A political statement? Or just someone who has no business with a firearm?

Is Nahshon Shelton now the idol of all the anti-tax and firearms fanatics who exist in our society?

SHELTON: In jail over 22 cents?

I’d hope not. Although considering how rigid they are to their causes without regard to how their rhetoric actually fits in to our daily lives, you never know.

FOR THE RECORD, Shelton is a Garfield Park neighborhood resident who is going to be spending the next few months/years living without the option of bond at the Cook County Jail – depending on how long it takes Cook County state’s attorney’s office to prosecute his criminal case.

He got arrested on Saturday when he pulled a blue-steel Intratec .22-caliber automatic weapon out of a Gucci bag he was carrying. The Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday that Shelton threatened to kill everyone in the store.

What was it that ticked Shelton off?

It seems he was at a store on Madison Street near Pulaski Road, and objected to the fact that the store wanted to charge him more than the $1.79 list price for a two-liter bottle of Pepsi cola.

TWENTY TWO CENTS more, to be exact. Because that’s how much all the assorted taxes came to on that bottle of pop.

“This is my neighborhood. I’m tax-exempt,” is what he supposedly told the police when they questioned him about the incident.

I’m not trying to make light of a criminal act, or the alleged behavior of Shelton, a 36-year-old with a prior criminal record (which means he never would have got a concealed carry permit for his power-packed Gucci satchel).

But in reading about his incident, I wonder how many of those anti-tax types (particularly the ones who have a penchant for firearms of all types) wish they could do something exactly like what Shelton did?



They had a busy weekend

I THINK AN incident like this puts the nonsensical nature of their views into a proper perspective. Just nuts, rather than any kind of revolutionary thought process that would benefit our society.

You can complain all you want about excess taxes – and being appalled that Gov. Pat Quinn is in a position this spring where he’s calling for an extension of an increase on the income tax while also being asked to sign into law a measure that could raise local property taxes (in Chicago-proper, at least) as well!

But the idea is that governments do have some services they must perform, and there needs to be a source of funding to cover the ever-increasing costs of things (unless you want to complain and rant about how cheap – I remember when newspapers were 20 cents, and not the current $1-1.50 per day – things used to be.

A part of me thinks of all these anti-tax types as being as ridiculous as what Shelton is alleged to have done.

WE CAN ONLY be thankful that police happened to be in the area of the store at the time of the incident. Because Shelton, according to police, was carrying a weapon with a round of ammunition in the chamber, eight more rounds in the magazine, and five rounds in yet another magazine.

He could easily have become the lede story of what was a particularly violent weekend – there were 36 people shot in Chicago during one 36-hour time period from Saturday into early Sunday. Four of those people did die, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Pay up!!!

And the over-swamped Police Department had to cope with all of this violence. Just think how much worse things would be if the anti-tax types (some of whom are incredibly unbending in their view on the issue) were to ever get their way and we got the kind of police department they would want us to be able to afford?

Just a thought to keep in mind for those of you ranting and raging about Tax Day and the size of the checks you had to write out to be in compliance with the governments on your share of the tax bill.

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A Polaroid on the wall behind the cash register counter? How passé, it seems!

It seems that people who get caught shoplifting won’t have their pictures taken with a Polaroid camera so that the resulting quickie image can be pinned to a “Wall of Shame” of people who are no longer welcome.

That is as much of an image of the past as basketball players in gym shorts --  instead of those baggy things they now wear that look more like a skirt!

THAT IDEA GOT reinforced in my head when I read the reports about the alleged “flash mob” that coordinated their large-scale shoplifting of a store on Milwaukee Avenue that specializes in overpriced jeans.

Some 20 people walked into the store at once, in unison, then proceeded to grab what they wanted before trying to storm their way out of the store.

Various news reports indicate that the store’s owner was suspicious when the people walked into his Wicker Park neighborhood store, and actually slammed the door shut and locked it – thereby keeping even more would-be thieves from getting in to swipe some merchandise.

But what catches my attention about this incident is less the idea that it was a “flash mob” of young people using their tactic to rob, rather than to commit some act of public art such as dancing in unison.

BUT RATHER, THE reaction of the store owner. The security cameras in his store were operating, and they captured several minutes of footage of people milling around snatching whatever items captured their attention.

The store owner took the video and has made it about as public as one can do. It is now on YouTube. Anybody who cares can watch it.

The YouTube video contains a caption advising people that if they recognize anyone in the video, they should call the Chicago Police Department at (312) 744-8290 and say they have information with regards to case number HV-404817.

The store owner says he hopes his action helps police find the people who robbed him, and may even cause enough parents to be so ashamed of their kids that they turn them in.

WHICH MAY BE wishful thinking on his part!

Because I think the kind of people who like to watch this kind of nonsense on the Internet are the same kind who go to YouTube and search for “fighting” or “brawls” just so they can see something stupid.

It’s some sort of cheap thrill that I’ll be the first to admit I don’t comprehend.

If anyone who is even inclined to view this video were to recognize someone in it, would they bother to tell? I suspect at least some people wouldn’t, perhaps because they somehow approve, or maybe they just buy into the “Stop snitching” mentality that truly is the basis of some of the problems our society confronts.

SO IN THE end, did this store owner just give Internet video viewers another means of giving themselves a cheap thrill?

Although in the end, this might actually be the perfect punishment for this particular batch of knuckleheads who we see ripping off jeans priced at $200 per pair.

Just envision if anyone who gets arrested winds up having their name attached to this particular video, and it were to keep cropping up forevermore any time anyone does an Internet search of their name.

That would be something that could cause future embarrassment!

ALTHOUGH IT WOULDN’T shock me to learn that if it did happen, somebody would sue.

Just as it was determined all those grocery stores that used to love to tape up copies of bounced checks near the cash register in a place where everybody could see were actually violating the privacy of those who wrote the bad checks, would that same line of logic wind up applying to this case?

And would the person who claims this video invades their privacy have the gall to show up in court wearing the jeans they gathered this weekend?

In today’s society, nothing truly shocks me.

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She put her life on line, for Subway

I couldn’t help but feel an internal tremor Friday morning when I stumbled across the news accounts of a worker at a Northwest Side Subway sandwich franchise who was shot and killed during a Thursday night robbery.

According to both the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, the woman was working a Thursday night shift in the Subway on Western Avenue in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood.

WHEN A WOULD-BE robber entered just before 9 p.m. and pulled out a pistol, the woman worker tried to run out a back door. Which is what provoked the gunman to fire a shot at her – striking her in the neck. She died early Friday at Stroger Hospital.

For the record, another employee gave the robber some money, and he left. As of Friday morning, police had no one in custody, nor do they have any suspects in mind.

I’m sure many of you are wondering why this catches my attention? After all, the one-time police reporter-type person in me knows this incident isn’t that uncommon. Not to downplay the loss of life, but such robberies happen. If the woman hadn’t died, it wouldn’t have been covered at all.

And let’s be honest. There are certain neighborhoods where, if there had been a robbery and the worker had died, it still would have been ignored.

BUT THIS ONE is a little personal for me.

For the very first job I had when I was in high school (one that had set hours and cut me a regular paycheck) was work in a Subway sandwich franchise – specifically one in south suburban Calumet City.

In fact, I recall that I worked at a Subway that purposely stayed open until 2 a.m. – and when I was hired, it was explicitly to work three or four shifts a week from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. each day.

I worked that job one summer, just before going off to Bloomington, Ill., to attend college.

WHICH MEANS THAT learning of the account of this woman (Lyn Ward, who was 57), I couldn’t help but think back to the old memories and tensions.

I used to wonder how I’d react if confronted with a gunman – which fortunately, never happened to me. Although I did find out later that two weeks after I quit to begin college, that particular Subway got robbed.

Shortly after midnight on a Friday-into-Saturday – if I recall right. Which means I could easily have been working, only to find a pistol shoved into my face.

I do recall there was a foot-activated alarm located directly under the cash register. Which means I could have triggered it while heading for the register to try to get money.

IN FACT, IT was a sensitive-enough alarm that I recall my boss once accidentally triggering it while trying to ring up an order of sandwiches and chips.

I used to wonder how subtly I could trigger that alarm, if someone agitated enough to pull a pistol on me had walked in. Could I do it undetected? Or would my foot movement catch his attention, and anger him (or her, I suppose) enough to pull the trigger of his pistol?

I could easily have been in the same position as that woman, only it could have ended for me at age 17. Not that it makes the woman’s story any less tragic – 57 is too young an age to die at, particularly for a reason so stupid.

Although, thinking about this incident and my own high school years also reminds me of the popular film from that era – Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

FOR WHILE MANY a man of my age bracket will forevermore remember Phoebe Cates’ moment of cinematic glory, there also was that scene near the end of the film when Judge Reinhold’s “Brad” character managed to avert a robbery attempt while working as a late-night cashier at a 7-Eleven-like convenience store.

I doubt I – or any other clerk – could have done anything like that. Of course, if it happened in real-life, it would have turned the robber/gunman into a victim – no matter how unworthy that person would be of such status.

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Crime gets stupid in Chicago metro area

The Naked City, with its eight million stories, may have been a reference to New York City and its variety of violence and garishness.

Yet when one considers that the greater Chicago metropolitan area (I’m counting all those suburbs in the collar counties) has in excess of eight million people as well, I can’t help but wonder if our very own Second City has become the Midwestern counterpart that could provide the same kind of tackiness required to provide for weekly doses of tawdriness.

PERHAPS I’M OVER-REACTING, but it is my reaction after scouring the Chicago papers (or their websites) on Wednesday, and finding all kinds of stupid crime stories that are less bothersome for what was done to someone, but instead are creepy because we have people in our society who were stupid enough to think they could get away with it.

One of them involves a former football player at Glenbard West High School who on Wednesday had bond set at $50,000 on charges that he and a teammate raped a teenage girl in the backseat of a car.

The rape occurred just over a year ago, yet officials were distracted by the fact that the two teenage football players were in an automobile accident the same night as the rape – in fact, about one hour later.

The teammate was killed, which means the focus was on the fact that a teenage life was lost. But amidst the wreckage from that car accident, police were able to recover the physical evidence that ultimately was used to justify the charges that were filed against the 18-year-old, who was arrested by police in Glen Ellyn while he was on his way to school.

HE GOES FROM being the football hero who survived a deadly crash, to being a suspected rapist. Perhaps we should just be thankful that the accident didn’t totally crowd out consideration of what happened to the teenage girl – who was able to identify one of her attackers.

Not to diminish the seriousness of sexual assault, but this wasn’t even the most pathetic crime story from high school I read on Wednesday.

That “honor” would have to go to the account of the Evanston Township High School student who brought brownies to school and shared them with his fellow students – sending four of them to area hospitals.

This 17-year-old genius (heavy sarcasm intended here) laced his brownies with a large dose of marijuana. Yet before you start getting all critical of the kid for slipping something into an edible, consider that everybody who ate the brownies knew what they were laced with.

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS INDICATE that while expulsion is possible (on the grounds that it violates school rules to dispense mood-altering substances on school property), it also is possible that he will get something resembling a couple of weeks suspension.

Yet I can’t help but wonder about the people who knowingly ate those brownies. Somehow, they just don’t come across as victims to me.

Somebody probably got all giggly before taking a bite of brownie, thinking they were going to go trippin’ big time. Instead, all they got was the trip to the nurse’s office, followed up by the trip to the area hospital – where they had to confess to medical personnel just how lame-brained they were in their choice of dessert consumption.

School officials say that those who are involved in school sports, clubs or other activities may find themselves removed as a form of discipline, which just seems too mild to me.

THEN, THERE WAS the story that truly was a “blast from the past,” so to speak. A young man who was shooting video with a Fuji-brand digital camera for a class project had it snatched by some thugs while riding on a CTA “el” train.

He got the camera back because of the intervention of a man with the Guardian Angel patrols, although the three “Angels” apparently engaged in a fistfight with the would-be camera robbers in order to get it back, and to subdue two of them until police arrived to make the arrest.

The end result was that two men are now charged with robbery and misdemeanor battery, and bond was set for the two on Wednesday at $75,000 and $50,000.

While it was nice to see that someone didn’t get away with petty crime on the “el,” what is more shocking to me was the presence of the Guardian Angels, whom I didn’t realize were still in operation in Chicago. I recall their heyday back in the 1970s when they tried to create the image of taking back the streets of New York, and kind of assumed they went the way of polyester leisure suits since I can't recall the last time I saw them on the streets of Chicago.

SO PERHAPS IT is appropriate that we end with this New York offshoot trying to bring sense to the streets of Chicago. For to paraphrase the famed closing narration from the hit television show of the late 1950s:

There are eight million stories in the Naked City. These have been three of them.

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