Attacks In Midtown

This weekend saw a couple of assaults in my neighborhood:

Attacks unnerve residents

The first was on a residential block about two blocks from my house; the second was in front of a bar about 7 blocks away (a quick aside: I wouldn't describe Shady's as "near the Broad Street Market." I'm sure the management of the Market was un-psyched to see it pop up in this article; they need all the help they can get attracting visitors).

The article I linked to is a typical nearly-useless Patriot-News article, but it does have an interesting quote from Mayor-For-Life Reed:

"We aren't going to tolerate that crap," Reed said. "If we find them, we will arrest and prosecute them."

I am of two minds about our tough-talking mayor. On the one hand, I wonder if he gets this upset when kids get shot in Allison Hill, or only when people get beat up in the one neighborhood that can be pointed to as a New Urbanist success? In general I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he gets upset anytime someone gets assaulted; it's just that the Patriot-News doesn't bother going to him for a quote because they figure assaults in black neighborhoods don't sell papers.

On the other hand, I'm glad he's upset, and publicly, because THIS IS MY NEIGHBORHOOD. There was a roving gang of eight to ten hooligans beating people up, just a few blocks from my house! That is fucking scary. So, yeah, Steve, glad you're pissed. Now let's see the HPD do something about it.

[UPDATE 6/20}: The Penn Street crew (of which I am an auxilliary member) was out in full force last night, with about a dozen of us hanging out on the block for about three hours. We've been doing this since long before these recent attacks, but it seemed like an opportune time to re-convene.

While we were out, a patrol car came down the street, followed a few hours later by an officer on foot with a police dog (who also made an appearance up on Susquehanna, according to some friends up there). Then, right after I went in, a couple plainclothes in a van stopped by and mentioned that they had caught two of the kids:

2 Juveniles Arrested In Midtown Robberies

So, right on. A little increased police presence and at least two of these guys are in custody. Let's hope the police attnetion doesn't fade away, not just in Mindtown but throught the city.