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June 26, 2007

Why I don't live in Indiana anymore

VALPARAISO - Cow tipping is no longer in vogue among people my age in Indiana. Now thrills are to be had without going more than 20 feet beyond the scummy bar in town, the local paper reports:

Cops: Man plays 'chicken' with train, loses

Two men decided to play "chicken" with a train -- seeing how long they could remain on the rail the longest without getting hit -- but one of the men lost the game and his life, Valparaiso police said.

[Person], 23, of Valparaiso, was struck by a train at 12:01 a.m. Saturday on the railroad tracks behind the Franklin House bar at Campbell Street and Indiana Avenue.

The coroner's office said it appears he died of blunt force trauma.

...

Risner told police he jumped in front of a westbound train near Napoleon Street and was able to get out of its path in time, but [person] didn't move in time. Risner told police the train hit [person], knocking him into the air.

This bar was well-known to me as a kid because it was rumored that the bus drivers hung out at this bar between their morning and afternoon runs.

UPDATE: I received the following today through myspace:

... Patrick was my only sibling. I was back at his house asleep when he died. And he wasn't playing chicken with a train. He would have been under the train and we wouldn't have had a body. I held his body, his fully intact body. It nicked an artery in his neck. The snow plow that extends out over the train did. He was on his way to the bar. So, the police of course thought the only reasonable solition was to take the word of drunks...who they actually almost gave PI's too. Patrick and I [had] an ordinary brother and sister relationship. We were such good friends. The day they came to tell me he was gone. That I would never see my buddy, my baby boy ever again is and will always remain the worst day of my life. I'm not sure how I'll live everyday knowing the next will not include Patrick. I can only hope that people like you start making it a little easier by removing these harsh words from the internet. Patrick may have just been a story to you but to me he meant my whole world. My life will never go on the same again.

While I feel terribly for the family of the deceased, who lost a loved one in such a tragic way, I don't think that there's anything "harsh" in my posting an excerpt of a news story, as I often do. (I've not edited the original post in any way except to redact the name.) Regardless of the factual dispute the sister raises, the story is a tragic reminder of why (1) scummy bars ought to be avoided, (2) things that aren't funny when one is sober shouldn't be considered funny when one is drunk, and (3) trains are incredibly dangerous, even if one is just nicked by the cow-catcher. It's sad that people die to provide such reminders.

Posted by adrianjo at 07:22 PM

June 24, 2007

It's time to move

I was supposed to close on the purchase of my new condo on Friday, after 9 months of delays. It didn't happen, because the developers still don't have their stuff together. They're now so far behind schedule that one wonder if they'll ever get the building finished, and why it has taken so long.

Meanwhile the warm temperatures have brought a surge of violence in the neighborhood over the last three weeks. Start with last night. Within a 5 block radius of here, there were 6 shootings. From CBS:

Harlem Violence: 6 Shootings, 4 Blocks, 3 Hours

NEW YORK Harlem streets turned into a shooting gallery overnight as six men were wounded in four separate shootings.

The shootings happened within four blocks and three hours, but police say they don't appear to be related. All the victims are in stable condition.

The violence began with a double shooting at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue shortly after 10 p.m.

Within an hour, a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old had been shot in separate incidents on neighboring blocks on Lenox Avenue.

Then there was another double shooting shortly before 1:00 a.m. Sunday at 124th Street and 7th Avenue. Police say they've taken a suspect into custody in that shooting.

The worst part of all this is that the victims refuse to talk to police, part of the "stop snitching" mantra. Sometimes people in this community are their own worst enemies.

And a gun battle at a fried chicken joint overnight Friday:

A fistfight escalated into gunfire in Harlem early yesterday, leaving an MTA employee dead and the shooter wounded by police who intervened, officials and witnesses said.

The alleged gunman, Daniel Israel, 20, opened fire on Warren Dandridge, 26, a subway conductor from Staten Island, outside a chicken take-out restaurant near the intersection of East 110th Street and Fifth Avenue around 12:20 a.m., striking him in the abdomen, buttocks and ankle, police said.

Israel also fired at two of Dandridge's friends who ran to assist him, wounding one in the arm and grazing the other, police said. Two police officers assigned to a nearby housing project heard the gunshots as they approached in a van and saw Israel running from the scene, a police source said.

Both officers chased the suspect on foot for a short distance and fired at him, striking him once in the abdomen. A police source said that the suspect's gun discharged during the chase but that it was still being determined if he fired at the two officers. Dandridge was transported to St. Luke's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Dandridge was a subway conductor with the MTA's IRT division and had been on the job about 18 months, according to MTA officials. (Source)

Two weeks earlier there were shootings on the same corner of Lenox:

Four shot in Harlem shooting

(New York - WABC, June 10, 2007) - Police continue to hunt for the person who shot and injured four people in Harlem.

It happened Saturday night on Lenox Avenue between 126th Street and 127th Street.
The two men and two women were taken to Harlem Hospital and are all expected to survive.

So far, police say they have no suspects and no word on what sparked the shooting.

The shootings come a few days after seven people were left dead in a 24-hour cycle of violence in Brooklyn and Harlem. (Source)

And a few days before that, a shooting in the projects of Spanish Harlem. Notice how the news reports don't say that this is in the projects.

Double shooting in E. HarlemTwo men fatally shot

Two men were fatally shot outside an apartment complex in East Harlem this morning.

Eyewitness News has learned the victims -- ages 17 and 27 -- were both hit in front of 404 East 105th Street at 4:30 a.m.

Police say the 27-year-old man was shot numerous times, and the 17-year-old was shot once in the chest. They were both rushed to nearby hospitals and pronounced dead.

Witnesses tell police the suspects, as many as three men, were seen fleeing the scene on foot. No arrests were immediately made. (Source)

The good news is that these shootings are rarely random and usually stem from kerfuffles over drugs, lovers, or whatever. Still, isn't it time that I move?

Posted by adrianjo at 06:03 PM

June 16, 2007

New video: ants in the rain forest

Some of the things one comes across when taking a hike through the rain forest of Peru, as I did last weekend. I took the video below:

Posted by adrianjo at 10:21 PM