Friday, September 19, 2008

Another wild night, but with better aim

Yet another night of shootings and criminal activity.

Early in the evening you had the carjacking/car-chase/demolition derby thing running from the West Kimberly Walmart all the way downtown. The guy wanted out of Rock Island was caught. Maybe this will show some folks that a good way to catch bad guys is to chase them. Here's the Times article on that one.

Then after midnight there were a number of shots fired calls that may or may not have been real, including one officer's warning that some of these thugs have police scanners. At one point several officers heard shots fired, and the phone calls started coming in. When they arrived at the area of the shots, 10th and Grand, at a house referred to by the dispatcher as "the Howard house," they found 2 people shot. One officer said a shotgun may have been used. The QCTimes also has a small article about that one.

Then sometime between 3 and 4, there was some kind of incident on Division bear the Putnam. I heard about officers chasing people on foot, and then calling for Fire and Medic. Apparently a car had rolled over in the street near there. I was never quite sure what all was going on with that one, but one officer did report that one of the victims had run off.

This kind of publicity does untold damage to the image of Davenport, not to mention the quality of life of those living SoLo. It seems to all involve thug on thug violence, but since they're using guns, it endangers all of us. If we could somehow get them to fight their family/gang wars with swords and maces I'd almost endorse letting them fight it out at this point. Some of these folks just don't seem to understand that we're not living in a movie or video game.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least we know where the crime went after it left the 14th and Gaines St. area. The city was doing so well before this recent spree. We agree this bad publicity isn't good for the city, we'd rather read about upcoming concerts or cruises.
cruiser

QuadCityImages said...

I wouldn't say the trouble has left 14th and Gaines, because there were several calls for disturbances over there last night too, but the more violent shootout-tyoe stuff seems to have moved back east where it was years ago. One place I didn't hear much about this week was Goose Creek, so maybe at least one area is moving the right way.

Anonymous said...

Try a stabbing at the 700 block of W 63rd St, right in the middle of Goose Creek. It happened the same time of the shootings. Hats off to the alderman who support the slumlords that give these thugs a place to call home. Oops, time for a prozac!

Anonymous said...

Had to laugh at the comment from our new Davenport Police Chief that as long as you are home in bed you won't have any problems. Gee. Great. Maybe Malin should set up 2-3 a.m. for daily shoot outs. QCI can do the play by play from his box,Struckman can sweep by on his way to work and collect the casings and the Times can post the box scores: Hits, Misses,Almosts. First up Third Ward Bangers vs Third Ward Boomers.

Anonymous said...

The police are certainly out in full force on the one-ways through central Davenport. Unfortunately they are doing some over-enforcement in the process. A good friend of ours was picked up for going 5 miles over the limit simply because he drives an old car and he's black. The officer did decide not to issue a ticket for 5 miles over after being confronted that the stop was bogus but still our friend was hassled for no reason other than fitting a profile. I understand the need for catching these guys but if that's the case then just set up a road block and stop everyone using the streets for awhile rather than picking up poor & black.