re: Shooting Downtown Bham: Suspect dead, officer shot multiple times.

Let me guess....YEP. I knew it.


They make terrible decisions- daily. And have 0 respect for life.
Lock that pos up! Enjoy your cage.

ETA: Thug is dead. Carry on, baws. Prayers for the officers.
BACK THE BLUE

Just reported to be out of surgery. That's a good sign, thank God.

ETA, one of the WBRC anchor/reporters grew up with him. Tough listening to her trying to keep her composure and professionalism.

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Of which the city had been doing a good job of cleaning up over the past few years

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Gotta tell ya - last few times I’ve been downtown, I haven’t felt real safe. Especially bringing kids.

Lady was tweaking bad right outside McWane Center.

Two dudes got into a fight at Railroad Park.

Multiple bums bothered us while eating outside at Paramount and one got mouthy about my wife when we ignored his request for money.

Seems like we went about four-five years of no issues but the past few months have felt like the old days.

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This was in downtown proper

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Very close, yes.

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in a good area

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Not really. It's on the edge of what was one of the worst housing projects in America. They got some federal grant money about 15 years ago and tore them all down to build nice townhomes, but you can't change the character of the residents with a fancy brick facade.

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Multiple bums bothered us while eating outside at Paramount and one got mouthy about my wife when we ignored his request for money.

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Eating outside in European cities is a very pleasant experience. The weather certainly helps, but also, you don't have to worry about bums like you are referring. There is just about nowhere in America, quite frankly, I'd want to eat outside knowing bums coming up

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Not really. It's on the edge of what was one of the worst housing projects in America. They got some federal grant money about 15 years ago and tore them all down to build nice townhomes, but you can't change the character of the residents with a fancy brick facade.

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Agreed. Lived at 3rd and 20th for a few years. Never really had much issue but going northeast of there (where this occurred) gets a little sketchy. This store is right next to a huge housing project “Bankhead Towers” and is pretty far away from the “good area” of the north side. A few blocks makes a big difference here.

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What happened?

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somebody that should already have been incarcerated and not walking freely among us, went over the blue bridge.

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Seems like we went about four-five years of no issues but the past few months have felt like the old days.

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A lot fo those issues never really left. Violent crime in the immediate downtown area is still fairly low relative to the violent crime in some surrounding neighborhoods.

I can say, since moving to Bham in 2001 I've never gotten a sense of being unsafe when in the downtown area. Maybe I've just been lucky. Sure, I've been approached by panhandlers, but I've been approached by panhandlers in the suburbs so that's not a problem exclusive to Birmingham.

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... uh....they just don't have civil libertarians telling them it's okay... I sat in a sidewalk cafe in Cannes having breakfast one morning where the owner was running them off with a broom..

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It's not just civil libertarians. Sometimes the Christian mantra of "always give to the poor" enables them as well.

That same day we were at Paramount in downtown B'ham, a lady sat down at a table near us. She was obviously mentally challenged and flirted with our 9 month old baby some and asked to hold her. We declined politely and everything was fine. Even though she was a bum, I didn't feel threatened or even that annoyed by it. But she was dirty, unsightly, and smelled bad.

Anyways, the servers ignored her. Wouldn't ask her to leave, didn't take her order, didn't chase her off with a broom, didn't even speak to her. She just sat there occupying a table for a while.

Eventually another family was seated at a table near her. The bum lady started asking the server for a hot dog. Just kept repeating it.

As servers came to our table and the other family's table, she kept saying it, "Can I have a hot dog?" "Can I have a hot dog?"

The other table bought her a hot dog. Servers brought it out and she ate it.

Everything was fine.

A former student of mine was working inside and I brought it up with him. He said she comes and sits down at an outside table almost every day. Starts asking for a hot dog and eventually someone buys one for her. She even sometimes comes by multiple times a day.

My wife of course said afterwards that we were wrong to ignore her at the table and should have purchased her a hot dog. I admit I felt some guilt too but also wondered about how much giving away food and money enables that kind of behavior.

Anyways, long story got long but when it comes to giving away money and food to bums in a civil or religious sense, it seems like it does more to enable the behavior than help their situation.

A block or 2 away from my office. Some sketchy parts around there.