Posted on 06/09/2014 6:16:29 AM PDT by csvset
Lyric Opera of Chicago stagehands found themselves in the middle of some real-life drama just outside their doors last month when they came to the aid of a tourist being pummeled in broad daylight.
Police say Mark Ball, 50, allegedly began beating a 27-year-old Boston man — for no apparent reason — near 20 W. Wacker about 2:30 p.m. on May 28.
For Robert Hartge, a laid-back day — the last of the season at the Lyric — was suddenly turned upside down in an instant. Standing inside the opera’s glass doors on Wacker Drive with other stagehands, Hartge noticed a man, dressed like a delivery driver, attacking a man half his size.
“We just saw a man walk by and the assailant for no apparent reason just grabbed him and socked him,” Hartge, 43, of Hanover Park said, noting that was their cue: “We came running out fast and about four of us tried to break it up. He was actually going at him, [the victim’s] cellphone had fallen down and his Starbucks went off flying.”
Hartge was able to grab the victim and bring him into the Lyric building while using a work walkie-talkie to signal for help. But he went back out to follow Ball so he wouldn’t get away.
“He just walked away like nothing had happened,” Hartge said of Ball, who was dressed in brown pants, a brown shirt and a brown hat and had a traveling bag with him.
Hartge followed him for about a block and was able to flag transit police officers, who were able to hold him until Chicago Police arrived.
The victim was bloody and battered by the time he got to the hospital, with a broken nose, multiple cuts and bruising to his face and body, police said.
The man told police he was walking on the sidewalk when Ball began following him. He tried to change direction at Washington and Canal to steer him away but Ball became combative and hit him in the face. The man fell to the ground but Ball continued to hit him by kicking him in the face and body as he laid on the ground curled up in a defensive position, yelling for help, according to the police report.
Ball is charged with felony aggravated battery in a public space. A Cook County judge ordered he be held in lieu of $100,000 bail. Ball has a lengthy criminal history, including a felony aggravated battery to a government employee charge in 2001, a 2011 felony charge for allegedly threatening a public official and several other battery charges.
Reached by phone, the victim said he was in Chicago for a vacation, and said he was recovering at home in Boston.
Hartge said he was disheartened that others didn’t stop for help.
“When we looked up, there were people everywhere. They just seemed like they were acting like nothing was happening. Their blinders were on. We were shocked that nobody even walked up to us and asked what was going on,” Hartge said.
Hartge said he’s glad he raced to action.
“I’m just tired of hearing about these people. Of all the crime and people getting away like that,” Hartge said. “We weren’t about to let people do that.”
Email: tsfondeles@suntimes.com
Twitter: @TinaSfon
That part of Chicago should be in a “safe area”. That’s not the “hood”. It was broad daylight. This is just more I can do what I want because I am black BS.
Generally, the stage hands are the only group of straight men at any major opera house. They are also guys with a background in construction and electrical contracting. They are the opposite of most of the homos and lefty artsy types and frequently hang a flag backstage to stick it in their faces.
Innocent until proven guilty.
Ball: See, yo honuh. It’s like dis. I was juss passin’ by mindin’ my own damn bidness when this young Whitey McCracker-Honkey started beatin’ himself to a pulp. I started to freak out for a moment. Never seen anything like it my life. That Whitey be crazy or sumthin’! I did my best to stop him, but no matter how hard I tried the worse it got. Dat’s da truth, yo honuh.
The honorable Rev. Al Sharpton said I was arrested for a WWB - walkin’ while black.
Mentally ill.
“He just walked away ...”
Black privilege..
Everything nowadays is “alleged” unless you’re white and a “Tea Party” member.
Stupid question. I love doggies, though I am allergic to their fur (cats too).
How many would YOU shoot?
Hmmm, maybe I should learn to YODEL! :o)
Me? I'm a mule killer. I hate drugs.
(especially allergy drugs, you hippie)
Interesting comments.
I agree with them all.
Criminals seem to have troubled brains. They are stupid. If they were smart they could make more money than God.
Those criminal males should suffer the consequences and to heck with their color.
What goes around DOES come around. Perhaps they are too stupid and arrogant to know that.
If this type of crap continues they will. “They” keep pushing and pushing something is going to blow.
Unfortunately, more and more often, attacks are taking place in downtown areas, not just the ‘bad’ areas.
May God bless you and keep you always.
AAAHHH-CHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Excuuuse me! I guess I'm allergic to people like you.
Too bad you don't follow some of Lao tzo's philosophy...the quintessential Taoist.
Taoist myths state that Laozi was conceived when his mother gazed upon a falling star. He supposedly remained in her womb for 62 years before being born while his mother was leaning against a plum tree. (The Chinese surname Li shares its character with "plum".)
Laozi was said to have emerged as a grown man with a full grey beard and long earlobes, both symbols of wisdom and long life. Other myths claim that he was reborn 13 times after his first life during the days of Fuxi. In his last incarnation as Laozi, he lived nine hundred and ninety years and spent his life traveling to reveal the Tao.
Hippie? Me? LOL. Boy, do you ever date yourself. Too bad you've ended up so angry and bitter.
And you kill mules. How sweet. (sarc.)
Is it time to move?
By the way, you were an expat. Where were you living overseas? Just curious.
Sweet?!! You're cooking them wrong.
Besides, you are supposed to let them cough up the coke first.
And yes, I was quite the hep-cat in my day. I speak not this "fa-shizzle" tongue of you children.
(confess: you never heard of Laotzu until you googled it ten minutes ago)
Quick!! Without googling it; which Laotzu philosophy am I not following?
No, I did know of him. I taught yoga (at the college level) for 27 years and learned about all those MOST interesting eastern philosophers. There are some 330 million "faces" of "God" in Hinduism. Gads.
My husband thought that SOMEWHERE in India some cult was worshiping a '65 Chevy. My husband had one. Boy could it FLY.
Mind you, I didn't delve much into their philosophy since it wasn't a philosophy class but I taught it as part of the general cultural aspect of yoga, an Asian practice.
Zoroastrians, Sidhartha Gautama (Buddha) and the Japanese hero worship. The Chinese were RIGHT up there with their gods--kitchen god, garden god, you name it, they had it.
All very interesting.
ALMOST forgot one of the biggies: Kung fu-tzu or Confucius.
ALMOST forgot one of the biggies: Kung fu-tzu or Confucius.
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