When Comcast canceled a service call Wednesday at St. Sabina Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side, the explanation given was an unusual one — reports of potential gang violence would make it unsafe for the technician to show up for the scheduled appointment between 3 and 5 p.m.
That didn't sit well with the Rev. Michael Pfleger, senior pastor of the church, who took to Facebook to vent his frustration. Comcast reconsidered, and by Wednesday afternoon, three technicians were on site and the problem — spotty Internet service — was quickly fixed.
"When my staff came over to tell me the reason they were not coming out was for safety, it angered me," Pfleger said. "They don't have problems getting a check from our address."
Violence and its aftermath are certainly no strangers to the South Side neighborhood: A funeral for 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was held at St. Sabina on Tuesday. Tyshawn was shot and killed in a Gresham alley last week, another victim of the city's rampant gun violence. But the decision by Comcast to cancel six service calls in the area Wednesday has come under fire for what Pfleger characterized as an overreaction to an unsubstantiated rumor of gang retaliation.
Comcast received a warning Tuesday that wide swaths of the South Side would see increased gang violence over the course of a few days, in part because of Tyshawn's slaying.
"We made the decision to postpone yesterday's scheduled appointments in order to ensure the safety and security of our employees after receiving police information indicating a heightened potential for violence in the neighborhood," Comcast spokesman Jack Segal said. "We proactively reached out to the six customers in the area who had appointments and rescheduled them."
Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesman of the Chicago Police Department, said police were aware of the warning, which grew out of a social media post, but that there was no subsequent intelligence alert regarding any type of credible threat of gang activity in that area.
Segal said Comcast reached out to 6th District police and received confirmation of the threat, which led to the cancellations. He said that while not common, the cable giant stays in contact with municipalities whenever a situation might prove unsafe for its employees. The company canceled all service to the Fox Lake area for two days in September during the massive manhunt for suspects in the shooting death of Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, which has since been declared a suicide.
Pfleger said he understood why Comcast would cancel calls in the wake of a crime scene but said Wednesday's decision smacked of redlining — the practice of denying service based on the racial or ethnic makeup of an area.
"It's unacceptable for a business to start redlining like that, racial profiling a community that goes through enough neglect," Pfleger said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-comcast-south-side-1113-biz-20151112-story.html
That didn't sit well with the Rev. Michael Pfleger, senior pastor of the church, who took to Facebook to vent his frustration. Comcast reconsidered, and by Wednesday afternoon, three technicians were on site and the problem — spotty Internet service — was quickly fixed.
"When my staff came over to tell me the reason they were not coming out was for safety, it angered me," Pfleger said. "They don't have problems getting a check from our address."
Violence and its aftermath are certainly no strangers to the South Side neighborhood: A funeral for 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was held at St. Sabina on Tuesday. Tyshawn was shot and killed in a Gresham alley last week, another victim of the city's rampant gun violence. But the decision by Comcast to cancel six service calls in the area Wednesday has come under fire for what Pfleger characterized as an overreaction to an unsubstantiated rumor of gang retaliation.
Comcast received a warning Tuesday that wide swaths of the South Side would see increased gang violence over the course of a few days, in part because of Tyshawn's slaying.
"We made the decision to postpone yesterday's scheduled appointments in order to ensure the safety and security of our employees after receiving police information indicating a heightened potential for violence in the neighborhood," Comcast spokesman Jack Segal said. "We proactively reached out to the six customers in the area who had appointments and rescheduled them."
Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesman of the Chicago Police Department, said police were aware of the warning, which grew out of a social media post, but that there was no subsequent intelligence alert regarding any type of credible threat of gang activity in that area.
Segal said Comcast reached out to 6th District police and received confirmation of the threat, which led to the cancellations. He said that while not common, the cable giant stays in contact with municipalities whenever a situation might prove unsafe for its employees. The company canceled all service to the Fox Lake area for two days in September during the massive manhunt for suspects in the shooting death of Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, which has since been declared a suicide.
Pfleger said he understood why Comcast would cancel calls in the wake of a crime scene but said Wednesday's decision smacked of redlining — the practice of denying service based on the racial or ethnic makeup of an area.
"It's unacceptable for a business to start redlining like that, racial profiling a community that goes through enough neglect," Pfleger said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-comcast-south-side-1113-biz-20151112-story.html
