So tonight, the most civilized street in Cincinnati had it’s peace shattered with two gunshots.
On my way to Sitwells, I noticed Ludlow Avenue partitioned off by the police, from Graeters Ice Cream and Bakery, down to the Habenero’s parking lit. Bystanders gave me confusing accounts, but the general consensus elicited was that someone was shot close to Olive’s Resturant.
Molly in Sitwells gave me the full deal. Basically a man was shot twice in the parking lot between Habenero’s and Ambar India, during a mugging. He survived and is now in Hospital.
My main reaction is rage. Honestly, one thing that I value about The Clifton Gaslight area is that it is a zone where people innocently laugh and frolic even late at night, without much thought to their safety. Muggings are exceedingly rare, even in the darker gaslight lit streets, and there is a general feeling of polite commonweal.
Tonight this sense of innocence was shattered. My basic attitudes towards crime is that I have zero tolerance towards crimes that violently impinge on the public’s well being and safety. Violent Crimes between criminals, in the netherworld outside polite society I have more tolerance of.
I have a libertarian attitude towards illegal commerce, conducted by criminals, away from the rest of us, that does not threaten our safety and health. But for theft of my personally earned goods, and endangering my person, I have zero tolerance of. This is what concealed carry gun permits are for. The police are always a retroactive measure. They are never there in time, nor can they proactively be in a free society of free peoples. Even in a police state they cannot be everywhere at once.
This is why a responsible public should be armed, able to use arms to defend themselves, and facing strong sanction when they use their arms irresponsibly. The police should not have a monopoly on force when we live in a society in which the armed and cowardly increasingly threaten the unarmed and weak.
I also support duels. Bring them back. In England, the notorious David “ibn Myatt” is known for advocating them. Frankly, it is not an unsound position.
Duels enforce honor in a society. It keeps dealings between men serious and respectable. And an armed citizenry is a polite one. When law abiding citizens are as armed as thugs, society will take on a more peaceful and polite tenor.
[Update 9/13/2009]
A few additional details from various sources.
The man is alive and in stable condition at University Hospital. Police are not releasing his name.
The shooting occurred at approximately 10 p.m., after the man left Ambar India restaurant (which shares Habenero’s Parking lot). The man was shot in both the face and shoulder. Initially in the face whilst sitting in his vehicle, he managed to get out of the car and was shot again, in the shoulder. He was able to walk over to Olives restaurant and request aid.
The suspect is described as 5′ 9″, approximately 200 lbs, Black, and still remaining at large. Utterly vague but possible eye witnesses should, of course, contact the police with any leads.
Jennifer Baker at the Cincinnati Enquirer/Cincinnati.com additionally reports; The man shot was actually the owner of Ambar India restaurant, Mr. Jessy Singh, age 40. The shooting took place after the Resturant closing.
His sister, Preet Kaur, indicates their family has no idea why he was shot, there was actually no robbery and no known motive.
[My speculation: I wonder if there was a personal motive involved. If there was no effort to actually rob him, and from the context I suspect that the perpeturator was waiting for him. 10pm is early on Ludlow, and there is often traffic past that stretch – Habeneros is open until 11PM and there is an apartment building across the street. I suspect that the shooter expected Mr. Singh, at that time, and thus knew his patterns and habits. This is simply my speculation, my prayers are with him and his family]
My fiancée and I live right off a ludlow and came upon this scene tonight while going for a walk. It makes me angry as well. As far as I know our area is relatively peaceful and I never feel as if i’m in the slightest bit of danger when walking around, even at night.
I was curious as to what happened exactly and was trying to find something on the news websites. So far this is the only thing I’ve found.
I’m hoping that our neighborhood remains a safe place despite this incident.
You lost me at wanting everyone armed and duels. There are many many studies that show that providing people with more handguns do not make any environment safer. It just makes the chance of someone dying by handgun violence more probable. Duels? You are just being silly now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
I just moved to this neighborhood to escape this kind of thing. This is really a sobering event for me. This city is getting so bad with violence that nowhere is safe, it seems. I’m just glad he’s still alive. Ambar is one of my favorite restaurants on the Ludlow strip.
Anthony, I know how you feel. I realize that one or two incidents do not mar Clifton, it is sobering and will make me be a lot more careful walking around.
Though I prefer Apna, Ambar is pretty good. Have you tried “Amma’s Kitchen” in Roselawn? It is on reading road, next to the Valley Shopping Center.
Don’t let the surroundings fool you at first, walk inside and the place is wonderful. Easily on par with Ambar, the difference being that the menu is more Southern Indian.
The issue of Cincinnati’s crime weighs on me. I have seen quite a bit of it, there is a lot that goes on in the area that flies under the radar of most people, before it erupts out blatantly.
One thing that is important is for citizens to be active, and actively involved. It sounds like a trite cliche, but how much good would a volunteer citizen’s patrol walk be for Clifton?
3 or 4 people, with bright t-shirts, flashlights, walkie talkies, walking in shifts, patrolling the parking lots and darker side streets. It should be done in a way that is friendly, non obtrusive, and a natural outgrowth of the community itself. The issue isn’t just crime, but general safety. Spotting fires, lost children, elderly people who may have collapsed at night of a stroke or heart attack.
An organized volunteer citizenry empowered trumps obnoxious and obtrusive public security cameras – which only give an illusion of safety (like the city watchers project, which was a joke), and expending police resources. We don’t want a panoptic society in which we are constantly watched, we want a community of active people who are mutually helpful, and out and about.
Michael, thanks for replying. Blogs – trite as they may seem – can spread news and information in the community rapidly. News can spread from witnesses to friends, to the entire community through the “Blogosphere” more rapidly than through Newspapers and even broadcast TV. It is important if our society is to remain a free society that there should not be, and must not be, a monopoly on information. The situation with blogs is exactly like the situation with the independent press in 19th century America, prior to corporate consolidation of newspapers. Any hack could put out his rag, and many often did. Some were only good for wrapping fish, others were more professional. All, however, gave the people choices and options on where to get their information.
Much of Clifton is still, even after this incident very safe. I know this – especially in comparison to the rest of the city. Cincinnati itself is an absurdly safe city in many ways.
As bad as things have gotten here, the majority of the city is quiet and peaceful.
I’m from a larger more violent city (Washington DC) and even with this one shooting, Ludlow and Clifton Gaslight are among the safest places in the city’s core. But I’m not naive. Just as with the rape and murder of that poor girl in Winton Woods, it is never good to be complacent.
One underground factor that few people realize, is that in 2001 some very heavy gangsters moved to Cincinnati from larger cities, heavies from Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and even Gary Indiana, flocked here during the period following the riots.
These were seasoned gangsters from much more violent cities who recognized an entrepreneurial opportunity, if you will, in Cincinnati. This affected the city’s culture of violence.
Do I have a solution? No. But I do have some thoughts.
Trying to understand evil should never be seen as sympathy for evil. Our culture’s hardening removes certain vital distinctions. You can feel great compassion and advocate the sword, at the same time.
I feel that both many Progressives and Conservatives here are partially blinded – mutually – by ideological and sentimental concerns. This prevents them from fully seeing and tackling the issue. Both have half of the picture, but cannot see a synthesis, a whole gestalt of the issues involved.
Both the conservatives and liberals are right – in their respective spheres. The task is to get a wider picture that allows us to do something about things.
While the problem of Cincinnati’s increasing crime is tied to poverty, it is tied to income disparities, and it is tied to class, ethnic and racial divisions and mutual (mutual) antipathy, and issues of education and opportunities; is also tied to cultural factors; an increasingly callow and vulgar culture, a greater cultural tolerance for brute force and violence, the general breakdown of a civil society and civic spaces here, and bile swallowed over simmering resentments,.
What I’m getting at is subtle. I think there is a gradual erosion of certain values throughout our society, and the violence we increasingly see if a partial consequence.
New streetlamps, camera surveillance, armed cops on patrol tasering non-compliant people, none will matter if our city’s overall culture becomes more coarse, callow, vulgar, and if we collectively interact less with each other as human beings. None matters is people who are prone to potential violence feel no investment or tie in communities, instead coming to see them as a hungry wolf eyes a lamb. If a young potential thug feels the entire society has more or less cast him off.
Pariahs may seek revenge in a low, calculating, and banal way. One who not only feels no connection to his larger community, but feels that this community cares nothing for him, an its interests are inimical to his interests, and the whole has nothing invested in his essential humanity, then he will feel nothing for that larger community.
Earlier yesterday I was watching a History Channel special on the Soldiers of Satan Biker Outlaw gang. One of the guys interviewed had “F.T.W. tattooed on his bicep. F.T.W. Stands for “fuck the world” as he articulated his philosophy it was basically pariah wolf among sheep. Why should he not take from the world, someone like him may feel, when it has only taken from him. A warped view or reality? Sure. But if you cross his path and he strikes you down, how does this help you?
There was another special on Cincinnati’s worst export. Good ‘ol Charlie Mansion. Mansion’s an interesting case, born in grinding poverty to a 14 year old whore in Price Hill, completely spurned and scorned by his blood and community as a boy, he grew wild and feral and history bears the rest. I mean, his mother sold gave him away for a beer.
There are hundreds of little Charlie Mansions floating around town, bitter, emotionally stunted, rejected, scorned, boys born to mothers they resent, their fathers some random john and trick, bewildered, scorned by society, cursing the world and god, and hell bent on taking vengeance on the world. Judge them, we might, but sanctimonious judgment won’t do us a bit of good if one of them has a knife to our throats.
Can society afford a rash of angry and bitter predatorily young men running around who can deadlift and bench press 500lbs, outrun most police officers, and just as soon could kill someone as snap a chicken’s neck? Is this the end of a long process in a man’s life when he systematically, step by step, is disillusioned by a society that views him as disposable?
The more we turn inward, and show less regard for our public spaces, the more our public spaces will be co-opted by predatorial elements. When we, as citizens, interact more with our public spaces, patrol, show regard for each other, and openly state and show intolerance for violence and crime, there things will improve. This type of crime seeks easy opportunities. Wolves poach sheep who stray from the flock when the shepherd is away, well we collectively are the shepherd.
An example: My Stepmom used to be Principal of Millville Elementary, on Beekman St., many years ago, all of the previous principals were intimidated by the violent thugs dealing crack in front of the school.
In her first month there she showed no fear, calmly walked out, said basically said excuse me Gentlemen but this is a public school, your trade is not welcome here, we have students, I ask you to respect this and take your activities elsewhere. What did they do?
They said excuse me ma’am, we’re sorry. And they moved. Permanently.
She was firm, non compromising, but deeply respectful. She did not demean them, she did not call them scum, she gave them respect.
And got respect in return. She indicated that she as a representative of the community, she had certain expectations for that area. And they heeded it.
No one before had the guts to tell them to get packing. All it took was for one sincere, earnest, and unafraid woman to speak.
I can’t remember the exact wording but the incident was covered in the Cincinnati Enquirer around 1997.
Kevin, respectfully,
The duel bit was me being a bit of an ass, I admit. In principle I really have no problem with the idea of dueling in a culture that supports it. Frankly it would minimize a lot of bar fights, and minimize the effects of violent feuds on the community at large. Instead of drive by shootings, just let people privately take it out on the field of honor…
The gun control being, however, I was deadly serious about.
Instead of calling my ideas silly, it would be nice to make a substantive argument. I won’t call you disingenuous, if you try to avoid calling me silly. Agreed?
🙂
My mother and sister are alive to this day because when we lived in Cleveland in the 70’s a man broke into our house, in broad daylight, by climbing through the back window armed. She heard him, nervously pulled my father’s gun, the burglar saw it, and fled back out the window, down the ladder, and ran. Could it have ended differently? Of course, I am not naive.
The fact remains that my mother and kid sister quite possibly escaped rape and murder because my mother pulled a gun. And thankfully neither her nor the criminal ended up firing a shot. It created a clear deterrent.
Had my mother not had a gun then, my life would have been quite different.
Now who is being silly Kevin?
There are thousands of stories like this. Just as there are thousands of other stories in which someone with a gun tried to defend his or herself but instead ended up shooting their selves, or the gun was used against them.
Both narratives are valid. In my family’s case my mother is alive because of a gun. Can you argue against this?
You state that “there are many many studies that show that providing people with more handguns do not make any environment safer.”
A simple Google search would also show that there are also many studies arguing the opposite, using the same body of data. A simple Google search would show that the matter is contentious, not cut and dried, and that there is a tendency of both sides of the gun control issue to play fast and loose with facts. Both sides. I’ve researched Gun Control issues in depth for a decade, have read through many studies, and the best I can say is that both sides score some points.
But for me the argument is not just a practical or pragmatic calculation. It cuts deeper, into our fundamental roles and rights as citizens. Citizens have a right to protect themselves by force of arms, in a world in which the police cannot be everywhere, and in which frankly we do not even want them to be everywhere anyway. There are studies in some societies and communities showing increases of violent crime after gun bans. Some of these studies are from Australia and England – societies with far fewer arms than ours.
Being intellectually honest means considering both sides of the issue, the abstract costs and benefits. And in my case, the breathing flesh and blood matter of my sister, and my mother.
When you say “make any environment safer” Safer in what way? You should be specific
I think it is possible that on this issue, at least, you are hold certain conclusions without fully examining them or their alternatives. I urge you to be intellectually honest and look at both sides of the issue, not just call me silly, and at the end of the day possibly just agree to disagree.
Kamal . My basic attitudes towards crime is that I have zero tolerance towards crimes that violently impinge on the public’s well being and safety.
Yea me too, if I had my way many young men who shoot innocent people or have public shoot outs in the hood would rot in jail. Some people can’t be rehabilitated.
Kamal Violent Crimes between criminals, in the netherworld outside polite society I have more tolerance of.
Agreed and I read that is sort of how it goes down in Japan amongst the Japanese Mafia. The bad guys cut, kill or whatever each other out of public view. So the general populous feel pretty safe(save sexual perverts).
Tonight this sense of innocence was shattered
peace of mind is priceless.
Seriously, I mean really if bad guys want to keep this stuff to themselves away from the rest of us, I do not care. That’s the root of my little quip about duels.
When things spill over and affect the innocent, you and I, just walking down the street seeking our day, doing our thing, innocently walking along, and some jackass does a drive by shooting, or mugs someone, or whatever, my tolerance goes away.
Some people do not want to be rehabilitated, their hearts are poisoned, they have seen too much evil, done too much evil, experienced too much evil. I do believe in contrition and being able to start a life over. But once someone does certain things, there is almost no return, and at that point the best thing is to make the rest of us as safe as possible from him.