Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: Chicago's Magnificent Mile becoming known as Mugger's Mile

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Chicago's Magnificent Mile becoming known as Mugger's Mile

By Jeremy Gorner - 7/24/2013
Chicago Tribune

More of a hub of violent crime than a shopping destination?

That's what the volunteer anti-crime group Guardian Angels claimed Tuesday as it handed out fliers referring to the elegant stretch of North Michigan Avenue as "Muggers Mile."

But Chicago police quickly panned the Guardian Angels' concerns as overblown. The department's crime data suggest strong-arm robberies, like the most recent high-profile one last weekend, have dropped sharply over the past couple of years, according to a Tribune analysis.

The move by the Guardian Angels came after a group of teens on Michigan Avenue mugged a woman from Michigan, stealing her iPhone, and punched a 15-year-old girl from Florida who tried to intervene Friday night. The fliers handed out by six members of the Guardian Angels to pedestrians near Water Tower Place offered safety tips such as downloading software onto their cellphones that would help locate them if stolen. The nonprofit group has operated in Chicago since 1981, patrolling streets to deter crime.

Miguel Fuentes, leader of the Chicago chapter, said criminals are sometimes drawn to the Magnificent Mile because of the large number of tourists, a group less likely to attend court hearings if arrests are made because they're from out of town.

Chicago police issued a statement saying shoppers have nothing to worry about.

"Michigan Avenue and the general downtown area are enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people every day," the statement said. "Chicago's downtown area continues to be safe, and while there have been a few isolated incidents, police have responded quickly, making arrests before they become a larger problem."

According to the department's statistics, strong-arm robberies have decreased since 2011 near Michigan Avenue's major hot spots. In the police beat that includes Water Tower Place and the John Hancock Center, six robberies took place through mid-July this year, down sharply from 25 in the same period in 2011. In the area around Navy Pier and Streeterville, 11 strong-arm robberies have been recorded this year, down from 22 in the same time period in 2011, the records show.

Many of the shoppers handed fliers by the Guardian Angels on Tuesday said they feel safe on Michigan Avenue.

"There seem to be plenty of cops," said John House, 41, of Minnesota, who was visiting the John Hancock Observatory and Disney Store on Tuesday with his wife and two young daughters.

Laura Miller, 59, who said she frequently walks her dog around the River North neighborhood, appreciated the safety message though.

"I feel very safe, but it's true. It can happen anywhere," Miller said of muggings. "People are attracted to the iPhone, and they might hurt you to get it."

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.

Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765

Pages

Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

Preservation and Proposition

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Chicago's Magnificent Mile becoming known as Mugger's Mile

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