.......a gang-type homicide in front of one of our museums. Around 4:30 PM today, a gang member was shot and killed in front of our Agricultural & Industrial Museum. I just got off the phone with a detective who asked me to check our surveillance video. Unfortunately, the 2 cameras that record action-only in the direction that the suspect fled, are not really pointed correctly for the area of interest. I'll check tomorrow morning, though. The officer said that there will probably be one of those urban-candle-memorials set up where it happened, which is fine. But Saturday night is our big MicroBrew Fest at the museum. And the 900 people who attend will be standing in a line that goes past this memorial and there's not much that we can do about it. So all of those soon to be drinking and having a good time people will be in a queue beside a sidewalk memorial. That's not going to be good for anyone. The officer described the shooting as a typical (but really not frequent) Parkway Boys and the Princess Street Boys running into each other. Nice.

http://www.yorkheritage.org/vg_aim.asp

That's terrible! Maybe add a few more cameras? Not being funny at all. One office I work at in DC has a device on a pole that is suppposed to record gunshots to trianglulate where it came from. Lots of cameras everywhere too. The area is nice and quite now since the hoodlums moved.

Doug

I am wondering if the police are able to prevent the gathering if your property will allow it, Is the side walk there public or is it owned by the Museum?
I am sorry for you but not for the Gang punk.
We are here in Phila where there is a Murder every 24 hours and 10 minutes,
Most likely a shooting several times an hour, But they usually keep it in the hood.
Stinky it happened there in front of your place.
What can we do?
Peter

Sounds like cold hearted killers

There won't be a memorial "gathering" at the time of our event. There will just be one of those arrangements of burning candles, photographs, RIPs, etc. I've seen them months later, sometimes. The sidewalk, I believe, is considered public. We have to shovel the snow and repair it, of course. It's well used because the high school is on the next block.

We have Shot-Spotter cameras in the city, but they are located in the hot-spots. It's fairly quiet around the museum with some owner occupied properties.

As long as the public stays on public property and doesn't block the entrance or scare people away they have the right to be there. I will just say that confrontation in an emotional atmosphere can quickly escalate. Maybe give some condolences to the grieving groups and they will respect you enough to go elsewhere?

Doug

Have the police delay issuing the memorial permit until Sunday.

Carl

Hmmm. I didn't know that there was such a thing. I'll ask the officer when I talk to him tomorrow. I always thought those memorials just appeared.

My wife just drove past the museum and there is a large crowd having a prayer vigil on the spot. So the candles and such are at the edge of the front of the museum. Our event queue typically goes the other direction.

Just put several of your own uniformed security staff there to make certain that the queue does go in the opposite direction.

I disagree. Sometimes a show of force is "poking the bear" and causes an escalation. I would engage the local policeman who can act as an intermediary. Life is a game without rules. Every move is important. Do you really want to make that move? There are no mulligans.

JMO,


Doug

A posting like this makes me so happy to live where I live. I'd rather contend with the spiders and critters that crawl on the ground here than put up with what is going on in Detroit. I used to live 3 miles North of Detroit and it wasn't pretty when I left there in 1999. I used to love Detroit but there's nothing to like anymore. If I want Crazy, I watch the people drive around here. That's about how serious things get around here. Thank you but No Thanks, Detroit is for CRAZY who want Crazy!!! Idiots and Gang members who burn and rob and pilfer and steal and rape... Gees...
Dennis

It's all about getting along. Back in the '80s I was working the oil field and the only place close we could find to stay was a rest area that no one used on the Mandaree reservation in western ND. Signs that said no over night camping. 3 of us stayed there for a month in an old school bus/camper. Once we met with the tribal officials they accepted us and watched out for us since we worked with them. My point is, work with others and you get what you want through cooperation. Force just makes things worse but I have have had a sheltered life.

Doug

I certainly wouldn't live in an area like that and wonder why people do. Life is too short to live in misery and after a trip back East in 1999 I vowed to never go east of the Mississippi or Ca. again IMO

Geez....I took my 4 kids there last year. York does not seem that bad of a city.

"_______" does not seem that bad of a city. It is.

I hate to say it, but there are several incidents like this every week in Baltimore and those who do it don't discriminate as to location. It can be right on the steps of a church, school, museum, post office - it doesn't matter to them. It's sad that so many of the youth of America are turning to these types of groups because they feel the need to "belong". Even worse that it had to happen right in front of your museum.

We had a shooting in our neighborhood a few weeks ago. We're in a part of the city that typically doesn't see violent crime. Turns out, none of the people involved even lived on our side of town. They had set up their mobile "street pharmacy" there for the day and the shooting was the result of two rival dealers having their shops set up too close to each other.

Incidents like this make me wonder why the cops even allow the gangs to exist. Also makes me wonder where the kid's parents are and also wondering if the parents of the gang members still living at home can be charged with child endangerment. All gangs are good for is drugs & violence.

I have seen many memorials set up with balloons, Stuffed bears and assorted animals, Plastic flowers and the like,
If they set up one of those on the Museums property, Can you remove it the next day?
Here in Phila it is all to common to see them last weeks and even months after they get set up and they just get weathered and ugly.
Keep an eye, The fence would be a great place for Pics and flowers left to morn the youth who was turning over a new Leaf in life and he was a good boy.