THANK YOU  IN ADVANCE JW...

November 22, 2008
BY ANNIE SWEENEY Crime Reporter

Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis today announced a major restructuring of how cops will fight Chicago's street gang problem.

Four-hundred officers will form a new Gang Enforcement Unit and will be available to combat gangs citywide and not just in the district where they are currently assigned.

Chicago Police Supt. announced that his department will take a new approach to combating gang violence. (Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)

This new plan was designed -with much input from rank-and-file officers - in an effort to free gang officers to be able to move where crime is spiking to disrupt gang activity and stay ahead of violence, police said.

"We don't want our officers to be restricted when our criminals aren't,'' Weis said today after announcing the new program. "Now we move wherever they move.''

Gangs are the most serious threat to the safety of city residents, Weis added.

Leo Schmitz, commander of gang investigations, will head the new unit.

Weis' restructuring comes as Chicago is experiencing a striking spike in violence, including a 16 percent increase in homicides this year. There have been 474 homicides this year - more than all of last year but still well below the 600 people killed in the city five years ago.

On a day-to-day basis, the 400 gang officers will work out of the city's five detective headquarters, providing gang enforcement for each of the city's 25 districts. But any intelligence they gather will be passed to the Gang Investigations Section, which does indepth investigations into gang crime.

The new arrangement should result in a more efficient sharing of information among gang officers in the city, helping police anticipate and prevent gang crime, officials said.

There are some 80 gangs with 75,000 members operating in the city. The street organizations, which peddle drugs and protect turf with guns are responsible for nearly half of all murders in the city. Several innocent victims have been struck down in recent years, including a 13-year-old girl who was shot and killed buying watermelon at her local park on the Northwest Side and a 26-year-old muffler shop manager sitting on a front stoop on the Southwest Side last April.

And they attract the young: 16-year-old Jose Guiza was shot to death in the Avondale neighborhood Friday night in an apparent gang-related shooting.

He was killed when a car pulled up to where he was standing on the 3000 block of North Troy. A man got out, started yelling gang slogans and shot Guiza, police said.

hola

Red Carpet Arrivals - Grand Opening of Atlantis, The Palm DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - NOVEMBER 20: Former Basketball player Michael Jordan attends the landmark Grand Opening of Atlantis, The Palm Resort, and the Palm Jumeirah on November 20, 2008 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

For anyone who is interested I have being and still am uploading a lot of new pictures on my my space page:

http://www.myspace.com/aprilmartinphotography

of my times out west....and of the town I live in now. If you have a my space account please feel free to go check it out.

If you do not have a my space account, get one it is great foe networking! I get A LOT of work from there.....

April

Just wanted to say if you have friends that would like to get to know me please tell them to request me and i will acpect it.

Sabed que aquello que se difunde por todo el cuerpo es indestructible. Nadie puede destruir a esa alma imperecedera.

Este verso explica mas claramente la verdadera naturaleza del alma, la cual se halla difundida por todo el cuerpo. Cualquiera puede entender que es lo que esta difundido por todo el cuerpo: la conciencia. Todo el mundo esta consciente de los dolores y los placeres del cuerpo, en parte o en su totalidad. Esta difusion de la conciencia esta limitada al cuerpo de uno. Los dolores y  placeres de un cuerpo le son desconocidos a otro. Por consiguiente, cada cuerpo es la cobertura de un alma indvidual.

So I’m walking past my local video shop one day (well, I say video shop, but he sells mobile phones, cameras and telescopes now), and I see a DVD in the box outside the shop entitled “Festival of Martial Arts”. Well, as it was dirt cheap, I thought what the hey, and decided to give it a look see. So when I got home and popped the DVD into my player, I found out what the festival was exactly - a collection of matches from various disciplines including shoot boxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, kick boxing, and professional wrestling, all brought together in honour of the memory comic book writer and artist Ikki Kajiwara in April 1988.

After the initial introduction, it was on to the first contest, with shoot boxing the discipline, and a fight between Cardinal Champion Koichi Otsu and Katsumi Omura. This is actually the first time I’ve seen a shoot boxing contest, and I have to admit I found it very enjoyable to watch. I could see just how some of the aspects of this discipline have made it into the MMA stylings of today, where fighters use boxing and kickboxing tactics to start off with, before taking their opponents down with various throws and slams, with the difference being that once someone is down on the mat, the fighters are both brought back up to their feet. However, normal boxing and kick boxing knockdowns were still subject to a referee’s count. As for the fight, the judges awarded the one round contest to Omura by five points to two.

Then it was on to a shooting demonstration, featuring the first ever Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama and some of his students. After putting his students through a couple of drills, Sayama demonstrated a number of throws, many of which I’ve seen numerous times during MMA fights. He also gives a kickboxing demonstration, before showing off numerous submission holds, before two of his students get into the ring to show their skills.

This is followed by a muay thai demonstration, featuring Sagat Pongtawin against Rochotal Muangsurin. As I’ve seen countless muay thai fights before, this isn’t a new experience for me. Although there’s only highlights from this one, it was obvious that Pongtawin was the dominant fighter here, scoring a few knockdowns before the referee called a halt to the fight in the third round.

The second muay thai fight was between Samorn Sak Muangsurin and Padam Luengborai for the Thailand Featherweight title. Again, only highlights were shown here, but the fight looked more even than the previous one, with Luengborai being declared the winner after the fight went the distance.

The mixed martial arts match was next, which, back in those days, meant having a professional boxer, in the form of Isamal Changany, fighting a professional wrestler, in the form of New Japan’s Yoshiaki Fujiwara. I have no idea if, like Ali v Inoki, if the outcome of this match was pre-determined or not. Changany went into this one wearing traditional boxing gloves and without boots, while Fujiwara was in traditional pro wrestling garb. This one confused me a little, mainly because the rules were never explained. All I could determine was that Changany was allowed to do things that Fujiwara couldn’t and vice versa. It had it’s moments, but if I’m to be honest it wasn’t that good, and the fight went the five round distance, and was declared a draw.

The Karate Real Champion tournament was next. This involved sixteen fighters from around Japan in a single elimination tournament. The fights here were quick, but very technical, and very interesting to watch, and was eventually one by Toshiyuki Yanagisawa in a final that went into double overtime.

Then it was on to what was described as a martial arts demonstration, featuring Yoshiji Soeno, Ahmen Abhar Zaher and Walid Hassam Merje. This saw those involved demonstrating various techniques, including the old trick of smashing breeze blocks and kicking planks of wood. Not bad, but it’s the kind of thing you’d see on countless episodes of the old Highlander television series.

The first of the professional wrestling segment followed, focusing on women’s wrestling, courtesy of Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, with Miss A taking on Harley Saito. No pouting divas involved her, thankfully. Sadly, it’s a heavily clipped match, and even though the action is very good, the editing makes it hard to follow the storyline of the match. In essence, it’s just a series of spots, with Saito getting the win with a roll-up after blocking Miss A’s spin kick. The second match saw Cutie Suzuki face Rumi Kazama. It’s basically the same as the first match editing-wise, which is again a shame, with Kazama pinning Suzuki with a bridging back suplex.

The wrestling continued with action from All Japan, with a young Kenta Kobashi and Masanobu Fuchi. Again, heavily clipped, and disappointing form my point of view because I’ve never seen a young Kobashi in action. Fuchi got the win here after a piledriver.

It was then kickboxing’s turn, with three fights. First, Michiaki Yamazaki took on Kenji Ueda. Yamazaki looked good in this one, far better than Ueda, who was Japan’s featherweight champion at the time. Yamazaki won the decision. The second fight saw Noriyuki Takano fight Yutaka Koshikawa in lightweight action. Another good demonstration of the art here, with Koshikawa bloodying the eye of his opponent and earning the decision in the process. The final fight saw flyweight action, with Toshihiko Hayashida challenging Toshihiko Matsuda for the Martial Arts Japan Flyweight title. Matsuda was the clear winner in this one, scoring the early knockdown and eventually winning the fight. It was a shame that all of these fights were heavily clipped, as it would have been nice to see them develop in a natural way.

Finally, it’s back to professional wrestling, courtesy of All Japan, with tag-team action, as Giant Baba and Tiger Mask face Abdullah the Butcher and George Skaaland. Again, the action is heavily clipped, which, again, makes following the action difficult, although we do get to see the Butcher at his brutal best here, although it’s not enough to get the victory as Tiger Mask gets the pin on Skaaland with a body block from the top ropes, although Baba and the Butcher did have a bit of a set-to after the match.

In conclusion - this is a very enjoyable DVD, and well worth the £2.99 I splashed out for it. It allowed me to view some of the martial arts disciplines I’ve never seen before. However, I was a little disappointed at the editing of some of the fights, but then again, I suppose you can’t have everything, especially at just £2.99.

“Festival of Martial Arts” is available, well, in loads of places. Just Google Festival of Martial Arts DVD, and you’ll find it!

Is Multi-culturalism an Ideology?

I am not going to talk here long, I knew Jordan would forget his lines, and you know I am not willing to beg, it is not a bad show but I guess with his popularity rating falling so fast maybe he just wants to watch me play... anyway...

I know how to talk to you, keeping you EMPLOYED in this GLOBAL recession os priority number 1 if I have no reason to watch the game I won't and well I don't have a reason to watch this game so...

With the Bulls up and coming, see with you and this new string I could have done something, I guess they just want me a little more diffrent, I don't know? Anyway, wzup Jordan, you knew I would not stay...

6:31 pm Ooopppss, I am sorry he is out playing...

Red Carpet Arrivals - Grand Opening of Atlantis, The Palm DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - NOVEMBER 20: Former Basketball player Michael Jordan attends the landmark Grand Opening of Atlantis, The Palm Resort, and the Palm Jumeirah on November 20, 2008 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Getty Images/Atlantis, The Palm)

See, I can't do that I can't leave the USA,

 so what good does all of that do for me?

Hello Dubia, I know he is not there by himself, have fun baby! Okay guys I gotta go! If Jordan is not here I can play my way! Peace...

I hope you guys and gurls are having a fun time on WWE Universe, I am on every change i get so just leave as many comments as posible for me to read and view my page as long as you want

what is wrong with my favorite website?

God is :} a sparkeler...(k)not any sort of monkey faced sata clauz in the sky...quite the sparkler with infinite points of light burning from the begining-less time.  I am a thumb-print form sum allone. It's too hot of a subject for most to handle, so try (k)not to poke your neighbor with it:) poke poke...My donkey wants a kiss!!!

When I went to et yesterday I did the same exact thing, if you did not know it or see it you would think I was lying AND a picture of his face was over my shoulder, I hope you are watching:)

Wzup NBA, yeah, yeah, yeah... just listening to Charlotte until NJN comes on, I am so mad at Jordan, there is no way Obama should love me more than you, no way, but okay if you say so...

US President-elect Barack Obama orders l US President-elect Barack Obama orders lunch during a surprise visit at Manny's Coffee Shop and Deli in Chicago on November 21, 2008. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Live your Life as if it is your last day on this sucky earth.Do not let this poor country get the best of you there is nothing we the people can do so F____ it!!Enjoy what we do have control of and do not let this season get the best of you there is always someone worse off.Happy Holidays to all!!!

On this day, the Clan McKane is diminished, as my father joins his ancestors. The man who shared in me his passion for history and knowledge, his love of food and travel, his wit and sense of wonder has passed. His pain has ended, and his next great adventure has begun. Slainthe!

I KNOW JORDAN AIN'T TRIPPIN' ANYWAY... LAST ONE...

US President-elect Barack Obama orders l US President-elect Barack Obama orders lunch during a surprise visit at Manny's Coffee Shop and Deli in Chicago on November 21, 2008. AFP PHOTO/Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)