I’m on “away-cation”

I’ve been in Pennsylvania since last Saturday, driving out of Hartford a few hours before all of the shooting started going down in the North End. I coincidentally checked out Courant.com right around the time that the reports of violence started, then went to WFSB to see if they had more information.

The WFSB site had the most unfortunate ads accompanying the initial news report: CT “Staycation” and Hartford Hospital. I’m not sure when I’m coming back.

It’s Not Us, It’s Hartford

The big news of the day is Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts shirking police responsibility and basically blaming the citizens of Hartford for the never-ending wave of crime we seem to be wading under in the city.

Some of the more sensational incidents among the dozens piling up is the savage beating of former Deputy Mayor Nick Carbone at Capitol Avenue on his way to breakfast on Monday, and the hit and run of Angel Arce Torres last Friday on Park Street while witnesses stood around, gawking and pointing without actually helping the man. No one called 911, and the man is paralyzed. Roberts stated:

“There was a time they would have helped that man across the street. Now they mug and assault him,” he said. “That’s not a police problem. We no longer have a moral compass. Anything goes.”

Colin McEnroe has two excellent pieces expounding the outrage over Roberts’ comments, as well as the ad nauseous “miserable, ass-covering, loutish approach to law enforcement” and politicking of Mayor Eddie Perez.

Update [6/6/08]: Apparently, the first report by the Courant was wrong–people did call 911 and the website has audio clips.

Update [6/8/08]: Link to the video: “Hartford Police Release Video of Hit and Run“

I Fight Crime

Unlike Dan McKinley, I don’t fight crime all the time. But I did last night.

Usually on Tuesday recycling nights, the only noises on my otherwise very quiet West End block are sounds of people clinking glasses and dropping aluminum cans as they scavenge through the bins. But last night there was a repeated beeping sound and since I’m a crazy old lady who’s always looking out the window anyway, I peered out and saw a guy get out of a white car parked on the street. He looked up at me and waved back at the car before going around the side of a nearby house. I knew he didn’t live there and he came back in about 30 seconds and got back into the car.

Someone else jumped out of the passenger seat and hid next to a tree in the house’s front yard while the first guy tried to start the car. Then the tree-hiding guy took off running down the street. The first guy ran down the block too after trying to turn the car over a few more times.

My boyfriend told me to call 911, then promptly fell asleep. Seriously, it took it him 3 minutes while I was on the phone reporting the incident.

Two cop cars showed up with lights and radios blaring so I went down to talk to them before they woke the whole block up. They stayed on my block for another 30 minutes investigating the scene and running plates, etc.–I watched them out of a darkened window after I came back inside. And then I watched the empty street for another 1/2 hour waiting for the two car thieves who I described in detail to the cops to come back and drive-by shoot up my window. It wasn’t my most thought-out fear.

My friend Jordan told me I shouldn’t have worried:

Don’t worry - you did a good deed and the people who break into a car and run away are not the same people who come back and shoot you. Unless you happened to have stolen their drugs or joined a rival gang while they were breaking into your neighbor’s car. Besides, once they fence the GPS, they won’t be able to find your house again.

I Swear It’s Fun

“Thugg City, motherfuckers! Providence is for pussies.”

From today’s Courant online: Hartford Officials Release Crime Stats: Gun Violence Up

City officials are launching a new safety initiative in response to a recent wave of reports of gun violence in the city.

In less than a two-month period, between March 16 and May 10, there have been five gun-related homicides and 50 shooting victims in 36 confirmed gun-related incidents. All together during that period, there have been 188 unconfirmed and unconfirmed reports of shots being fired.

… Hartford police officers have seized 133 illegal guns and made 75 weapons arrests since the first of the year , Roberts said.

The department plans on hiring 30 new officers and training officers for bicycle units and a mounted horse patrol. Roberts also said he asked state and federal authorities for resources.

Car Jack City

People say, “Hey, let’s walk from your place to the Half Door for a drink. It’s only a few blocks and the walk will be good for us.”

I say, “No, no, no.”

Police Investigate Armed Carjacking in Hartford

Police are looking for two suspects in an armed carjacking in Hartford Sunday afternoon.

The driver told police he was in the area of Sisson Avenue and Farmington Avenue looking of recyclables when he was approached by two men in their late teens, police said.

One of them pulled out a stainless steel semiautomatic 9 mm handgun, police said. The suspects entered the car and fled, police said.

The weird thing about this is that there were at least 50 people on the patio at Braza just across the street from where this happened all afternoon yesterday. Presumably celebrating “all the meat your Mother can eat” Day.

Man Beaten With Own Bike

Hey, the weather is great these days. Let’s go get some exercise and enjoy the neighborhood.

This happened on April 23 and I still think it’s both awful and awfully funny in a “I’m really crying inside” kind of way. It would have been downright hilarious if it had happened a day earlier–on Earth Day.

A 52-year-old man was beaten with his own bicycle Wednesday night during a robbery in Hartford, police said.

He was treated at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center for a serious head injury, police said.

Three suspects pushed the victim off his bike near Park Street and Francis Avenue and beat him with it, police said. They fled with the bike.

From the Courant.

Another Banner Weekend in Hartford

For those of you keeping track: Nine shot, one stabbled in crime-riddled Hartford weekend.

Add gas station robberies in Farmington and Newington to the one on Capitol Avenue last week, a block from the Spigot bar.

Update your scorecards.

Image courtesy of Luke Chueh.

Wham Bam Thank You, Ma’am

Because, you know, she was just asking for trouble by walking around at NOON in the West End of Hartford.

Police Investigating Theft Of Purse
October 10, 2006

A Hartford woman was robbed of her purse at gunpoint Monday as she was walking across a street in the West End, police said.Police said Shyela Martin, 22, was crossing the intersection of Evergreen Street and Warrenton Avenue shortly before noon when two men got out of a gold-colored vehicle and accosted her, police said. One man was carrying a handgun and the other a can of Mace, she told police.

They demanded her purse, which she dropped to the ground. The men grabbed the purse, got back in their car and drove away, police said.

Detectives of the major crimes division of the Hartford Police Department are investigating.

Snap! Crackle! Chomp!

Best thing we’ve read all day.

Man Charged With Assault, Stealing Food

July 12 2006EAST HARTFORD - — A local man who police said walked out of a supermarket with more than $400 worth of groceries he didn’t pay for and bit a security guard who stopped him was in custody Tuesday on $25,000 bail.

German E. Lopez, 37, of 171 Smith Drive, was charged with third-degree robbery, fifth-degree larceny, third-degree assault and breach of peace, police said.

According to police, a loss-prevention associate watched Lopez select 36 packs of chewing gum, one case of Coors Light beer, six bottles of Tide laundry detergent, hamburger meat and shrimp and walk past the cash registers without paying. When the worker approached him, he tried to flee and a struggle began.

He struck the guard with his elbows, kicked him and bit his left hand, police said. Both men fell to the floor.

At Lopez’s arraignment in Superior Court in Manchester, Judge Raymond Norko ordered him to “stay out of Stop & Shops” should he post bail. His case was continued to Aug. 11.

Lights Out

We read this article in the Courant last week, Three Guns Seized In City Traffic Stops , about Hartford’s newly launched Operation True North, which found three guns, ammo, and illegal fireworks in cars during motor vehicle stops over the July 4 weekend.

The thing that caught our eye in both reports was the fact that each car was stopped by police because they were driving without headlights:

“The first gun was seized about 12:20 a.m. Saturday, when police stopped a vehicle driven by Walter Samuels Jr., 36, of Hartford, in the vicinity of 154 Brook St. Police said Samuels was driving without headlights before officers searched the vehicle and recovered a loaded .40-caliber, semiautomatic handgun, three boxes of ammunition, three magazines loaded with ammunition, and an unspecified quantity of illegal fireworks.Soon after, about 12:50 a.m. Saturday, police stopped a vehicle driven by Phashawn Freeman, 17, of Hartford, in the vicinity of 55 Waverly St.

Police said Freeman had failed to turn on his headlights and was operating a motor vehicle without a license. After he stepped out of the vehicle, police said, the officers found a loaded .22-caliber revolver in his right front pocket. In addition, a .38-caliber revolver was found in the front seat of the vehicle, police said.”

Excellent work. If you’ve ever driven around Hartford at night, the streets are plagued with gangstas cruising around with no headlights. In fact, we almost got driven off the road by a speeding, darkened car under the highway underpass on Capitol Avenue a few weeks ago.
Not sure if the old urban legend is true–that it’s part of a gang initiation and if you flash your lights at them, you become the target to take down to pass–and we’re not about to tempt it.

Keep it up, Hartford police–get them in your sights and take them down.