Life imitates ‘The Wire’ SMH Teenagers Stabbed And Steelers Fan Knocked Out At Baltimore Ravens Parade Via Baltimore Sun Three teens were stabbed, one fatally, in downtown Baltimore Tuesday afternoon, near the route of the parade celebrating the Ravens Super Bowl victory, police said. Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the stabbing occurred around 1:30 p.m. near the intersection of North Howard and West Fayette Streets. He said one of the three victims, a juvenile, went into cardiac arrest and was rushed into surgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, where the youth died. The other two stabbing victims were taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. One was listed in critical condition; the other was expected to live, police said. Guglielmi said the victims are 15- and 16-year-olds, but police have not released their identities. He said he knew of no motive for the stabbing and were searching for suspects. Large crowds had gathered downtown around the time of the stabbing for a parade starting at City Hall and ending at M&T Bank Stadium to celebrate the Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl XLVII victory. “This was an isolated incident,” Guglielmi said. “The victims knew their attackers. We believe this stemmed from a dispute. At this point, there is no information to suggest that these individuals were involved or came here for the Ravens victory celebration. We’re still trying to parse out all of those details.” In an unrelated story, Black Sports Online reports that a man wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey was knocked out by an unidentified Ravens fan for reppin’ the wrong set during the parade. Tough crowd in B-More…sheesh. Image via HBO/AP
President Obama and the first family have been asked to pay their respects to Hadiya Pendleton in person… Friends and Family Of Hadiya Pendleton Want President Obama At Her Funeral The tragic, sudden and untimely death of 15-year-old Chicago native Hadiya Pendleton weighed heavy on the hearts of many, including the President and First Family who issued condolences to her family through White House spokesman Jay Carney upon learning of her passing. However, grieving residents, friends and family of Hadiya are now pushing for President Obama to take it a step further by paying his respects to her in person at her funeral on February 9. via Loop 21 What happened to Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago teen, was horrible. While taking cover from the rain, the young girl, who performed with her high school drill team at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, was gunned down in what seems to be random gunfire. The White House acknowledged her death Wednesday. “The president and first lady’s thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton,” White house spokesman Jay Carney said. But the people want more. A petition was created, urging the president to honor the brief life of the girl and attend her funeral. Carney said he had no knowledge of the petition nor of any scheduling changes. There is no word that he has addressed the petitions’ request Our prayers continue to go out to this grieving family and community as they prepare to lay Hadiya to rest.
Something good HAS to come from such a horrific tragedy . Reward For Info About Hadiya Pendleton’s Shooting Death Raised To $40,000 Via Chicago-Tribune As community members marched in memory of Hadiya Pendleton today, officials announced the reward for information in the slaying of the King College Prep sophomore has been increased to $40,000. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and other police officials announced the increased reward in advance of an anti-violence march in her honor that left from her high school, 4445 S. Drexel Blvd. Hadiya had just finished her final exams at King College Prep, and was hanging out with friends from the school’s volleyball team when she was gunned down Tuesday in Harsh Park, in the 4400 block of South Oakenwald Avenue. Thursday afternoon, police announced the reward for information leading to an arrest in the shooting had increased to $24,000, up from $11,000 announced Wednesday. By Friday night the reward was up to $40,000. Dozens of adults and children marched this afternoon from King Prep High School to Harsh Park, the scene of the shooting. They were escorted by at least six police vehicles as the crowd chanted, urging anyone with information about Pendleton’s slaying to come forward. “If you know who did this, turn them in!” shouted Melvin, a man who led the march but did not want to provide his last name out of fear of retaliation. “If you don’t support this, next it might be you!” Many people who knew Hadiya have told stories of her kindness and strength, none more telling than this one… Raven Barnes, 18, a King College Prep senior who was friends with Hadiya, said she “always had a smile on her face.” “I never thought it would happen to Hadiya because she’s one of the nicest people,” Barnes said. “She didn’t deserve it.” Hadiya recently broke up an “altercation” between Barnes and another girl, Barnes recalled. She said Hadiya convinced her to avoid the conflict and swear off fighting with other girls for good. “She just was a person who hated violence,” Barnes said. “She didn’t want any violence … ever. It’s just so sad that violence took her life.” Our hearts still hurt for Hadiya, her family, and the entire Chicago community that deals with these kinds of losses on a daily basis. What can we do to help ensure that our children are safe from this kind of egregious violence. Image via
When is this foolishness going to end??? Lone Star College In Houston Terrorized In School Shooting Via FoxNews Lone Star College, located in north Houston, was put on lockdown Tuesday after reports of several people being shot and injured on campus, MyFoxHouston.com reported. A federal law enforcement official told Fox News that one person is in custody and it is unclear if another suspect is on the run. Police are, however, searching the nearby countryside for a second shooter. Three victims were transported from the scene to area hospitals. Moments after the shooting, students could be seen being led out of the sprawling campus with their hands on their heads. Police SWAT teams were searching the campus. Details of the events leading to the shooting is unclear, but reports indicate that the incident stemmed from an earlier argument near the school’s library. An emergency alert was sent to students advising them and faculty to take immediate shelter and not to enter the campus until notified further. Other local school were also placed on lock down. The community college is a two-year school with about 28,000 students. The school is located just outside the George H.W. Bush International Airport. Thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the community. Check in with Bossip as more details on this tragedy emerge. Image via LoneStarCollege
It’s been a violent year in Chicago , but long-time residents of Chatham are still fighting to keep their neighborhood safe after the death of one of their own rocked the community. And with the recession affecting small businesses, a once vibrant, middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side seems to be hanging on by a thread. Via The New York Times : The neighborhood’s best-known restaurants were failing, its crime rate was on the rise, and for the first time that anyone could remember there were foreclosures, with once tidy bungalows sitting empty and dark. For all that, the social scientists studying Chicago neighborhoods in 2010 were betting that the middle-class enclave of Chatham, on the city’s South Side, would remain stable through the recession. It had done so for decades, while surrounded by impoverished areas. It had somehow absorbed a wave of newcomers from recently demolished housing projects. And the researchers’ data suggested that its strong identity and scores of active block groups had helped protect residents from larger economic threats and offered clues about how to preserve threatened urban communities all over the country. Chatham should hold, barring some unforeseen cataclysm. The cataclysm hit on May 19 of that year. That night, a group of assailants jumped Thomas Wortham IV, an off-duty police officer and Iraq war veteran, as he was leaving his parents’ house. He resisted and was shot, bleeding to death on the street where he grew up. The entire city seemed to stop for breath, holding a memorial attended by hundreds of fellow police officers and citizens, Mayor Richard M. Daley and Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois. “We were blindsided by this; blindsided by what happened to Tommy,” said his mother, Carolyn Wortham. “And yes, you begin to question everything.” In Chatham, it seemed, all bets were off. Many residents began to think the unthinkable, that maybe it was time to escape the place they had done so much to build. The community’s response to the crisis would test a theory emerging from an ambitious, nearly decade-long study of all of Chicago’s neighborhoods — that a neighborhood’s character shapes its economic future at least as much as more obvious factors like income levels and foreclosure rates. “If Chatham could maintain its relative stability despite such great challenges,” said William Julius Wilson, a professor of sociology and social policy at Harvard and the author of the 1987 classic, “The Truly Disadvantaged,” “then I think this concept of a neighborhood effect will be a landmark contribution, helping us understand how to prevent the out-migration of citizens and strengthen neighborhoods” at risk of falling into poverty. …Older residents, perpetually anxious that the younger generation is losing their values of tidiness and mutual respect, now had visible evidence of social erosion. They saw it in the habits of their new neighbors, many of them moving from the Robert Taylor Homes, which were torn down in the mid-2000s. “The big change going on is that the grandparents are moving out, and some of the younger kids coming in here are picking up behaviors that you would never have seen in Chatham before,” said Worlee Glover, a salesman who runs a blog called Concerned Citizens of Chatham. “Loitering out on 79th. Walking up and down the street, eating out of a bag. Eating out on the porch. Those kinds of things.” “Chatham and neighboring Avalon Park are both working class communities, not core ghetto areas, and both were hit hard by recession, particularly Chatham, which got hit economically and with incidents of violence.Twice in previous weeks, young men from outside the area had fired shots into the scrum around the basketball courts at Cole Park, just across the street from the Worthams’ house. Cole Park, all picnics and playgrounds when Thomas IV was growing up, now resembled a street party on most evenings, with teenagers coming just to hang out, Mrs. Wortham said. Seniors and parents of young children stayed away. “People came from all over the South Side to play at Cole Park for the very reason that it was a safe park,” said Thomas Wortham III, his father. “But it got to where no one was controlling it.” Chatham has more than a hundred block groups, citizen volunteers who monitor the tidiness of neighborhood lawns, garbage, and noise, as well as organize events, Mr. Tate said. The neighborhood has something else that many nearby areas do not: uniformly small buildings. Neat rows of one-story brick bungalows and ranch houses stand shoulder to shoulder, at attention, astride modest commercial strips, with few buildings more than three stories tall. …The ultimate verdict, for Chatham and for the neighborhood effect, may lie in what the Worthams and people like them do in historically cohesive urban communities threatened by creeping poverty and violence. “I sure did consider leaving when Tommy was killed,” Mrs. Wortham said. She took a deep breath. “But you know, whenever something like this happens, there’s plenty of blame to go around. People want to blame the city, the community organizations, the churches, all that. But nothing changes unless people look after their children, and the neighbors do, too. If people aren’t behaving, you say something. When I went to school, if I did something wrong, by the time I got home my mother knew about it.” Community involvement is key in any area. Do you think Chicago’s lack of racial integration on social, economic, and educational scales is a factor in part of the problem? Images via AP
Oh, the muhfuggin irony Newspaper That Printed Gun Owners Addresses Hires Armed Guards Via ABCNews The New York newspaper that printed a map with all of the names of residents who have handgun permits has hired armed security to patrol its headquarters. The Journal News, which covers Rockland, Westchester, and Putnam Counties in New York, faced a backlash from readers after publishing the names of residents who had handgun permits registered to their names. The newspaper created an interactive map which showed permit owners’ names and addresses, which they posted on Dec. 23, 2011, as part of their coverage of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. The Gannett-owned paper received a wave of angry comments in which readers published the names and addresses of reporters and editors at the paper. Caryn McBride, the Rockland editor for the newspaper, filed a report with the Clarkstown police about the “negative correspondence” received by the newspaper in response to the map. On Dec. 28, she reported that she received an email from an unknown sender who wrote that he “wondered what McBride would get in her mail now.” What the fawk did you expect?!?! The report also noted that RGA Investigations, a private security firm, had been hired by the paper to perform security services in the wake of the controversy. The company’s “employees are armed and will be on site during business hours through at least January 2, 2013,” the report said. No security problems have been reported at the newspaper’s offices. SMH, Still can’t believe some dumb-azz editor thought that printing these folks addresses would be a good idea. They gon’ learn today! Image via Shutterstock
SMH. What’s wrong with people? According to CBS New York , authorities aren’t sure if the victim knew his attacker: New York City police said a man was shoved in front of a subway train and killed on Thursday evening. Investigators were looking for a woman who is believed to have pushed the victim, who was struck by a Queens-bound 7 Train at the 40th Street-Lowery Street station. Police told reporters Thursday night that the female suspect was seen mumbling and talking to herself before sitting down on a wooden bench by herself. Authorities said the woman waited until the train came before approaching a man from behind and pushing him. Witnesses said the victim didn’t notice the suspect, who police said was a heavyset Hispanic woman. The unidentified woman was described as wearing a blue, white, and gray ski jacket and Nike sneakers. She fled down stairs following the push, police said. The incident happened around 8 p.m. A heavy police presence remained outside the subway station where the fatality occurred as authorities continued their investigation. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said 7 Train service was being disrupted as a result of the incident. We hope all these random acts of violence cool down soon. Images via tumblr
They say they’ve exhausted every other possible lead. And according to the LA Times , police can’t solve the puzzling crime due to Kendrick’s clean record: It was dawn when word spread throughout the neighborhood. People stepped outside to absorb the news and then lingered in disbelief. Kendrick Blackmon — a 22-year-old church musician they all watched grow up — had been shot to death driving home in South Los Angeles. Months have passed since that April morning and there is still no answer as to why an affable young man who steered clear of trouble was gunned down. Authorities say they have exhausted every lead. Now, Kendrick’s family and friends are hoping that a $50,000 reward offered by the city of Los Angeles will turn the tide by encouraging witnesses to come forward. “Before I leave this Earth I hope I find out who did this,” Kendrick’s grandmother, Alberta Blackmon, said Thursday, wiping tears from her cheeks. Standing inside the 77th Street Community Police Station, the 68-year-old woman who raised Kendrick called the shooters “cowards” and pleaded for the public’s help. “If anyone out there knows anything, please let the police know,” she urged. Detectives say Kendrick’s clean past has made it difficult to determine a motive. He was not affiliated with any gangs and appeared to be well liked in the community. Yet the senseless nature of the act smacks of being the work of a gang, said Det. Mel Hernandez. On April 21 about 1:30 a.m., Kendrick was driving his white Chevrolet Monaco south on San Pedro Street. He and two friends were on their way home from a party. As they neared Century Boulevard, a black sport utility vehicle, carrying what appeared to be five men in their 20s, pulled up next to them and opened fire, Hernandez said. Kendrick, the only person hit, was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. He sustained a gunshot wound to the upper right cheek, according to coroner’s records. He was just six blocks from the home he shared with his grandmother. Now, Alberta Blackmon said, the house is eerily quiet. It was Kendrick who filled the rooms with jokes, brought over friends, stocked food in the refrigerator and made her feel safe at night. Kendrick’s death has left an emptiness in the neighborhood. People stop by to check up on Alberta Blackmon, who now lives alone. Alberta said she was harder on Kendrick than her other grandchildren because she saw his potential. She nagged him, dished out tough love, constantly said she expected more. “Don’t you love me?” he asked time and again. Alberta said she always gave the same reply: “I want you to be able to take care of yourself when I’m gone.” She never imagined it would be the other way around. We hope his shooter is caught soon so his family can finally have closure. Images via facebook/shuterstock
Can we get a fawking blood test ordered for Breezy please? This love triangle just got a little more messy…and we’re told Karrueche likes to watch. French reality star Ayem Nour just opened up about her “beautiful” experience with Chris Brown while he was in Paris…even though he was seen with Karrueche and Rihanna in the city of lights too. According to French magazine Oops , this ho said she let Breezy get it in last weekend in his damn hotel room; even though Karrueche was right there!! She also made it known that Chris and Karrueche’s relationship is very open and that Karruehce was cool with that ish. “It was beautiful and flattering. Some will criticize me, but I put any girl in challenge to say no to Chris Brown! …nasty. Images via tumblr/twitter
The shooter killed his mother first before he ran rampant in the school. Via the Associated Press : Nancy Lanza’s body was found later at their home on Yoganda Street in Newtown – after the carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School; after a quiet New England town was scarred forever by unthinkable tragedy; after a nation seemingly inured to violence found itself stunned by the slaughter of innocents. Nobody knows why 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, why he then took her guns to the school and murdered 20 children and six adults. But on Friday he drove his mother’s car through this 300-year-old town with its fine old churches and towering trees, and arrived at a school full of the season’s joy. Somehow, he got past a security door to a place where children should have been safe from harm. Theodore Varga and other fourth-grade teachers were meeting; the glow remained from the previous night’s fourth-grade concert. “It was a lovely day,” Varga said. “Everybody was joyful and cheerful. We were ending the week on a high note.” And then, suddenly and unfathomably, gunshots rang out. “I can’t even remember how many,” he said. The fourth-graders, the oldest kids in the school, were in specialty classes like gym and music. There was no lock on the meeting room door, so the teachers had to think about how to escape, knowing that their students were with other teachers. Someone turned the loudspeaker on, so everyone could hear what was happening in the office. “You could hear the hysteria that was going on,” Varga said. “Whoever did that saved a lot of people. Everyone in the school was listening to the terror that was transpiring.” Gathered in another room for a 9:30 meeting were principal Dawn Hochsprung and Diane Day, a school therapist, along with a school psychologist, other staff members and a parent. They were meeting to discuss a second-grader. “We were there for about five minutes chatting, and we heard Pop! Pop!, Pop!” Day told The Wall Street Journal. “I went under the table.” But Hochsprung and the psychologist leaped out of their seats and ran out of the room, Day recalled. “They didn’t think twice about confronting or seeing what was going on,” she said. Hochsprung was killed, and the psychologist was believed to have been killed as well. A custodian ran around, warning people there was a gunman, Varga said. “He said, `Guys! Get down! Hide!’” Varga said. “So he was actually a hero.” Did he survive? The teacher did not know. In a first-grade classroom, teacher Kaitlin Roig heard the shots. She immediately barricaded her 15 students into a tiny bathroom, sitting one of them on top of the toilet. She pulled a bookshelf across the door and locked it. She told the kids to be “absolutely quiet.” “I said, `There are bad guys out there now. We need to wait for the good guys,’” she told ABC News. “The kids were being so good,” she said. “They asked, `Can we go see if anyone is out there?’ `I just want Christmas. I don’t want to die, I just want to have Christmas.’ I said, `You’re going to have Christmas and Hanukkah.’” One student claimed to know karate. “It’s OK. I’ll lead the way out,” the student said. In the gym, crying fourth-graders huddled in a corner. One of them was 10-year-old Philip Makris. “He said he heard a lot of loud noises and then screaming,” said his mother, Melissa Makris. “Then the gym teachers immediately gathered the children in a corner and kept them safe.” Another girl who was in the gym recalled hearing “like, seven loud booms.” “The gym teacher told us to go in a corner, so we all huddled and I kept hearing these booming noises,” the girl, who was not identified by name, told NBC News. “We all started – well, we didn’t scream; we started crying, so all the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us.” An 8-year-old boy described how a teacher saved him. “I saw some of the bullets going past the hall that I was right next to, and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom,” said the boy, who was not identified by CBSNews.com. Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. “That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” he said. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.” He said the shooter didn’t utter a word. “Then our teacher, somebody, yelled, `Get to a safe place.’ Then we went to a closet in the gym and we sat there for a little while, and then the police were, like, knocking on the door and they were, like, `We’re evacuating people, we’re evacuating people,’ so we ran out.” Children, warned to close their eyes so they could not see the product of his labors, were led away from their school. Parents rushed to the scene. Family members walked away from a firehouse that was being used as a staging area, some of them openly weeping. One man, wearing a T-shirt without a jacket, put his arms around a woman as they walked down the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around them. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other public officials came to the firehouse. So did clergymen like Monsignor Robert Weiss of Newtown’s St. Rose Roman Catholic Church. He watched as parents came to realize that they would never see their children alive again. “All of them were hoping their child would be found OK. But when they gave out the actual death toll, they realized their child was gone,” Weiss said. He recalled the reaction of the brother of one of the victims. “They told a little boy it was his sister who passed on,” Weiss said. “The boy’s response was, `I’m not going to have anyone to play with.” We’ll keep you updated on this developing story… Images via twitter
