LAKEVIEW — So much for broken windows policing.
An increase in police manpower in Lakeview did little to stop a scuffle that shattered the storefront window at Taboo Tabou early Monday near the Belmont "L" station.
Video surveillance at the adult toy and lingerie store captured the fight around 4 a.m. Store co-owner Mark Thomas said huge clusters of people totaling at least 50 lined Belmont from the "L" station to Halsted Street as the 4 a.m. bars let out.
"You never would have gotten a crowd like that brewing if there had been a foot officer on Belmont," Thomas said. "This is the same crap that goes on on that street every year."
The video footage starts as a person crashes into the window. As he and another person tussle, others watch or try to pull them apart. At the end of the video, a police officer walks up, and the group scatters.
While nothing was stolen in the fracas, Taboo Tabou has already proven its mettle in the four months since it opened at 843 W. Belmont Ave. In February, co-owner Alexis Thomas and two employees chased down shoplifters after they grabbed $600 worth of merchandise.
Three months later, the three people arrested in the incident were sentenced to probation and 30 hours each of community service. Two had previous convictions.
The cheeky lingerie experts kept things light Monday, tweeting about the most recent incident: "Someone wanted in so bad they #broke our window."
Someone wanted in so bad they #broke our window. @chicagoreader @DNAinfoCHI @redeyechicago pic.twitter.com/NjroTx1POZ
— Taboo Tabou (@TabooTabou) May 30, 2016
As Lakeview neighbors contemplate ways to bolster their safety and officials tout increases in police manpower, warm weather violence is rearing its head across Chicago.
While the robberies and burglaries in the Town Hall District pale in comparison to the 53 shootings — including four killed — so far over Memorial Day weekend, the crumbling sense of safety on the North Side is a sign of the citywide strife, Mark Thomas said.
"If we don't get control in the first few warm weekends, then we lose control for the whole summer," he said. "Everybody knows they can jump on the 'L' and show up at Belmont and Clark, meet all their friends and act inappropriately."
Still, he doesn't regret Taboo Tabou's return to Belmont Avenue this year.
"Taboo is a neighborhood store, and my daughter has done a spectacular job building that community in Lakeview," he said. "I don't regret being in Lakeview, but I do regret the conditions that repeat again and again."
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