Gunshot wounds covered under most Obamacare policies.
Via Chicago Tribune:
The two young cousins looked out at the West Side crime scene and agreed: The neighborhood was better when the drug dealers were around.
“When the drug dealers had left, that’s when everything started getting worse on this block,” said Mariah Monae, 16, who didn’t want to give her last name. “But when they was here, they was protecting us. They ain’t let none of that shooting stuff happen.”
About half an hour earlier at 9:55 p.m. Friday, a 19-year-old man had been shot while riding a bike in the 1100 block of South Central Park Avenue in the Homan Square neighborhood. He was hit in the back and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, leaving Mariah Monae and her 15-year-old cousin, who live nearby, to check things out.
“This block is just ridiculous,” she said. “That’s why I stay in the house.”
A $3 million-a-year drug operation used to be centered nearby, according to authorities. In June, more than 40 people were charged in connection with the alleged heroin ring.
“They used to be right here, taking up the whole block,” said Mariah Monae, spinning around to point at the intersections of Grenshaw Street and Central Park. “Ain’t nothing happen over here, everything was cool.”
Violence was bad for the dealers’ business, they said. Mariah Monae had even seen the sellers break up big groups of people fighting.
“When they left, that’s when everything started acting up,” she said. “People come up here shooting for no apparent reason. … People probably scared to walk through here now. I am.”