Crime in North Berwyn

[hvychev]

  I woke up this morning to see that our buddies the Latin Kings have left there mark IN A BIG WAY once again in North Berwyn. On Vacin Fairway and the north end of the 2100 hundred blocks of Oak Park, Euclid, & Wesley about 15 buildings, garages,  business, and even cars were hit with a shit load of filthy graffiti last night. The last building on 21st and Euclid has graffiti where the little bastard had the balls to actually go into the back yard and tag the side of the house! This nonsense has to stop!!

  I personally have come to the conclusion that I could care less about any of the other issues that we have discussed that the new administration should tackle. From today on I am going to base my whole personal opinion of Mike O'Connor's term as mayor on what he does with the obvious gang PROBLEM and crime in Berwyn. I know that some of the issues like condo conversion and overcrowding have a direct effect on crime but crime is the REAL issue at hand. Everybody is worried about Starbucks and children's museums but in reality the majority of people living in Berwyn that want to get the hell out of here are doing it because of crime, not the lack of a Starbucks. I am so pissed I can hardly see straight. Things like that graffiti are what gives people like Bru67 the ammunition to refer to North Berwyn as "North Central" which I take offense to because I love my neighborhood.

To the new administration, There is more to Berwyn than the South Side and the Depot District! Please help us.

[ruffian]

I support Hychev 100%.  Since the gangs are hammering North Berwyn, we need to concentrate a BIG police effort right now.  The police should saturate North Berwyn to the point it's almost impossible to make a move without a copper coming around the corner.  They want attention ...... let's give it to them.  Put that end on curfew ..... 8:00 p.m for anyone under 21 years of age.  Gotta show them that there is a price to pay when you pull crap like this.  North Berwyn is just as beautiful as South Berwyn ... it should not be the forgotten step child.

And Hychev is right on the point that until we deal with this one major issue alone, all the other issues we talk about pale in importance.

[pkd50]

Well said!    Help is needed all over, but especially here on the North Side.  When he reorganizes the PD, let's hope he puts some muscle in a Gang Unit.  That graffiti is sickening.

[hvychev]

Thanks Ruffian. I was on the phone with Michael Phelan first thing this morning and informed him of this incident. He was out the door after our conversation to look at it and said he would call Mike O'Connor and discuss it this afternoon. By the way Mike Phelan said he also noticed last night that they hit the 7-11 on 16th st. I also called the police and of course they said they were fully aware of it and also talked to my best friend who is on the BPD and owns a building across the alley from me and be said he was all over there at 12pm-1am last night and didn't see a thing so it must have been done in the middle of the night. I saw it at 8:00 this morning.

I just pray to god that I catch one of them in the act..........

[hvychev]

That graffiti is sickening.

pkd that is an acurate discription. As a matter of fact I even told Mr. Phelan the SAME thing. I told him be prepared to feel physically ill at the sight of how much there is and how bad it looks.

[Bru67]

Yes, North Central BA.  Doesn't shock me.  I know it's hard in your anger to see how economic development is the answer but it is Hvychevy.  Prices go up and rental supply goes down and these people will leave. 

After all, economics is why we're getting them in the first place.  A sad but common cycle -- they get priced out of a gentrifying neighborhood and end up in a neighborhood that's on a rapid decline and getting very violent due to territorial disputes among the new gangs being funneled into it.  They get worried about their safety and come here to escape because it's affordable and has low crime and good schools (at least compared to what they're used to and relative to what they can afford).  Unfortunately for them, and us, the problems simply follow them because by that point, their kids are hooked into the gang crap.  The phrase "you can run but you can't hide" sadly applies to them. 

As a bit of good news, I drove through North Central late Saturday night/early Sunday a.m. on my way home from a night out and I saw several cop cars circling the joint like vultures, obviously giving it a good deal of attention.  It appears to have worked because the common characteristics of really bad areas -- packs of teenagers sauntering across the middle of the street oblivious to cars and crying out gleefully from time to time, stoops full of thugs, people in the middle of the street who you just sort of have to drive around -- were absent.  I'll be interested to see the '04 crime stats and whether it is increasing.  Will we have to increase the size of the police force and/or institute new policing methods?  Maybe.

This is a point I'm sure the IVB will address rather quickly.  For your part, you should also contact your Alderman about a neighorhood watch.  The neighbors too can make it uncomfortable for the bad guys, and the landlords who harbor them.  Gangs will take the path of least resistence and if a community truly resists them, they will go on to easier pickings.   

[OakParkSpartan]

Last week or so, we saw a couple of officers on bikes riding the alleys.  I'd like to see more of that.

Any idea where these people are coming from? ie. where they live? 

Cheers,
Brian

[ruffian]

I hope they can get on this right away !!!  The little morons know everyone goes to bed early Sunday so that they are ready to rock on Monday.  Police must shake them down and shake them down NOW.  Penalties must be severe ... no slap on the hand stuff.  Families of the underage gang members must also take $$$$ responsibility in what it costs the City to focus on this gang problem.  Summer is coming ... everyone wants to enjoy.  See how the little punks enjoy sitting home at 8:00 at night throughout the summer.  They know the City is coming under new administration.  Seems to me they are calling them out ........ a challenge.  Like .... see what we can do? ... and there's nothing you can do about it.

Berwyn needs to answer:  OH YEAH

[Bru67]

Any idea where these people are coming from? ie. where they live?  

Cheers,
Brian

Probably a combination of the families moving into the apartments in NB from Chicago coupled with their friends who still live in the City coupled with the teenagers we already have.  At the moment, I think we're dealing with "wannabes."  I say that because we haven't seen the shootings which would signify an influx of gangs and the inevitable fight over territory that would bring.  Real gangs aren't about painting garages and cars, they're about making money.  Of course, we could also have a situation where one gang (Latin Kings?) is here and laying a claim.  I'd error on the side of taking it seriously.

[marysol_21]

Has anyone in South Berwyn obsevered any type of gang-like activities? Thankfully, I have not as of yet, however Im at work for most of the day, so Im curious about other residents' observations. The parks seem to be failry family oriented, nothing delinquent about in the area at all that I have ever seen.

Mary   

[Bear]

Im near 34th and kenilworth and in the last 15 years I only had a single incident of graffiti
on my garage. I called BPD graffiti task line and a cop came out right away and took a
picture of it, I then cleaned it up immediately. I have seen no evidence of bangers anywhere
near me, but than again im not out during late hours. I do know the building on windsor and clinton has had problems
(The police refer to that building as cabrini east and west) but wether it is gang or just drug
related, Im not sure.

[hvychev]

Some in North Berwyn have been lucky. My parents have lived on a corner house on 13th st for 30 years and have never been hit with any graffiti but the other 3 corner houses have been hit as well as all four houses on the other end of the block.

[ruffian]

Mary, yes ... South Berwyn gets its share of graffiti / gang presence.  I reported to Mark our soon to be 3rd Ward Alderman about increased activity at the location of the underpass to the IC railroad on Home.  He was well aware of it, as neighbors on the other side of the tracks have been alerting him too.  We had neighbors get hit with graffiti on the garage at their Home and 26th location .... and an increase in burglaries (broken into garages).

That said, I know of nothing to compare to the magnitude of destruction that Hychev described today in North Berwyn.

[jqpublic]

We had neighbors get hit with graffiti on the garage at their Home and 26th location .... and an increase in burglaries (broken into garages).

You must live right near me, I'm on Clinton. I've noticed a lot of foot traffic through my alley at night, I'm often up late working on this or that and I see a lot of creeps lurking around. One thing I never see going down the alley is a cop car. We'll just have to be patient, our new admin. hasn't even been sworn in yet.

[T-Stan RPCV]

Is video surveilance a viable option?

[Bear]

jq....May 10th is 8 days away, why waait?....If you see creeps in the alley, call the cops.

[jqpublic]

jq....May 10th is 8 days away, why waait?....If you see creeps in the alley, call the cops.

We do. Had a whole carload of gangbangers parked behind my neighbor's garage last week. Cops told them to move along. I guess a carload of punks from Cicero in a Berwyn alley behind the garage of a house they don't live in didn't warrant enough suspicion for the cops to search the car. Police scanners are a great tool, you find out how many times these guys are let off without even a slap on the wrist.

[ruffian]

T-Stan asked if surveillance is an option.  Apparently, it is.  When we had our forum get together at Garv's, Mark Weiner expressed that they were going to be looking at using technology such as video surveillance to assist police.  To set up cameras.  I'm all for it.  Surveillance alone is no cure all.  Nothing beats police presence on the streets.  You don't wait for trouble to happen .... you look for it.  I do think instituting tougher curfews will help too.  This gives the police the upper hand to stop and check people out ... like what JQ was talkin about.  Got a car full of bangers sitting behind a garage and even if you call the police what can they really do? except to suggest they move along.  But if a curfew is instituted .. this provides an avenue and right for police to invistigate who you are and what your doing.

Video surveillance
Curfew
Informants
Citizens Watch (so when you make that call, police show up licketysplit)

Intensify Night Patrol (from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.), to catch the little B@stards while your catching zzzz's

Fines on the families of young gangbangers for destruction of property ... $1,000 each offense would be a nice start.

Just all out war on gangs.  Then maybe Berwyn won't be that fun late night place to be.

If anybody thinks anything I mentioned is to too severe ... think again.  I cannot imagine waking up to find what Hychev saw this a.m.  He had to be heartsick.  We gotta stick together on this.  At the other forum, prior to the election ... I brought up several times that this was a MAJOR issue as I myself was seeing increased signs of gang activity in my travels in SOUTH Berwyn.  A lady at work told me that the gangs were moving from Cicero into Berwyn and that they had their sights set on North Berwyn.  Hychev's report today validates what I have been reporting all along.  But we were talking so much about the upcoming election the subject got lost in the shuffle. 

You know ... call me crazy but it seemed to me when I passed the polling place at Heritage on my way in to work that April 5th ... it looked to me like the RBD had gangbangers on the corner.  They did not look like your typical citizens concerned with making sure you weren't intimidated when you went to the polls.  IN FACT, it was just the opposite.  They LOOKED VERY INTIMIDATING ... toughs with baggy pants hangin off the @ss, and hooded tops.  They definitely did not look like political advocates.  They looked EXACTLY like gang members.  If the RBD used people like this, how do we know they aren't "in bed" to some extent with these people.  How do we know that the long arm of the old guard hasn't put out the order to the bangers to ratchet up the activity .... to begin to throw a monkey wrench into the lap of the new administration.  Nothing would surprise me.

We have to be careful that we don't have associations involving police officers and gangbangers.  This would render the department useless.  Any plans for attacks on gangs would be foiled by leaks in the PD. 

No, come to think of it ... I'm not crazy.  Just thinking how things got so bad so fast.  I may do what Hychev said he might do ... that is ... to set up my own video surveillance.  You can buy relatively cheap equipment at Sam's Cllub with up to four cameras.  If that's what it takes, so be it.

[jqpublic]

Police visibility really needs to be stepped up, Mike O'Connor mentioned this at the mayoral debate. If the bad guys think that a cop might turn the corner at any time, maybe they'll think twice.

If they think the cops are hanging out on Windsor & Wesley or at 16th & Ridgeland doing nothing, that's a different story. Make it as uncomfortable as possible for these thugs to operate. Make it known that they are not welcome here.

On a side note, I attended the IVB meeting tonight and am very encoraged by the direction and attitude the new administration is taking at this early point in time. Very encouraged.

[OakParkSpartan]

jq,

Could you possibly recap the meeting?

I'm out of town and was not able to attend.

Cheers,
Brian