So they need designer uniforms/costumes? How stupid is that?

Beautiful! I've missed thunderstorms since moving from Kansas.

I think it is pretty obvious that this even occurred Tuesday night and that police are going to patrol tonight, Wednesday night. Hopefully, they will. I'm sick of this crap. It isn't even noon, the sun is shining brightly and the air is already thick with the smell of gun powder. . . stupid.

Same here. All year round, but really bad from the day fireworks go on sale, and then for weeks afterwards. I heard a couple at about 2:00a.m. that I'm sure were sparkler bombs. We're actually more worried about the fireworks hurting our camper travel trailer. It's a really nice one, so every 4th of July we're gone. The mess in the street is REALLY bad for weeks afterwards too. Last year, I went and swept all the crap from in front of our house over to the idiots' place next door. They are the worst on our block. I toss stuff over the fence into their yard from ours too. I'm all for having fun, but these people have no idea why they are even doing it.

We've been listening to fire works for the last week already. We're outta here for tonight. Last night it sounded like a war going on, and it went on until way into the middle of the night. Stuff should be illegal.

We'll get to see that as soon as he's charged. I'm waiting to see that as well.

Actually, she was on a street corner selling snow cones and candy, late at night for some stupid reason. In an area that is known for lots of stuff going on between rival gangs: "Jerrell Dorsey, of Chicago, is charged with shooting Heaven Sutton late Wednesday night near her home in the North Austin neighborhood. Police said animosity has bubbled between the Mafia Insane Vice Lords and the Four Corner Hustlers, and prosecutors alleged that Dorsey is a Hustler, while people at the candy stand were affiliated with the other gang." Wonder what else they might have had her selling. . .

See, the fascination is not with guns these days, it's with being a thug, being a bad guy and getting away with it. I'd think it a safe assumption that those who behave this way do not care much about any kind of laws or licensing. Cars, guns, pets, even fishing perhaps. The game is in living a lifestyle where the more wrong you do, the more admirable you become to your peers.

Just for the heck of it, I checked the Chicago Tribune for shootings over the weekend. There were several separate incidents on the west side. If you go into the week prior, there is more. The conditions on the west side of Chicago are quite similar to those of Belltown and South Seattle. These are places you just do not go to. You stay away, then they only hurt each other. In one instance it was a man firing into a crowd of people, killing a 7 year old. July 1, a 19 year old killed, with a 15 year old critically injured. Two more, July 1, A 21-year-old man was shot in the head and died. A 27-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were wounded and treated at hospitals. No one is in custody yet. In another shooting, a 3-year-old boy was shot in the arm while walking with his mother and father. It happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Paramedics took him to the hospital in stable condition. "Detectives don't think the child was the target."All the addresses indicate areas of the city that nobody goes into in the middle of the night. With a three year old. With a seven year old. This has gone on in Chicago for as long as I can remember. Does it reflect on the city as a whole? Heck no. You just stay away from those areas. You let them have their way with each other and the "po-po" and "firepigs" just go in and mop up afterwards. There is no solution for this problem other than just letting it play out now and then. As long as there are those who embrace this "thug" way of life, this is how it is going to be in the hood.

Duh.