Girl Gang

We live in an extremely safe suburb. Reading the local newspaper's blotter is hilarious, because the worst crimes reported involve someone's North Face fleece jacket getting stolen from their car (and at the end of the report it's revealed that the "victim" had left the car doors unlocked and the jacket on the front seat). Even the adjacent Chicago neighborhood has the lowest crime rate of any 'hood in the city. There is the occasional report of gang tagging on public property, but it's very rare.

Today Eamon and I were on our way home from a walk uptown when I spotted a group of teenaged girls walking towards us. I chuckled to myself at the memory of a friend who'd moved here after us and was slightly alarmed by the large numbers of high school kids hanging out in the coffee shops and movie theaters. Apparently large groups of clean cut teens make him nervous. I joked to Eamon, "There's a gang of teenagers, Eamon, think we can take 'em?"

As we got closer, however, I noticed something about these girls. They were all wearing bandanas on their heads. Some red, some blue. Were they the Park Ridge crips and bloods? What's next, "age" riots between the wealthy baby boomers and active senior citizens in town? It was both comical and confusing.