme situations, the law is inadequate.
In order to shame its inadequacy, it is necessary to act outside the law.
To pursue... natural justice.
This is not vengeance.
Revenge is not a valid motive, it's an emotional response.
No, not vengeance. Punishment."
Maybe we need to stop holding the hands of such people that would place average citizens in harm's way late at night...or at ANY time of day, for that matter.
Maybe we need to start punishing THEM for THEIR actions.
Am I advocating a form of vigilantism?
Well, when everything else FAILS, and the system becomes designed to protect the guilty and chasten the innocent, what recourse does ANY law-abiding person have to turn to?

The options become extremely FINITE.
I am NOT that vigilante, unfortunately. Just a VIGILANT individual.

(and YES, that is MY hand holding MY gun)
I will only protect and defend that which I seek to, namely this house and my family.
If I come upon another person being preyed upon by criminals...I will act accordingly to diffuse that situation.
Innocent people were not born with the word WELCOME tattooed across their foreheads.
Law-abiding people should never have to resort to the same means as their predators undertake when committing crime.
But tough times DO call for tough actions.
And sometimes, a message has to be sent to those that would do harm to others purely for the sake of doing so.
So, if there comes a time when I need to perform MY version of "urban-renewal", I will do my part, and I pray that God will guide my aim.
THIS is what forced so much of that "white-flight" you heard about over the last several decades.
Vermin (and it only takes ONE) move into a good area, start about trashing it, causing crime in it's myriad forms...and the city does NOTHING.
Houses go on sale as the very meek leave, and still MORE human refuse moves in...and the city STILL does NOTHING.
Then, the city wonders WHY it's tax revenues have dropped off the chart (because good people are leaving in droves to escape the crime)...and the city continues to do...NOTHING.
Finally, the city borders on financial insolvency, due to a severe depletion of revenue, and the increase in entitlement programs FOR those people moved into once nice areas, feigning poverty (and who have caused a lot of the initial crime that came to those neighborhoods), and the city (finally) DOES do something...they take a page from the "po me" handbook, and holds out IT'S hand to the FEDS to "public-assistance"... And the city now becomes part of "THE system" itself...a brilliant and insidious design complete with dangling carrots for all involved.
Helluva future, don'cha think?
This could (and can) all be avoided...and we need not be awakened by gunfire several nights a week.
BUT...it take a strong resolve to do WHAT IS RIGHT...WHAT IS JUST...and WHAT IS REQUIRED.
And it takes average citizens to stand up to those civil servants and get THEM to do what is difficult, because it IS the right thing TO DO.
Like I always say...it might not take place TODAY, but there is a TOMORROW. Let's just hope we never run OUT of them.
Be well, make a difference to someone this day, and...
Stay safe out there, America.