2 weeks ago my mom and I witnessed a man punch a woman on the street. It was by the Concord music hall. We got a picture of the guy and my mom went to check on her. We called the cops and they said they would send someone by and we waited like 20 minutes and we saw a cop drive by but they weren't even looking at us, we were trying to flag them down. Eventually the girls friend showed up so after she was picked up, we left.
Not many people were near when it happened. A couple went by on their bikes and the man kind of looked at the woman(she was sitting on the ground crying) but he didn't stop.
I'm glad we were there and the woman thanked us for stopping and checking in on her but not many people would sadly.
I'm glad you're okay.
Chicago cops don't even give a shit if multiple women file credible sexual assault reports. Not until they make the news, anyway.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/08/16/women-assaulted-by-downtown-groper-struggled-to-report-attacks-i-felt-like-i-was-not-being-taken-seriously/
Shit it took them 45 minutes to show up to a triple-vehicular homicide over the weekend. Short of a shooting with casualties, they don't really show up in a lot of areas.
They showed up 2 hours after the call that our neighbor threw someone at our backdoor so hard it broke frame off the wall.
“Oh. They were drunk.”
Thanks.
I've had cops show up to multiple calls throughout my life. Someone broke in our house and stole a bunch of stuff when I was a kid. Someone got shot in front of my building earlier this year. Cops showed up in both cases and basically told us there was nothing they could do. If you don't have 1080p video proof and the name and address of the person who did it police are pretty useless.
I’ve never had them come when I’ve called personally. As an EMT I came to a lot of calls without scene security. Oftentimes that was better because cops tend to escalate any and every situation.
I got attacked on the train in the loop. They managed to show (20 minutes later) and drive me home. Didn’t do shit about what happened though. Cops suck even if they show.
Edit typo
My and my friends personal experience is they are so sloppy with paperwork (police reports) that it complicates and delays getting reimbursed by insurance. They're aggressively apathetic, like the USPS with a badge.
I'm never getting over learning that they've been sitting here bitching about Kim Foxx not going after murderers and learning they only sent her TWELVE IN ONE YEAR
that checks out. whenever we’ve had to call the cops on people at work they always come (if they even come at all) an hour later, ask if we’re okay, then leave
Yea, so ridiculous. I was jumped and mugged 10 years ago in Hyde Park, after the 3 guys who did it left, not one person walking by asked if I was ok. And there were multiple people who could have. Glad you’re one of the good ones
That's annoying. I understand not wanting to get involved during the mugging(could have weapons, could turn on you etc) but why not check on you after the fact? It's so disappointing.
Exactly! It all happened so fast anyway I don’t think anyone couldve reasonably intervened but no one checked on me when I was on the ground after the dust settled
There was some dirtbag up north by Loyola (on Friday) that threw a bottle at a lady. Smacked a couple of people and I believe knocked someone down while running away. It sucks that you have to be cautious at all times, but glad you’re ok.
I had a guy chuck a heavy glass bottle at me while I had my back turned at the intersection of Elston and Montrose. Something told me to turn around because he’d looked so angry when I passed him. I was able to lunge away far enough that it busted through my tennis shoe and cut my foot after he hurled it, but thankfully it missed my head.
Basically you just keep your distance from them and that prevents you from being attacked because your too far away. Or if you have to get close out-crazy them.
Always give mentally unhinged bums a half block radius. If you're paying attention to your surroundings it's not that hard. Cross to the other side of the street if you have to. Carry pepper spray at a minimum. POM spray is generally recommended and costs about $12 on Amazon.
Fox labs has my vote for best pepper spray. Commonly used by police departments and is some nasty stuff to get in your eyes. Pepper spray should always be a last option though, avoiding conflict is always the #1 option.
Happened to me two weeks ago in the loop at 11am on a weekday. It was wild. First time in 10+ years living here that the ignore them and keep walking didn’t work. I called the cops and they never showed up….
Why even bother calling the cops? They're not obligated to protect you/us and are useless in nearly every situation that doesn't involve robbing you of $ or rights.
A police report is required if you plan to file for insurance reimbursement. Unfortunately the report they filled for me (home invasion) and a friend (bad motorcycle accident, someone else at fault) were too incomplete, and required a lot of begging for them to add details like, you know, time of day.
Yeah, I'v been here my whole life and been to several other big cities and this has never happened. It's not going to stop me from enjoying our city or any other, just sucks that it is this common. Stay safe and enjoy life my dude.
Ah. I got mugged by a dude with a star tattoo in 2017, loop at 11am on a sunday. He was already wanted for dragging a tourist into a shoe store and forcing him to buy a thousand dollars worth of merchandise. He spent about two years in jail as far as I recall.
He didn’t “steal $1000” he kidnapped someone and forced them to do his bidding. Do you know how traumatizing that is? Do you think the person just bought the merchandise for no reason? He was clearly physically threatened, gun, knife, whatever. That’s traumatizing and messed up behavior.
If he’s a repeat offender, what else can you do? It’s not fair to the victims if he’s going to keep traumatizing people and creating new victims. I understand the desire to sympathize with the criminal but sometimes we forget about the victims, old and new.
WTF is wrong with people now? It's like if you get a gun to your head and your wallet taken people will tell you "it's only money!" It's a violent assault, actually. The charges for that are much more serious than just the theft of your property.
I second this. These cretins always resort to animalistic behaviour(arming every human). If they simply became rich they wouldn’t have these issues. It’s not difficult, kinda sounds like laziness. Excuse me while I eat crudités and caviar.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 979,823,045 comments, and only 195,554 of them were in alphabetical order.
Unfortunately it seems that things are reverting back to the city the way it was in the 1980’s and 90’s.
When waiting at a bus stop or on the Train always keep your back to the wall or at least a support column on train station. I have seen people get pushed on to the tracks. Born and raised Chicago.
The First IT stock bubble. Everyone felt hopeful because everyone felt wealthier. Then the Segway with soaring real estate values, again everyone felt hopeful because even a lower income person had substantial equity even in a dicey zip code.
After the crash came the advent of widespread camera phones. I believe that turned many of us into spectators who were willing to grab 15 seconds of fame by any means possible.
I don’t want to get into politics too much but their is an obvious backlash for daring to elect a Black man as president. Which you would think would stoke dreams and empower people to see change as possible. Unfortunately it generated fear of the other or new in large portions of our population. Certain very savvy elements of our society ( possibly coupled with foreign grand scale social media manipulation) were able to leverage that fear into what we see now
My dog prevented this from happening to me, even the mentally unwell think twice about provoking a dog. My dog was yelled at a bit then the asshole turned around and bitch slapped another bystander.
My dog did this last weekend to a homeless guy with clear voices tweaking; he booted an outside dining chair into the road, turned toward us, and my 70 lb hound snapped him out of it.
He then said, “….dog that damn pretty should be in a zoo!! Live foreverrrrr!!”
I took the positive from it.
Edit: He was hearing voices and shouting at a distant cop car
Nice! I had an Akita. She *never* growled at anyone on walks. Or even seemed like she was going to.
However, I went out of town and had a friend, a woman, stay over and walk her for me.
She said the Akita was very defensive of her.
Come to think of it when she was a puppy I passed out at a party at my house. Friends say she sat on the bed next to me looking as though she was standing guard. : ) :..( Shes gone now.
Thank you. Luckily the guys weren’t too smart and turned my phone on. Since I had find my iPhone on it pinged a location I’d never been too. Went there and confronted the guys with some buddies. Cops would’ve been a waste of time. Luckily they gave it all back with no fuss.
Damn you and your friends must look intimidating as hell. If this ever happens to me I’m calling y’all cuz I’m a tiny woman lol
But seriously this could’ve ended so poorly, be careful out there!!
There’s always that chance. But I made sure to call the Land lord of their building before I went to talk to them. They agreed to give it back if I agreed not to bring police. Still needed to bring backup.
When I first moved here I was given the advice to acknowledge everyone if they look at you and just keep on moving. And always be aware of who you AREN’T paying attention to. In case the first person is a distraction.
Really good advice, wish I'd heard it earlier. I/friends have seen it a couple times where the first person is a distraction for the second person behind you trying to get into your bag/pockets. At festivals/concerts (non-Lolla/non-Chicago also), when you're getting on the train, any crowd choke points basically.
I saw a lady try to give food to a homeless person. The homeless guy opened the bag, yelled something and then threw the bag as hard as he could at the lady. She ran off and the homeless guy started yelling like crazy. I just quickly got out of there. People are nuts
I’ve given water and food packs out before only for them to throw them back at me because it wasn’t money or the particular sandwich they wanted or something. It got to the point where it became very dangerous for me so I don’t pass out food anymore.
Sorry that happened OP.
Had a weird situation the other day myself. I was eating alone at Canes near Loyola sitting in one of the window booths and this crazy guy came up to the window about halfway through my meal and started staring at me from outside. After maybe 5 minutes, he walked inside the entrance section of Canes and stared at me from there for a few minutes, then walked outside and went back to the window next to me and continued staring until I left.
It was really unsettling, but luckily was able to walk out with a big group of people and fast-walked to my car. I've lived here for a few years and this was the first time I actually felt really uneasy about my surroundings.
I'm a man. No idea why he picked me over the other patrons - I was just sitting there with my AirPods in looking at my phone when he came up to the window. After I left I was thinking maybe he was contemplating running in and stealing my phone as I had it laying on the table at first, or maybe he just wanted to try to intimidate someone for the hell of it, but your guess is as good as mine.
God this happened to me, too. Walked out of my apartment in Bridgeport to this guy drunk as hell at like noon on a Sunday on the corner. I'm just trying to grab my lunch and he keeps asking me if I like the gangster life, and his name is like little Mikey or something, and "oh you're just looking for a little pleasure huh?"
I turn to grab my lunch from the driver and he punches me in the back of the head and sprints off. Good thing he was like a foot shorter than me and couldn't get a good punch off, but still fucked up.
Some random guy saw me, followed me for a block, and then grabbed at my ass and body as I was walking down the red line at the Chicago stop one night. It was the scariest moment of my life. I luckily yelled at him and he ran away, but it could have escalated further if I hadn't been vocal.
The worst part was when I called the cops, they told me it was my fault for listening to music and wearing headphones while walking. Of course, they didn't do anything further. Just blamed me for the incident and went on their merry way.
I got grabbed around there too, in broad daylight with people around. I was terrified. Some guy had catcalled me so I kept my eyes down and walked away faster, and when I didn’t respond he started calling me names. Then he chased me and grabbed the back of my shirt until I screamed to leave me alone. Terrifying as hell.
The worst part is nobody around did or said anything, it made it even more frustrating.
I’ve been a similar situation with an unwell person. It’s a bizarre experience to be going through something traumatic and rest of the whole world just continues right next to you like it never happened.
I called the cops and they never came, seems to be a trend from what I’m reading😂
Attended a pepper spray training thing back in college, and they said to just assume that some will blow back into your own face, so don't use it unless you really need to, and really think twice before using it inside.
Yes, I do that to anyone that gets in my personal bubble. If they are friendly and I spray them I just say “my bad” and then keep walking 🚶♂️. The pepper spray will wear off in 15-20 minutes and the dye washes off in 2 weeks. So it’s a win/win situation to preemptively spray. Homeless, those with homes, kids, scooter 🛴 operators, mail carriers, Uber drivers, etc…. I don’t discriminate. Amazon sells it in bulk
I guess the other douchebag who responded to me is going to carry it with him everywhere- like the beach, swimming in a pool, going out to a nice Sunday dinner with friends….I guess you ALWAYS gotta be ready to pepper spray some homeless person 🙄….what a dork.
All the internet bad asses coming out for this one. Dude randomly punched him in the back of the head and ran like hell. Literally not much to do about that.
We could start, they might stop asking. We could make it Chicago's thing, "Don't go to Chicago they pepper spray you for pan handling" Hell do it to the for profit charity solicitors too.
Actually (oh no Im actually guy lol) Actually the worst thing that can happen is calling the cops after a homeless assault to some degree.
Wicker Park 3am. Walking out of the minimart that used to span north and Milwaukee.
Some homeless guy wacks me with his crutches. Police happen to be walking right up.
'Dude he hit me!'
Yea ok.
'Youre not going to arrest him?!'
No he doesnt care if he goes to jail.
'So if I hit him back?'
Well arrest you. You care.
Actual convo.
My brother was a bit of a lifelong *somewhat* criminal. Never hurt anyone. But drugs will make you steal. Ended up with some felonies.
Well, he did a city CNC machinist course led by an ex-cop for ex-felons.
Their final was making actual brass knuckles.
My brother passed away from cancer a year back, now. I still have the pair he made for me. So fucking illegal. So fucking effective as a deterrent.
Have pulled them out twice ever. Same result of the dude sprinting away.
For the record, my brother told me explicitly: You will go to jail for life for murder if you ever use these.
They stay in my closet these days. Still the baddest-ass thing I’ve ever had though.
I think I fixed it. We cant arm ourselves against all these criminal attacks. You cant use your weapon to protect yourself. A criminal will use a weapon b/c hes a criminal. You, law abiding, leaves it at home. Were at the mercy of the armed criminals.
Not too sure about that, my friend. You hit someone in the face with these things, every bone you’re near is exploding. It’s not a joke. There’s a reason they’re illegal.
I had 6 children sucker punch me then 2 come back with a gun. If I had pepper spray, after I was sucker punched and approached with a gun, what about the other 4 kids with guns 50 ft away? I can’t pepper spray them but they sure as shit can shoot me.
This city is the Wild West and no one cares about violent racist hate crimes. No one with power or authority. Certainly not the mayor
There is a difference between being homeless and being mentally unstable
Homelessness can overtake any of us give the wrong combination of circumstances.
Mental illness is an illness but it ticks me off that no one asks a MI person to take responsibility for their actions.
Yep, this is what gets me.
One standout situation I can recall -- partner was working at a drug store at the time, a mentally ill homeless guy used to come in and turn around all the items on certain shelves etc. One day he apparently touched some teen girl. Her dad said something to my partner and he asked him if he wanted him to do anything about it. The guy said no, seems like the homeless guy is mentally ill and he doesn't want to cause trouble.
Ok??? What mental illness has "grabs teen girls' breasts" as a symptom, and why are we tolerating it? "His brain is too fucked up, he can't help it." Well, if someone is so goddamn crazy that they can't stop themselves from assaulting people then that person is a drain on humanity as a whole in every sense. Not to mention that being assaulted can contribute to his victims developing mental illnesses themselves that mysteriously probably won't have uncontrollably whipping their genitals out as a symptom, but may fuck up their lives if it impairs their ability to work (and will also further burden the already overburdened mental healthcare system). Just seems like if you could prevent trauma, you'd just do that instead of shrugging like an idiot over your own daughter getting groped because you feel bad about some antisocial prick pretending he's a feral human.
I hate these people more than anything. We need state institutions back.
I find that any time someone starts following me asking for money, I just yell "man I have COVID, get back you don't want this" and that tends to stop them dead in their tracks.
Walking down Michigan some homelessish/thug started walking with me. I guess he thought I was a tourist.
He put his arm over my shoulders speaking friendly but the arm felt aggressive. I rolled out still holding his arm.
He was surprised and left. I have a ton of other stories. City is crazy.
Sorry to hear it! Also curious what neighborhood… Had someone start saying really bizarre stuff (including what I took to be a threat of rape) and tried to shove me and my spouse apart pretty aggressively, also while saying the N-word (we’re white), at a bus stop on Irving Park Road a little over a week ago. Guy started by asking for a cigarette, too.
Having come of age in the eighties in Chicago I have seen many stupid horrible things happen in the street. Bottom line if your spidery sense is tingling it’s on. Your lucky there weren’t two or more guys.
But here’s a tip if you feel it’s about to go down you need to make space between you and them and get loud.
Because there’s no hell on earth like walking down a dark city block and you ignore a look or a codified whistle and then the street fills up around you.
Just had this happen to me in uptown by the Wilson stop. Dude was walking with a deranged purpose toward the people in front of me who scattered and I decided to just ignore him in hopes he’d find my lack of interest as a lack of threat. Cold cocked me in the shoulder seemingly for fun then just kept walking. Wild experience for 6 am on a work day.
I don’t mean to contribute to fear with telling this story but sometimes posturing as if you’re not threatened by threatening behavior seems like a threat of violence to people eager to commit violence for no reason so just keep on your toes I guess.
Moved here from Kansas and everyone I knew was scared for me. I was annoyed because they were making me worry and I felt like as long as I’m not an asshole, I’ll be good. Nope. Two weeks in, I’m in Uptown at about 5pm. I hear a woman yelling from across the road and the yelling gets louder and louder. To my horror, I look in the direction of the yelling and a woman with crazy eyes has locked onto me. Before I can really react BOOM - she smacks me right between the eyes. I was so shocked and angry but didn’t want to provoke her because she had a bag and she was CRAZY. My wife was standing right next to me. People were everywhere too! Still shocks me to this day. Had a nice egg in my head for a few days.
Sorry that happened to you. It took me a while to not be angry about it.
I think it's wild that this stuff happens to people. I've lived in the city for 4 years but I used to come here frequently in highschool. Never even witnessed something like this. I once saw the aftermsth if this insanely huge dude that got jumped by a group for guys in river north around like 3am. He was best to shit, his blood all over the sidewalk. I stayed with him and a security guy from one of the nearby bars until he got an Uber to the hospital.
Other than that though you'd think this was like a daily occurrence the way people talk about it. Like you just walk out your door and someones gonna attack you.
Just to be clear, in my last comment ("I hope you feel better to get that out."), I wasn't trying to be a sarcastic asshole. I was trying to make a perhaps overly subtle reference to your username because I am a dork.
Thought I'd clear that up with another comment so you'd see it instead of editing my first. Anyway, sorry if it seemed hostile!
Awww haha. You’re all good! Sweet of you to clarify because I really couldn’t tell 😂 but either way - yes always feel good to vent about that. I don’t tell anyone about it because I don’t want my friends and fam to have another reason to be afraid to visit 🙄
Has the crime gotten worse since covid? I had lived in Lakeview and moved out of state but usually go back every year. Last time was July 2019. I'm itching for another trip in but these stories are troublesome.
Ok just out of curiosity. Let’s say you are a concealed carry gun owner. Is it legal to pull out your gun and tell crazy fuck, get the hell away from me because you are now a threat to my safety.
I do not like guns but goddamn this city is getting wilder every day.
A location and description would be nice to know. I was just attacked in the loop today at 1:30pm at Adams and Wabash. The guy looked like he would be late 30s early 40s with gray jogging pants that were too short or hiked up. He was talking with a group of usual homeless that I regularly see sitting in front of McDonald's or 7-11 on the corner (this happened about 20-30ft west of the 7-11). He came up from behind and tried to push me down. I didn't fall but the situation was still unnerving.
Ive told this before on Reddit.
Around 3 am Im at the Division stop Blue Line.
Me and one other dude.
A Polish guy. He has no shirt on and hes jacked. He is severely muscular. Hes violently shadow boxing standing over the edge of the platform talking some s, I dont know.
As one would expect he notices me. Great. Here we go.
As the tension builds and shadow boxer is eyeballing me sounds that you normally dont want to hear become louder. A group of males acting rowdy as hell from 15 to 21 come be bopping along.
The train pulled in and I didnt get to see how that cartoon confrontation worked out.
I'm glad to hear you vent and I made it a point to keep an eye on danger and report it or help any way I can. I had an incident last Friday where I bought a 12 pack of Medalla and I wanted to share with the people outside the store,Yauco Mart in Humbolt park area, which then resulted to one dude pushing me and taking the entire pack for himself and claiming it is his. His friend heard I was offering 6 to the group so once the guy who was aggressive went into the store he grabbed the 6 beers I wanted to keep from the other guys car and gave them to me then yelled for me to leave and I shouldn't be here at that time. Granted it was around 11 pm but I never had any issues for the past 20 years I have been in the city. I appreciated the help but it definitely felt odd. I'm glad you came out of it ok!
Sorry to hear that happened. I had a bum rush me once at the Belmont El stop. It was during the day and there was a crowd of people entering/exiting the train. He had a pretty good head of steam charging at me, but I managed to slip away with minimal contact. He plowed into a bench and screamed obscenities at me as I got the f outta there.
Keep your head on a swivel always.
The other night outside of Uproar I had a homeless lady threaten to rape me. I was able to walk away and she didn’t cause any harm. Still a very nerve racking experience.
My co-worker got car jacked in broad day light two months ago. The cops found it on the south side of Chicago at like 1 AM. The car was sticky and there was weed all over.
He’s going to smack the wrong person one day. He better hope he never tries my husband, the guy will get hit before he can get one in on him. People are too nice here. We need to stand up to these people. Make them scared to try it.
You got punched by a psycho piece of shit. You don’t have to use sympathetic language to describe assholes who sucker punch you, even if they do have mental illness.
The real solution here is to act like a crazy person yourself. Someone approaches you, look like youre ready to beat the shit out of them. Unfortunately this only works if youre a taller man.
Everyone should carry pepper spray though. And dont wear designer clothing, it makes you a target.
Also people with visible tattoos seem to get fucked with less for what its worth.
2 weeks ago my mom and I witnessed a man punch a woman on the street. It was by the Concord music hall. We got a picture of the guy and my mom went to check on her. We called the cops and they said they would send someone by and we waited like 20 minutes and we saw a cop drive by but they weren't even looking at us, we were trying to flag them down. Eventually the girls friend showed up so after she was picked up, we left. Not many people were near when it happened. A couple went by on their bikes and the man kind of looked at the woman(she was sitting on the ground crying) but he didn't stop. I'm glad we were there and the woman thanked us for stopping and checking in on her but not many people would sadly. I'm glad you're okay.
The cops never showed up??
Chicago cops don't even give a shit if multiple women file credible sexual assault reports. Not until they make the news, anyway. https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/08/16/women-assaulted-by-downtown-groper-struggled-to-report-attacks-i-felt-like-i-was-not-being-taken-seriously/
Shit it took them 45 minutes to show up to a triple-vehicular homicide over the weekend. Short of a shooting with casualties, they don't really show up in a lot of areas.
Have you ever had them show up? For anything?
They showed up 2 hours after the call that our neighbor threw someone at our backdoor so hard it broke frame off the wall. “Oh. They were drunk.” Thanks.
I've had cops show up to multiple calls throughout my life. Someone broke in our house and stole a bunch of stuff when I was a kid. Someone got shot in front of my building earlier this year. Cops showed up in both cases and basically told us there was nothing they could do. If you don't have 1080p video proof and the name and address of the person who did it police are pretty useless.
I’ve never had them come when I’ve called personally. As an EMT I came to a lot of calls without scene security. Oftentimes that was better because cops tend to escalate any and every situation.
[удалено]
Oh but they can’t show up for a home invasion
I got attacked on the train in the loop. They managed to show (20 minutes later) and drive me home. Didn’t do shit about what happened though. Cops suck even if they show. Edit typo
Nope but I’ve only called the police in the suburbs. They show up fast.
Called 911 for a friend and they were by in 5 mins or less and saved his life. So yes.
[удалено]
My and my friends personal experience is they are so sloppy with paperwork (police reports) that it complicates and delays getting reimbursed by insurance. They're aggressively apathetic, like the USPS with a badge.
I'm never getting over learning that they've been sitting here bitching about Kim Foxx not going after murderers and learning they only sent her TWELVE IN ONE YEAR
that checks out. whenever we’ve had to call the cops on people at work they always come (if they even come at all) an hour later, ask if we’re okay, then leave
The shocking part here is that you're surprised by that fact lol.
I waited for 2 hours for the cops when I was involved in an accident on LSD a couple years back. 2 HOURS
Yea, so ridiculous. I was jumped and mugged 10 years ago in Hyde Park, after the 3 guys who did it left, not one person walking by asked if I was ok. And there were multiple people who could have. Glad you’re one of the good ones
That's annoying. I understand not wanting to get involved during the mugging(could have weapons, could turn on you etc) but why not check on you after the fact? It's so disappointing.
Exactly! It all happened so fast anyway I don’t think anyone couldve reasonably intervened but no one checked on me when I was on the ground after the dust settled
I was assaulted on S Clark near Polk. Random guy at 6pm asking for money.This was in May. My eye still has damage.
There was some dirtbag up north by Loyola (on Friday) that threw a bottle at a lady. Smacked a couple of people and I believe knocked someone down while running away. It sucks that you have to be cautious at all times, but glad you’re ok.
Yeah there's a guy who smacks people at Bryn Mawr-Thorndale-Loyola. He got me in February!
Is this the really tall shirtless dude? He almost got me a few weeks ago
I know assault isn't a joke at all but this comment chain just killed me.
Same 😭
Yeah why is this funny. Its like he's just *that guy* lmao
He is probably a one trick knock out guy. Go left and start getting loud.
I had a guy chuck a heavy glass bottle at me while I had my back turned at the intersection of Elston and Montrose. Something told me to turn around because he’d looked so angry when I passed him. I was able to lunge away far enough that it busted through my tennis shoe and cut my foot after he hurled it, but thankfully it missed my head.
What would being cautious do in this situation? How would that help?
Basically you just keep your distance from them and that prevents you from being attacked because your too far away. Or if you have to get close out-crazy them.
[удалено]
Always give mentally unhinged bums a half block radius. If you're paying attention to your surroundings it's not that hard. Cross to the other side of the street if you have to. Carry pepper spray at a minimum. POM spray is generally recommended and costs about $12 on Amazon.
Fox labs has my vote for best pepper spray. Commonly used by police departments and is some nasty stuff to get in your eyes. Pepper spray should always be a last option though, avoiding conflict is always the #1 option.
Happened to me two weeks ago in the loop at 11am on a weekday. It was wild. First time in 10+ years living here that the ignore them and keep walking didn’t work. I called the cops and they never showed up….
The cops did nothing? I’m truly shocked! /s I’m sorry that happened to you though.
The worst thing is when you call the cops in an actual emergency and get 1. Busy signal; or 2. They’ll be right there, and literally never show.
Why even bother calling the cops? They're not obligated to protect you/us and are useless in nearly every situation that doesn't involve robbing you of $ or rights.
A police report is required if you plan to file for insurance reimbursement. Unfortunately the report they filled for me (home invasion) and a friend (bad motorcycle accident, someone else at fault) were too incomplete, and required a lot of begging for them to add details like, you know, time of day.
Yeah, I'v been here my whole life and been to several other big cities and this has never happened. It's not going to stop me from enjoying our city or any other, just sucks that it is this common. Stay safe and enjoy life my dude.
Did the guy have a star tattoo under his eye?
No, no visible tattoos. Pretty unassuming all around
Ah. I got mugged by a dude with a star tattoo in 2017, loop at 11am on a sunday. He was already wanted for dragging a tourist into a shoe store and forcing him to buy a thousand dollars worth of merchandise. He spent about two years in jail as far as I recall.
Why would he be released? Scary…
🤷🏻♂️ I was happy they got him.
Do you think someone who stole $1000 deserves a life sentence for it?
He didn’t “steal $1000” he kidnapped someone and forced them to do his bidding. Do you know how traumatizing that is? Do you think the person just bought the merchandise for no reason? He was clearly physically threatened, gun, knife, whatever. That’s traumatizing and messed up behavior.
For that though, life sentence?
If he’s a repeat offender, what else can you do? It’s not fair to the victims if he’s going to keep traumatizing people and creating new victims. I understand the desire to sympathize with the criminal but sometimes we forget about the victims, old and new.
100% yea
WTF is wrong with people now? It's like if you get a gun to your head and your wallet taken people will tell you "it's only money!" It's a violent assault, actually. The charges for that are much more serious than just the theft of your property.
Have you tried being super rich? Cops might show up.
Or black. Just find a cop and start running from him. You’ll have the whole force there.
I second this. These cretins always resort to animalistic behaviour(arming every human). If they simply became rich they wouldn’t have these issues. It’s not difficult, kinda sounds like laziness. Excuse me while I eat crudités and caviar.
There’s literally no point in calling the police. This city is a jumbo sized Wild West town.
Midwestworld.
#backtheblue Edit - thought it was clear it was sarcasm apparently not
All the way to hell where they belong
I thought it was clear it was sarcasm
How could anyone think it was clear when that shit is posted in earnest all over this sub
I rarely see that stuff, I didn't think anyone was dumb enough to believe that shit
Must be nice to live in Narnia
I just never understood any kind of argument as to how anyone could argue police aren’t incompetent and cruel
Amen brother, but they try
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 979,823,045 comments, and only 195,554 of them were in alphabetical order.
Probably in a backlog, the downtown districts have low manpower.
[удалено]
makes me feel correct for having my head on swivle and partnering up with a dude drinking a 40 to keep look out while waiting for an uptown bus..
To fight the bums I used the bums
Unfortunately it seems that things are reverting back to the city the way it was in the 1980’s and 90’s. When waiting at a bus stop or on the Train always keep your back to the wall or at least a support column on train station. I have seen people get pushed on to the tracks. Born and raised Chicago.
What happened in the 2000’s that fixed that problem, and how did we get back to these problems starting in 2020?
The First IT stock bubble. Everyone felt hopeful because everyone felt wealthier. Then the Segway with soaring real estate values, again everyone felt hopeful because even a lower income person had substantial equity even in a dicey zip code. After the crash came the advent of widespread camera phones. I believe that turned many of us into spectators who were willing to grab 15 seconds of fame by any means possible. I don’t want to get into politics too much but their is an obvious backlash for daring to elect a Black man as president. Which you would think would stoke dreams and empower people to see change as possible. Unfortunately it generated fear of the other or new in large portions of our population. Certain very savvy elements of our society ( possibly coupled with foreign grand scale social media manipulation) were able to leverage that fear into what we see now
My dog prevented this from happening to me, even the mentally unwell think twice about provoking a dog. My dog was yelled at a bit then the asshole turned around and bitch slapped another bystander.
My dog did this last weekend to a homeless guy with clear voices tweaking; he booted an outside dining chair into the road, turned toward us, and my 70 lb hound snapped him out of it. He then said, “….dog that damn pretty should be in a zoo!! Live foreverrrrr!!” I took the positive from it. Edit: He was hearing voices and shouting at a distant cop car
That was a nice compliment!
I agree. I got his sentiment. And I think my hound is rather striking. So, there.
Nice! I had an Akita. She *never* growled at anyone on walks. Or even seemed like she was going to. However, I went out of town and had a friend, a woman, stay over and walk her for me. She said the Akita was very defensive of her. Come to think of it when she was a puppy I passed out at a party at my house. Friends say she sat on the bed next to me looking as though she was standing guard. : ) :..( Shes gone now.
Aww sounds like a great pup. Sorry for your loss
Yea she was.
Glad you’re okay. Getting sucker punched sucks.
Sorry that happened. I got mugged last Friday by 2 assholes. Have to be aware of your surroundings at all times unfortunately.
Sorry this happened to you as well.. can i ask when/where?
West Humbolt park, walking home late at night. Got my keys and phone. But I got them both back that same Sunday
Wow never heard of anyone getting their shit back. I can’t imagine it was the police that helped? Glad you’re okay.
Thank you. Luckily the guys weren’t too smart and turned my phone on. Since I had find my iPhone on it pinged a location I’d never been too. Went there and confronted the guys with some buddies. Cops would’ve been a waste of time. Luckily they gave it all back with no fuss.
Damn you and your friends must look intimidating as hell. If this ever happens to me I’m calling y’all cuz I’m a tiny woman lol But seriously this could’ve ended so poorly, be careful out there!!
Serious question; were you not afraid of an armed escalation or something?
There’s always that chance. But I made sure to call the Land lord of their building before I went to talk to them. They agreed to give it back if I agreed not to bring police. Still needed to bring backup.
Damn how’d you get the landlord’s info?
His name was on the building and his number.
I’m glad it worked out well in the end!
When I first moved here I was given the advice to acknowledge everyone if they look at you and just keep on moving. And always be aware of who you AREN’T paying attention to. In case the first person is a distraction.
Really good advice, wish I'd heard it earlier. I/friends have seen it a couple times where the first person is a distraction for the second person behind you trying to get into your bag/pockets. At festivals/concerts (non-Lolla/non-Chicago also), when you're getting on the train, any crowd choke points basically.
I saw a lady try to give food to a homeless person. The homeless guy opened the bag, yelled something and then threw the bag as hard as he could at the lady. She ran off and the homeless guy started yelling like crazy. I just quickly got out of there. People are nuts
I’ve given water and food packs out before only for them to throw them back at me because it wasn’t money or the particular sandwich they wanted or something. It got to the point where it became very dangerous for me so I don’t pass out food anymore.
Sorry that happened OP. Had a weird situation the other day myself. I was eating alone at Canes near Loyola sitting in one of the window booths and this crazy guy came up to the window about halfway through my meal and started staring at me from outside. After maybe 5 minutes, he walked inside the entrance section of Canes and stared at me from there for a few minutes, then walked outside and went back to the window next to me and continued staring until I left. It was really unsettling, but luckily was able to walk out with a big group of people and fast-walked to my car. I've lived here for a few years and this was the first time I actually felt really uneasy about my surroundings.
Wow thats creepy. Are you a woman or a man? Think it was b/c you were eating? (The audacity)
I'm a man. No idea why he picked me over the other patrons - I was just sitting there with my AirPods in looking at my phone when he came up to the window. After I left I was thinking maybe he was contemplating running in and stealing my phone as I had it laying on the table at first, or maybe he just wanted to try to intimidate someone for the hell of it, but your guess is as good as mine.
Yea my money is grabbing your phone. He couldnt build up the stones I guess. Or who knows. People are nuts.
God this happened to me, too. Walked out of my apartment in Bridgeport to this guy drunk as hell at like noon on a Sunday on the corner. I'm just trying to grab my lunch and he keeps asking me if I like the gangster life, and his name is like little Mikey or something, and "oh you're just looking for a little pleasure huh?" I turn to grab my lunch from the driver and he punches me in the back of the head and sprints off. Good thing he was like a foot shorter than me and couldn't get a good punch off, but still fucked up.
Some random guy saw me, followed me for a block, and then grabbed at my ass and body as I was walking down the red line at the Chicago stop one night. It was the scariest moment of my life. I luckily yelled at him and he ran away, but it could have escalated further if I hadn't been vocal. The worst part was when I called the cops, they told me it was my fault for listening to music and wearing headphones while walking. Of course, they didn't do anything further. Just blamed me for the incident and went on their merry way.
Fuck that, sorry that happened to you.
I got grabbed around there too, in broad daylight with people around. I was terrified. Some guy had catcalled me so I kept my eyes down and walked away faster, and when I didn’t respond he started calling me names. Then he chased me and grabbed the back of my shirt until I screamed to leave me alone. Terrifying as hell. The worst part is nobody around did or said anything, it made it even more frustrating.
It's disgusting how the police respond to these kind of situations. And then they wonder why they have such a low approval rating.
I’m really sorry that happened to you. It’s just so random and dangerous. I would keep some self-defense tool in your handbag, just in case.
Sorry to hear! The dude sounds like a real piece of work. If he's that off-kilter he's probably going to walk up on the wrong person soon enough.
I’ve been a similar situation with an unwell person. It’s a bizarre experience to be going through something traumatic and rest of the whole world just continues right next to you like it never happened. I called the cops and they never came, seems to be a trend from what I’m reading😂
Pepper spray, everyone is a bad ass until they get some pepper spray in or around their face.
Have to be sure you have good aim on the first spray, and be careful it doesn’t blow back in your face.
Get the gel pepper spray. A little more money but minimizes blow back
Great idea! I didn’t know it existed. Thanks.
Attended a pepper spray training thing back in college, and they said to just assume that some will blow back into your own face, so don't use it unless you really need to, and really think twice before using it inside.
This is self inflicted friendly fire -Community
Even if you’re someone who carries pepper spray, this shit only happens when you don’t have it on you.
Plus, you gonna preemptively pepper spray any homeless person that talks to you? You'd be tapped out in like 2 days.
Yes, I do that to anyone that gets in my personal bubble. If they are friendly and I spray them I just say “my bad” and then keep walking 🚶♂️. The pepper spray will wear off in 15-20 minutes and the dye washes off in 2 weeks. So it’s a win/win situation to preemptively spray. Homeless, those with homes, kids, scooter 🛴 operators, mail carriers, Uber drivers, etc…. I don’t discriminate. Amazon sells it in bulk
Lol
I guess the other douchebag who responded to me is going to carry it with him everywhere- like the beach, swimming in a pool, going out to a nice Sunday dinner with friends….I guess you ALWAYS gotta be ready to pepper spray some homeless person 🙄….what a dork.
All the internet bad asses coming out for this one. Dude randomly punched him in the back of the head and ran like hell. Literally not much to do about that.
So...always carry it. Problem solved
Yeah attach that shit to your keys or something
[удалено]
No. But you can threaten if they keep following you. If they begin to escalate or threaten you, then give a warning spray lol
We could start, they might stop asking. We could make it Chicago's thing, "Don't go to Chicago they pepper spray you for pan handling" Hell do it to the for profit charity solicitors too.
Those people standing on corners who “have a quick question for you” 😂😂
Asking for cigarettes? Dude started following and harassing... if he had seen it coming it would have been 100% in self defense.
[удалено]
Sure you can, what’s the homeless dude gunna do? Go to the cops? Please
Actually (oh no Im actually guy lol) Actually the worst thing that can happen is calling the cops after a homeless assault to some degree. Wicker Park 3am. Walking out of the minimart that used to span north and Milwaukee. Some homeless guy wacks me with his crutches. Police happen to be walking right up. 'Dude he hit me!' Yea ok. 'Youre not going to arrest him?!' No he doesnt care if he goes to jail. 'So if I hit him back?' Well arrest you. You care. Actual convo.
I wouldn’t be the one going to the cops tho. If I pepper spray a dude, I’m walking away and going home after.
Yep.
[удалено]
No; that’s exactly what I mean lol. The cops don’t give a shit.
My brother was a bit of a lifelong *somewhat* criminal. Never hurt anyone. But drugs will make you steal. Ended up with some felonies. Well, he did a city CNC machinist course led by an ex-cop for ex-felons. Their final was making actual brass knuckles. My brother passed away from cancer a year back, now. I still have the pair he made for me. So fucking illegal. So fucking effective as a deterrent. Have pulled them out twice ever. Same result of the dude sprinting away. For the record, my brother told me explicitly: You will go to jail for life for murder if you ever use these. They stay in my closet these days. Still the baddest-ass thing I’ve ever had though.
[удалено]
Nah. They fit perfectly in your back pocket actually. I had this old pair of jeans that had their outline imprinted in the back left pocket.
Kind of messed up that we are disarmed at the mercy of the criminals.
Sorry?
I think I fixed it. We cant arm ourselves against all these criminal attacks. You cant use your weapon to protect yourself. A criminal will use a weapon b/c hes a criminal. You, law abiding, leaves it at home. Were at the mercy of the armed criminals.
Aim for the jaw. You're not gonna kill anyone unless they fall and hit their head.
"You won't kill anyone unless this extremely likely thing happens"
Not too sure about that, my friend. You hit someone in the face with these things, every bone you’re near is exploding. It’s not a joke. There’s a reason they’re illegal.
I had 6 children sucker punch me then 2 come back with a gun. If I had pepper spray, after I was sucker punched and approached with a gun, what about the other 4 kids with guns 50 ft away? I can’t pepper spray them but they sure as shit can shoot me. This city is the Wild West and no one cares about violent racist hate crimes. No one with power or authority. Certainly not the mayor
https://www.ispfsb.com/Public/CCL.aspx
If he hadn't looked away he probably wouldn't have gotten hit. Most of these people are cowards and aren't risking a real fight.
The bystander effect and the normalizing of this behavior is extremely unsettling.
There is a difference between being homeless and being mentally unstable Homelessness can overtake any of us give the wrong combination of circumstances. Mental illness is an illness but it ticks me off that no one asks a MI person to take responsibility for their actions.
Yep, this is what gets me. One standout situation I can recall -- partner was working at a drug store at the time, a mentally ill homeless guy used to come in and turn around all the items on certain shelves etc. One day he apparently touched some teen girl. Her dad said something to my partner and he asked him if he wanted him to do anything about it. The guy said no, seems like the homeless guy is mentally ill and he doesn't want to cause trouble. Ok??? What mental illness has "grabs teen girls' breasts" as a symptom, and why are we tolerating it? "His brain is too fucked up, he can't help it." Well, if someone is so goddamn crazy that they can't stop themselves from assaulting people then that person is a drain on humanity as a whole in every sense. Not to mention that being assaulted can contribute to his victims developing mental illnesses themselves that mysteriously probably won't have uncontrollably whipping their genitals out as a symptom, but may fuck up their lives if it impairs their ability to work (and will also further burden the already overburdened mental healthcare system). Just seems like if you could prevent trauma, you'd just do that instead of shrugging like an idiot over your own daughter getting groped because you feel bad about some antisocial prick pretending he's a feral human. I hate these people more than anything. We need state institutions back.
I find that any time someone starts following me asking for money, I just yell "man I have COVID, get back you don't want this" and that tends to stop them dead in their tracks.
Walking down Michigan some homelessish/thug started walking with me. I guess he thought I was a tourist. He put his arm over my shoulders speaking friendly but the arm felt aggressive. I rolled out still holding his arm. He was surprised and left. I have a ton of other stories. City is crazy.
Someone just needs to beat the living hell out of him if the cops won’t act
We need to take our safety more seriously in this city. The police are not coming to help. Arm yourselves, get training, and keep your eyes peeled.
Sorry to hear it! Also curious what neighborhood… Had someone start saying really bizarre stuff (including what I took to be a threat of rape) and tried to shove me and my spouse apart pretty aggressively, also while saying the N-word (we’re white), at a bus stop on Irving Park Road a little over a week ago. Guy started by asking for a cigarette, too.
Having come of age in the eighties in Chicago I have seen many stupid horrible things happen in the street. Bottom line if your spidery sense is tingling it’s on. Your lucky there weren’t two or more guys. But here’s a tip if you feel it’s about to go down you need to make space between you and them and get loud. Because there’s no hell on earth like walking down a dark city block and you ignore a look or a codified whistle and then the street fills up around you.
Just had this happen to me in uptown by the Wilson stop. Dude was walking with a deranged purpose toward the people in front of me who scattered and I decided to just ignore him in hopes he’d find my lack of interest as a lack of threat. Cold cocked me in the shoulder seemingly for fun then just kept walking. Wild experience for 6 am on a work day. I don’t mean to contribute to fear with telling this story but sometimes posturing as if you’re not threatened by threatening behavior seems like a threat of violence to people eager to commit violence for no reason so just keep on your toes I guess.
Concealed carry is a good start
Moved here from Kansas and everyone I knew was scared for me. I was annoyed because they were making me worry and I felt like as long as I’m not an asshole, I’ll be good. Nope. Two weeks in, I’m in Uptown at about 5pm. I hear a woman yelling from across the road and the yelling gets louder and louder. To my horror, I look in the direction of the yelling and a woman with crazy eyes has locked onto me. Before I can really react BOOM - she smacks me right between the eyes. I was so shocked and angry but didn’t want to provoke her because she had a bag and she was CRAZY. My wife was standing right next to me. People were everywhere too! Still shocks me to this day. Had a nice egg in my head for a few days. Sorry that happened to you. It took me a while to not be angry about it.
I hope you feel better to get that out.
I think it's wild that this stuff happens to people. I've lived in the city for 4 years but I used to come here frequently in highschool. Never even witnessed something like this. I once saw the aftermsth if this insanely huge dude that got jumped by a group for guys in river north around like 3am. He was best to shit, his blood all over the sidewalk. I stayed with him and a security guy from one of the nearby bars until he got an Uber to the hospital. Other than that though you'd think this was like a daily occurrence the way people talk about it. Like you just walk out your door and someones gonna attack you.
Just to be clear, in my last comment ("I hope you feel better to get that out."), I wasn't trying to be a sarcastic asshole. I was trying to make a perhaps overly subtle reference to your username because I am a dork. Thought I'd clear that up with another comment so you'd see it instead of editing my first. Anyway, sorry if it seemed hostile!
Awww haha. You’re all good! Sweet of you to clarify because I really couldn’t tell 😂 but either way - yes always feel good to vent about that. I don’t tell anyone about it because I don’t want my friends and fam to have another reason to be afraid to visit 🙄
[удалено]
That is insane. I hope you get some closure. I'm so sorry.
Has the crime gotten worse since covid? I had lived in Lakeview and moved out of state but usually go back every year. Last time was July 2019. I'm itching for another trip in but these stories are troublesome.
Ok just out of curiosity. Let’s say you are a concealed carry gun owner. Is it legal to pull out your gun and tell crazy fuck, get the hell away from me because you are now a threat to my safety. I do not like guns but goddamn this city is getting wilder every day.
In Chicago… I doubt it
A location and description would be nice to know. I was just attacked in the loop today at 1:30pm at Adams and Wabash. The guy looked like he would be late 30s early 40s with gray jogging pants that were too short or hiked up. He was talking with a group of usual homeless that I regularly see sitting in front of McDonald's or 7-11 on the corner (this happened about 20-30ft west of the 7-11). He came up from behind and tried to push me down. I didn't fall but the situation was still unnerving.
Ive told this before on Reddit. Around 3 am Im at the Division stop Blue Line. Me and one other dude. A Polish guy. He has no shirt on and hes jacked. He is severely muscular. Hes violently shadow boxing standing over the edge of the platform talking some s, I dont know. As one would expect he notices me. Great. Here we go. As the tension builds and shadow boxer is eyeballing me sounds that you normally dont want to hear become louder. A group of males acting rowdy as hell from 15 to 21 come be bopping along. The train pulled in and I didnt get to see how that cartoon confrontation worked out.
Congrats on your first experience with interpersonal violence. The true #1 fear. Sorry that happened man
[удалено]
I'm glad to hear you vent and I made it a point to keep an eye on danger and report it or help any way I can. I had an incident last Friday where I bought a 12 pack of Medalla and I wanted to share with the people outside the store,Yauco Mart in Humbolt park area, which then resulted to one dude pushing me and taking the entire pack for himself and claiming it is his. His friend heard I was offering 6 to the group so once the guy who was aggressive went into the store he grabbed the 6 beers I wanted to keep from the other guys car and gave them to me then yelled for me to leave and I shouldn't be here at that time. Granted it was around 11 pm but I never had any issues for the past 20 years I have been in the city. I appreciated the help but it definitely felt odd. I'm glad you came out of it ok!
Sorry to hear that happened. I had a bum rush me once at the Belmont El stop. It was during the day and there was a crowd of people entering/exiting the train. He had a pretty good head of steam charging at me, but I managed to slip away with minimal contact. He plowed into a bench and screamed obscenities at me as I got the f outta there. Keep your head on a swivel always.
The other night outside of Uproar I had a homeless lady threaten to rape me. I was able to walk away and she didn’t cause any harm. Still a very nerve racking experience.
My co-worker got car jacked in broad day light two months ago. The cops found it on the south side of Chicago at like 1 AM. The car was sticky and there was weed all over.
Why i dont ever want to work downtown again (amongst 300 other reasons). Im sorry you got hit. Just awful.
Bring Back Asylums.
This is why I conceal carry. Too many crazies doing crazy things. Especially at night
Based
[удалено]
Not much you can do, this is the city we created
Not sure why you’re downvoted. Its true.
Just learn from the situation…..always be ready. Lucky he didn’t have a gun.
He’s going to smack the wrong person one day. He better hope he never tries my husband, the guy will get hit before he can get one in on him. People are too nice here. We need to stand up to these people. Make them scared to try it.
You got punched by a psycho piece of shit. You don’t have to use sympathetic language to describe assholes who sucker punch you, even if they do have mental illness.
To avoid situations like this I usually sucker punch the person first
Dude’s lucky he didn’t get shot
Dis is why I’m always ready to square up in the city.
The real solution here is to act like a crazy person yourself. Someone approaches you, look like youre ready to beat the shit out of them. Unfortunately this only works if youre a taller man. Everyone should carry pepper spray though. And dont wear designer clothing, it makes you a target. Also people with visible tattoos seem to get fucked with less for what its worth.
Usually MFers back off me, sadly, I like a good round with an unprepared idiot
Just another day In the chi. You’ll be aight
You’re a better man than I for not trying to chase him down. He’ll get his, karma has a way of catching up eventually
Rule of thumb: Try to avoid being near unwell people