These are usally immgrants, with carts that they fill with ice, and have bike tires for wheels. They also have little bells on them too, to tell everyone they are there.

I guess some of the homeys thought some ice cream would be nice, but they were not in the mood to pay for it.  
Vendors had blade or two, and cut some of the SOB's.  Most likley they are sitting in 26th and Cal, missing shoe laces, and learning how to be someone's bitch.  

c-rock

An attempted robbery of two ice cream vendors by a group of teenagers Monday night erupted into a melee on the West Side that left at least four men injured, some of them seriously.

At one point, a crowd of about 100 onlookers gathered to watch the fight that blocked North and Keeler Avenues on a sweltering summer night.

It was like a parade," said Grand Central District Sgt. Neal Schultz.

"It was people packed from one sidewalk to the other" on North Avenue, he said.

About 20 police officers tried to disperse the crowd, he said, but many refused to leave.

Reports indicate the clash began when a group of teenagers attempted to rob two vendors at Wabansia and Keeler Avenues around 8:45 p.m. Monday in Humboldt Park.

The vendors abandoned their refrigerated carts and fled to North Avenue, pursued by the teenagers. Schultz said the vendors and the teens were armed with knives, and that the vendors defended themselves.

A crowd gathered during and after the fight, said Schultz.

"The carts had been emptied of ice cream and had been partially destroyed," he said.

Mt. Sinai Hospital officials reported that they had two male teenagers in serious condition with stab wounds Monday night.

Illinois Masonic Medical Center officials said they had one male in his 20s in serious condition, and Norwegian-American Hospital officials said they had one male in good condition with stab wounds to his left arm.

Schultz said police were attempting to sort out details of the clash and identify who was stabbed and under what circumstances.

Civil unrest... what's not to love. Try being ground zero in a riot. It's a character builder.

Just makes me want to leave the farm and move to the big city and live with all the friendly immigrants and people of color.

Are you sure you want to move to the big city?

Wouldn't it be better to move [size=4]ON[/size=4] the big city?  [:D]

With the way everybody is moving (out to the big open west) it wont be long till this is the big damn city.

again, would have been way more funny if the vendors were packin a pistol.

But... That's impossible! There can't be any violence there now that those evil handguns are banned!

And don't forget:
All your ice cream is belong to us!

Ahhhh   correction....in the Kingdom of Daley...oops I meant Chicago...there are NO firearms allowed.  Heck if things keep up with all the street beatings I am gonna have to register with the state and wait three days when I want to buy bricks or even a pocket knife.   Is it just me or does anyone else cross their fingers when they hear news annnouncements such as  "Mayor Daley collapses"  or "Daley experiences chest pains" is it bad of me to wish ill upon this fun guy...oops that is meant to be FUNGI....:)

Think we could work up a LEGP deal with Serbu for ice cream men?

Here in SoCal those handcart vendors are everywhere.  Let's all chip in for some real short 20 Gauges.

What little that Ponfinio Velasquez recalls of the fight showed on the blood-splattered jeans he still wore Tuesday and the white bandages covering the wounds on his left arm.

Selling paletas, little fruit and ice-cream pops, on some of the toughest streets in Humboldt Park Monday evening, Velasquez and friend Leon Garcia decided to fight back--confronting robbers that all too often prey on them as an easy target.




 


 


In a fight against as many as eight attackers, Velasquez and Garcia were beaten and stabbed defending the pushcarts of ice cream they use to make their living. Charges were pending against at least one suspect and possibly more Tuesday night, said Sgt. Robert Cargie.

It was Velasquez whom the young robbers approached first around 8:45 p.m. Monday near North Tripp and West North Avenues, he said Tuesday.

Velasquez and Garcia, who work each summer to send money to their wives and children in Mexico, abandoned their carts and tried to run away from the robbers, making it to North Avenue before they were caught.

When the group reached them, they began striking Velasquez, he said.

"One twisted my arm. Another punched me in the face," said Velasquez, 38, standing in the Juarez Paleteria, a small shop at 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue where he purchases his paletas each day.

There were eight of them altogether, Velasquez said, and he fainted soon after he was hit. He woke up in the hospital with his arm wrapped, his face bruised and his shirt torn.

After the young attackers began beating his friend, Garcia, 35, turned on them, according to police.

When Garcia began to fight, knives were drawn, though police would not say who had the weapons.

What ensued was seen by a crowd of dozens that later had to be dispersed by police, though few in the area were willing to discuss the attack.

Velasquez was stabbed in the arm, while Garcia suffered more serious wounds in his neck and right eye. Two teenagers received minor cuts.

Garcia was listed in fair condition Tuesday night in Illinois Masonic Medical Center. But he was in danger of losing sight in his wounded eye, said hospital officials and his brother, Fransisco Garcia.

Fransisco Garcia, 24, was proud of his brother standing up to the robbers, even though he worried if fighting back was worth it.

"We don't let anyone push us around," said Garcia, who works at a factory during the week and sells ice cream, like his brother, on the weekends. "I've been attacked, but I've never let them win."

Rafael and Maria Magallon, the owners of the Juarez Paleteria, said vendors like Garcia don't usually carry weapons, and they believe he took a knife from one of his attackers and used it against them. Police would not confirm, however, if that was the case.

Fearful neighborhood vendors, who walk block after block selling snow cones or fruit--seven days a week when it's warm--had similar tales of losing their daily $50 in profit. They've been threatened with bats or guns but usually escape without physical harm.

"I feel sad, worried," said snow cone vendor Nicolas Brito, 47, who has been mugged three times.

Rafael Magallon, the owner of Juarez Paleteria who employs mostly Mexican immigrants, said Velasquez and Garcia will not go back to the area where they were assaulted.

Maria Magallon agreed with her husband, saying anything that happens to the paleteros resounds in the whole community.

"If it happens to them, we feel it," she said. "We are a family."