2 shot near N. Laura Street during First Wednesday Art Walk

[KenFSU]

Shootings can happen anywhere and the majority of the time, those involved know each other.

Certainly seems to be the case here.

The victims are refusing to cooperate with the police in the investigation.

[FlaBoy]

seems like the views climb when we get to bickering.

Truth is, they actually don't. With that said, there were a lot of teenagers out last night. As other's have mentioned, it's probably related to school being out. Overall, I wouldn't get to worried. Shootings can happen anywhere and the majority of the time, those involved know each other.

For sure. I know some of the kids involved. They knew each other.

[Adam White]

Are you (or anyone else in this thread) opposed to putting a CCTV system downtown?

To quote Mr. Ben Franklin, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

As someone who is always concerned with civil liberties, the surveillance state, etc, there's no issue here. There is NO expectation of privacy in public. Just as we're 100% allowed to film the police in public, they can also film us. Completely legal/acceptable.

I definitely get the other side of the argument.

It's just a matter of what kind of society we want to live in.

A few strategically placed surveillance cameras that police can review in the event that something happens like what happened last night at Art Walk? Sure.

A real-time, continuously monitored, London-style CCTV system, which sweeps and databases license plates, harnesses facial recognition software, and has used hidden microphones to listen in on conversations on the street? No way.

It's gotcha policing, just like red light cameras, and fundamentally changes the human experience for the worst.

The vast majority of CCTV cameras in London (and throught Britain) are owned and operated by private individuals and companies. As far as the microphones are concerned, I believe those were tested but I've not seen anything to indicate they were ever deployed.

I don't really know how I feel about CCTV, etc in London. On the one hand, I find the idea of it intrusive and anathema to my libertarian instincts. On the other hand, London has had a long and bad history of terrorism and if these things help, then maybe it's not such a bad idea.

To be fair, I never notice it anymore.

[wyttsndrs]

I feel like we've seen this event dozens of times, but this time it involved guns.  What immediately came to my mind was the festival at the beach that erupted into a huge brawl where a kid's head got stomped on.  As our events get more successful over time, eventually people will show up just to see the other people and they don't actually care about the event.  Those people then get in to mischief because they're essentially there for no good reason and then it gets out of hand and causes problems.

As our events scale up, our security needs to also.

The viral Christmas Night brawl at the River City Marketplace is what I thought of.

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2013-12-26/story/movie-theater-brawl-latest-mob-frenzy-go-viral-jacksonville

I actually inadvertently attended both the 2013 brawl and this 2017 shooting. The 2013 brawl had definite gang overtones since it's located on the northside and there were large groups of people blocking multiple stores (not shopping) this shooting happened really quickly, by the time I walked back to my car on ocean street, and drove back to Adams to leave on i-10 the intersection on Laura was stopped with police in the intersection. I heard an ambulance and sirens when I was walking back to my car but I thought nothing of it. I didn't even hear gun shots. This artwalk had noticeably larger groups of black youths that attended, some people mentioned that there were more people in general last night. I honestly think these are growing pains of a successful event. It's a public event, it should be fair to expect to see a cross section of Jacksonville's population, good or bad at such an event. This won't deter me from attending the next artwalk. I don't think they could have done more with more police. They had police at every intersection, and patrolling. Only way it could have been prevented by police would have been through precognition (like minority report) police can only enforce laws.
I think it's important to note the shootings time it was 930 pm when everyone was leaving and packing up. Not while police were at their posts on guard. (when did the police leave?) Everyone's busy cleaning, and distracted, also the assailant could run away quickly because the dense crowds have dispersed, and he could easily blend in with others leaving to get away.

Also important to note that a large group of black youths were on Adams Street because of the rap/dance group on the corner of Adams and Laura, and De Real Ting cafe down Adams street.
Also important to note the assailant shot the one guy in the foot, and another guy in the leg (was aiming down, concealed, shooting not to kill and not in self defense), and the one guy actually ran from Adams Street down to the landing with the gunshot wound before running into an off duty police officer.

This was probably a drug deal gone bad. They met in public for safety, dude had his buddy as backup, assailant took the drugs and ran after shooting them both. The easiest way of stopping that is just legalizing the drugs and stopping the drug trade, and if you expect a cross section of jax at events like this then you need to fix the community as a whole and ease tensions, and finish disputes in urban neighborhoods. If your only goal is to address "how do we stop this from happening at artwalk" then you're only mitigating the symptoms and you're not curing what ails Jacksonville.

Also important to note that no would-be second amendment vigilante arose from crowds to swiftly issue justice. (as I have been promised time and time again)

[thelakelander]

^No worries. I co-founded what has become MetroJacksonville and I review the analytics on both daily.

[Know Growth]

Well then,why not a  (seriously vast) "NEW" 'story' :

I am reminded of a chance relaxed social meeting a year and a half or so ago,cigar shop at the edge of Ortega,audience included retired Judge and a Florida Times Union reporter. Per usual,conversation swerved to local crime and Jacksonville's murder "Capital" status.
A comment was made that Jacksonville's black population is it's biggest liability, the popularity and competition of surrounding counties and the forecast that Jacksonville was destined to become predominantly "Black". I so wish that I had conducted cell phone video of the discourse    maybe I Got It  ,but Art Walk (and what the heck,Confederate Point store shooting in same FTU news column) are the latest examples of "conversation" that proves so obtuse.

[Apache]

seems like the views climb when we get to bickering.

and your education is now complete young padawan

[remc86007]

The easiest way of stopping that is just legalizing the drugs and stopping the drug trade, and if you expect a cross section of jax at events like this then you need to fix the community as a whole and ease tensions, and finish disputes in urban neighborhoods. If your only goal is to address "how do we stop this from happening at artwalk" then you're only mitigating the symptoms and you're not curing what ails Jacksonville.

Also important to note that no would-be second amendment vigilante arose from crowds to swiftly issue justice. (as I have been promised time and time again)

I completely agree.

[Know Growth]

After all,so many "Crowds" (second amendment vigilante etc. to name but one or a hundred) stay far from the area. "Discernment"

No wonder I can not entice friends from adjoining county to even come to Downtown for New Years.

For some,the similarly timed Confederate Point store shooting was even more gut wrenching. 

Sorry Ron Littlepage,your recent upbeat piece dashed.Hopefully Ron you have alternative place well away from this place.

On the other hand.....................

[KenFSU]

For better or worse, I expect that the Great Foot Shooting of 2017 will be washed away by the churn of the news cycle and all but forgotten in a couple of months time. If the DJ who got his eyes gouged out didn't scare people away from Riverside, or the guy who got his throat slashed didn't close down the Landing, I doubt this story will do much long term harm to Art Walk.

[Tacachale]

For better or worse, I expect that the Great Foot Shooting of 2017 will be washed away by the churn of the news cycle and all but forgotten in a couple of months time. If the DJ who got his eyes gouged out didn't scare people away from Riverside, or the guy who got his throat slashed didn't close down the Landing, I doubt this story will do much long term harm to Art Walk.

Good point. Man, those were both awful stories.

[edjax]

JSO reporting today's shooting at Landing has possible link to the Art Walk shooting.  Saying those involved in Art Walk shooting were also present today.  Not good for next Art Walk if there are no arrests made soon.