Crime has a face sometimes. Otherwise, it’s colorless, as in Oak Park police reports.
Crystal Lake too. Now we’re talkin’.
Tag: Oak Park Illinois
Being reasonable about it
These three white guys walked into this 7-11 in Oak Park and . . .
. . . approached the clerk. One of the men pointed a black handgun at the clerk, another said give him the money or he will shoot you, according to police reports. The clerk triggered the silent alarm and fled to the back of the store.
There’s more:
While leaving the store, the three men saw a man servicing an ATM and demanded that he open it and retrieve money. When the service man said he could not open the machine, one of the robbers hit him in the back of the head with an unknown object, causing a laceration. The man was transported to the hospital.
But the whole thing worked out badly for them:
The three men left empty-handed and were not found when police arrived.
So they had to go by the clerk’s and ATM service man’s description, which was not bad as those things go. The gun was black, as above, where what one of them said is also narrated, and were “in their late-teens” and “wearing hats, black jackets and blue jeans.” Hmm, black gun and jackets, blue jeans.
But neither witness noticed if they were black, white, or other! Or they noticed but preferred not to say. Or they told the reporter and swore him to secrecy.
Anyhow, I assume they were white, because there are more white people in Oak Park than any other. It stands to reason.
Don’t you just hate it when they talk that way?
Here’s a new blog — Climate of Hate — dedicated to the proposition that hate lives! in political discourse in the U.S., especially on the left.
Clever indeed, and a blog whose time has come.
Seeing it, I am reminded of what I heard at a meeting of Oak Park leftists at the library in September of 2009, on the day after Obama had said, “The time for games [had] passed” in the matter of health care legislation in a speech to Congress.
“He gave us permission to hate the insurance industry,” said a Democratic Socialist, former Beye School parent (when my wife & I were Beye parents), former neighbor (a block over), who was busy at the time trying (without success) to get the village to enforce a “living wage” for its employees and employees of all who do business with or have received a subsidy from the village.
I’d been writing for the Wed. Journal of OP&RF, and his wife, also there to plan events etc., asked if I would be writing it in the Journal. (I wouldn’t, having resigned as columnist.) She clearly did not relish the idea, but he just wanted to be sure he meant health and not auto, etc. insurance. In fact, he was looking pretty pleased with having said it in my hearing.
And nobody else at the meeting (of 10 or so) seemed to object to his saying that, though not all would have said it. A fellow Dem Socialist (of America) seemed equally pleased, however.
Permission to hate, given by the president. What do you know about that?
Shot at in Oak Park
Boy shot at near Holmes School in Oak Park, 8:30 last night — you pass it on Chi Ave., lovely red brick building across Chi Ave. from a block of blocks with houses to grace any coffee table book about elegant living. School playground is half a city block extending west of the school, lots of state-of-art play equipment.
He was running from two in late teens. Shooter black, we may presume so are the other two but maybe not — Oak Park kids mingle a lot. The perps banged him on the head, he got treated at West Sub Hospital.
From comments:
* This is very disturbing. There are always children, families, tourists, people walking dogs at/near Holmes. It’s not a very well-lit area. In the past, I’ve also found used condoms and drug paraphrenalia under the playground equipment. Perhaps improving the lights would help deter such things. And I echo Ms. Schnierow’s comments [bemoaning recent Supreme Court “misinterpretation of the 2nd
amendment”].* How fortunate this teen wasn’t killed. If he had had a gun, he probably would be dead.
* Ms. Schnierow, Your point assumes that the offender purchased his gun legally. You should acknowledge that crimes such as this are committed not by law abiding gun owners, but those without licenses and whose guns are probably stolen.
* Hard to rationalize this one away–8:30 at night is not late to be out. The Oak Park boy, or an uninvolved bystander (someone walking a dog, or sitting in the window of a nearby house), could have been killed. I hope the police find the guys, quickly, and that they make a good case against them. Doing so is the best deterrence.
* This is simply unacceptable. Who were these kids? Where were they from? What were they doing there? What’s next, drive-bys?
* Ben [Meyerson], good reporting. And, it is refreshing to read in a crime report a FULL description (race) of the suspect, for the public to be aware & informed. Crime will only increase & it’s . . . becoming possible for crimes to occur in other areas besides the east side [abutting the city] & south side of Oak Park. This village needs to support the police dept. w/funds, and reduce other programs in order to do so, otherwise our quality of life & property values all go downhill.
* It was barely a month ago when the Tribune featured this neighborhood as “one of the 10 best neighborhoods in the nation”.
When it comes to crime, you find diversity of opinion here. But one thing I don’t get: it was a fight, the story says. But whose idea was it to fight, the two older guys, one of them armed, or the boy? I’ve seen that goading, here in recent years and here 70 years ago, but 70 years ago the gun was unthinkable.
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Later: The above is from OakPark.com. From Triblocal is this, about a guy in his back yard a mile or so almost directly south of Holmes School (a few blocks east, one east of Oak Park Ave.):
An Oak Park man was punched and robbed by two teenagers who robbed him of $12, Oak Park police report.
The man was in his back yard on the 800 block of South Euclid Avenue at 5:33 p.m. Tuesday when two male teens approached him. One of the teens drew a handgun and demanded money, while the second punched the man in the mouth, police said.
The victim reached into his pockets and dropped the cash to the ground, where it was picked up by one of the teens. They fled the scene through an alley, according to police reports.
I like the part about his throwing the money on the ground, if he threw it but didn’t just drop it, but the rest of it I don’t like at all. This block is just east of Oak Park Ave., a fairly bustling commercial strip, with a good-sized grocery store and several eateries and a bank. Just north of the Eisenhower, where there’s a Blue Line stop.
How it bounces is what counts
This pic is from today’s Dems of Oak Park e-blast for its Get out OUR Vote! campaign:
But didn’t the West Wing character do that all the time? Play with a rubber ball? A little fantasizing here? Actually, downsizing the prez, since the West Wing fellow was a mere aide. But showing O. as the shirtsleeved easy-goer, cool fella, our kind of guy. I think that’s the idea, but I’m not sure.
Mean street in Oak Park
This guy lived, his wife talks about it. Five against one, age 59: black-neighborhood spillover effect. Underprivileged youth. Hmm.
Blithe Spirit 