Shots fired on Chili Avenue and related developments


Life gets a little scarier, but I will not be moved.

I called 911 Monday about what sounded to me like 8-9 shots fired near me @ Chili and Hobart. It was close. Couldn’t be more than a block away. Possibly the church parking lot.

It was around 5:30 p.m., just as I was about to head over to Norton St. for a PAC-TAC walk. (I still join my friends on the East Side.) A few minutes before I heard the shots I saw four of the local gang bangers standing across the street from me, watching my house.

They’ve been doing that a lot lately. Besides standing across the street from me, they also bunch up and walk slowly past the house, lingering on the corner, but not staying long enough to be considered loitering. They disperse just about when I’m picking up the phone to call on it.

They did that three times on Saturday. I was out playing with the neighborhood kids. Several of them gathered on a porch across the street, then disappeared when I went inside the house for a minute. Later, when I saw Deputy Chief Jim Sheppard out with the foot patrol, I told the kids who that was, and it just so happened that a couple of the gang bangers were passing by and heard me.

They did their own “foot patrol” past my house after Sheppard et al. disappeared around a corner — about 4 or 5 of them passed by in close formation. When the officers came back down Chili I crossed the street to say hello to Jim & walked with them a short way. I figured after the bangers overheard me earlier I wasn’t exactly letting the cat out of the bag at that point. Once again, after the officers were out of sight, the bangers were back, about six of them, walking at a snail’s pace past my house. I was inside, fortunately, and there’s no way for them to know I even saw them. They did it again later in the evening. And I’ve seen them standing across the street several times since.

Don’t know what the gunshots was about, but it’s hard to imagine that with that many shots nobody got hit. Unless it was intentional. Warning shots, so to speak.

It’s good to see the officers out, but I imagine the bangers are riled up about the presence and will do their best to re-assert control of the streets.

I slipped out after the police arrived, so I still made it to Norton St. for the walk, and everything was quiet when I got back.

Talked to a neighbor this a.m. about the shots & she said she noticed some kids running — but, like the idiots they sometimes are, they were running TOWARD the shots.

I gather, since there’s been nothing in the news about it, that no one was hurt.

Anyway, yesterday (Thanksgiving) I needed to get some soy milk so I could make the corn bread I promised for Thanksgiving Dinner at the Friends' Meeting House. Normally I drive my car everywhere, even though the Tops' market is only three blocks away. It's a safety issue.

But the day was bright and relatively warm, and the streets were clear of the thugs, so I decided I would walk. Everything went fine. Coming back I decided to walk up Hobart Street (155 Hobart is where the real trouble-makers are). I noticed one of the bad boyz on the sidewalk, coming toward me, from some distance away. I shifted my purse and grocery bag to one side so I could put my hand in my pocket to grasp the pepper spray just in case. He turned in and went up on the porch at 155. Another was sitting there on the porch, rolling a joint. They both scowled at me.

I put a big beaming smile on my face and said "hello!" One of them managed a nod at me, but the other just scowled more darkly.

I kept on beaming.

See, this is how I psyche THEM out. After all their attempts to scare the hell out of me, here I am walking ALONE (I've done that only once before, on election day), walking confidently up THEIR street, and beaming at them. They've gotta be shaking their heads. What are they going to do about someone who doesn't react the way she's supposed to?

I can hear them grumbling -- "That bitch. That BITCH! She smiled at us! She even said hello! THAT BITCH!"

Posted: Fri - November 24, 2006 at 11:42 AM          

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