Never been into photojournalism, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do

[Celebration]

Sheesh, started last Friday night when my daughter, son in law, and grandson could have been killed by chunks of concrete heaved at their car as they went under a viaduct. One chunk came about a foot away from my three year old grandson. Our great police department took a report, and over the next five days did virtually nothing but take more police reports at the exact same location for the exact same crime. It was repeated over and over again and they made no attempt to warn people or stake it out, or anything, until Wednesday, after dozens of cars were attacked. At that point they did a little investigating and an eleven year old boy led them to a fifteen year old boy, who was arrested. Over the last weekend the newspaper couldn't even run a story because the police just kept telling them that Central Records would be open Monday.

Anyway, I started a Facebook group about this incident, and decided to get pictures of the area where all this stuff was coming from. The area badly needs cleaning up. I actually think you will be pretty amazed at these pictures. It is one thing to say the area is rough, and another to see it. The most amazing part is the huge chunk of concrete that was obviously carried to wait for an opportune time to drop on the traffic. I'll probably do a video of all this later.

I was interviewed by our paper today, and I expressed dismay about the state of affairs there. This is an extremely heavily traveled important area for people to traverse. If you can stand it, go to Flickr or Facebook to see these. They are the same pictures both places. I put in a lot of commentary.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39993730@N03/sets/72157624775065406/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2071408&id=1314352388&ref=mf

The most surprising thing--here is the chunk of concrete that was to be heaved at a car at some later time. There was no other debris around that, only at the bottom of the viaduct. It had to have been intentionally placed there. (Yes we picked it up and took it with us). I'm not sure what photographic value these pictures have but they definitely tell a story. You would have thought the newspaper or TV would have pointed all this out, but no, they didn't take pictures of this.

[Celebration]

1. Adding one more photo just for fun

[JeffR]

8. OMG!

That's outrageous.

[alfredo]

2. Talk to the local TV station. Relate your experience, show

your images.

[Celebration]

4. mostly I have worked with the newspaper, so far

But I heard that the weatherman from one of the stations was also a victim, so maybe I will email him with the pictures.

[alfredo]

6. That's a start. Let's hope they aren't forced to act because

someone has been killed.

[hippywife]

3. Wow!

Lots of ammo available there. And what a colorful dump underneath. There's lots of recyclables just lying there.

I truly don't understand the thought process of someone who would commit either act, honestly.

Great shots of the area. Now if only you could get someone to pay attention.

:hi:

[Celebration]

5. I finally remembered

That we have a "go to" guy in our neighborhood. He actually goes to meetings with police and all that stuff. This place isn't in our neighborhood but it is used every day by many in our neighborhood. Sure enough he forwarded it to some city councilmen and one of them immediately mailed it to a city department and asked him to clean up the area. Also he personally knows the precinct commander in our neighborhood, and called him a good guy. He gave me his personal desk phone number at work so I will be calling him tomorrow. Yes, I will complain about the lack of warning for the subsequent events, but mostly I want his help in getting the place cleaned up and fenced!! So, I will have to bite my tongue, I think.

Edited to add: I have Windows 7 now and Windows Live Mail, that has a feature to easily email smallish pictures (like Macs have had for a long time) and I feel that this is a HUGE help, as lots of people don't click on to links. Yes it was always possible to do that manually, but that involves a lot of resizing and time. I feel that this feature paid off big time because I just picked seven of the worst pictures, emailed them around and then directed people to the folders if they wanted bigger pictures and more commentary.

[alfredo]

7. One person can make a difference.

Good for you

[JeffR]

9. Well done!

I hope your efforts pay off.