This is getting to be ridiculous. It's about time for the Patch to post a map with the recent violent crimes. Without a doubt we will see a pattern within the locations. I see many crimes happening in or around the same locations. I want to avoid these spots.

See headline article on clown trustee that says crime is down. Then laugh.
Just avoid about 1/3 of Skokie where the multi-family unit, liberal/CHA/HUD/Clinton relocation of urban poor/lazy programs have destroyed Skokie.
Oh but wait, the mayor said crime was down.
Again, maybe every elected offical that states crime is down should volunteer to move to these crimes areas and become block captains.....

George Slefo,

I see the other local suburb patch sites post maps with the locations of crimes.
Why not Skokie patch?

Thanks

How about a description of offenders?

George, you're doing a great job. While you take some heat form time to time, you've kept your cool and stuck with it. Nobody is asking for a high tech solution. Take a picture of your map and we'll sort it out.

http://evanstonnow.com/crime

http://evanstonnow.com/about-bill-smith

See Evanston Now's Crime map...a very good on line publication. Or email it's
editor and publisher, Bill Smith, and ask him how he puts out such a great daily publication.

Crime feel DOWN to you?

Crime rates are DOWN? Are you kidding me? I'm a realist. The very minute I walk out my front door these days, I'm in combat mode. I, for one, would love to see Mayor van dussen or Chief scarpelli move into and live in any of our supposedly safe neighborhoods for a month. Anytime I see one or more "hoodies" walking in my direction I am already deciding which one to take out first if things get shall we say "a little dicey". Summer is around the corner and I feel it's gonna be a hot one.

Mr. Slefo thank you for responding. As to Mr. McCracken who are you trying to convince you are not a racist? I didn't ask the race of the offenders were. All I asked was for a description of the offenders. Keep up the good work.

Can we leave any references to racism out kindly?

There is no point in throwing ugly labels at one another. It simply creates division and anger and detracts from the real issues we all must face.This is a fight we all must fight together.

One little tip. when I am working in my alleyways and a crew of "the usual suspects" comes meandering by, I slip my hands into my coat pockets. It keeps the bad guys wondering what you might have your hands on and lessens the probability of an attack by the wolf pack.

People can argue all they wish, but this crime is all gang related. the vast majority of it. Just as the six month old child was killed off just a day ago, apparently daddy was a gangster. Hmmm ...anyone surprised?

We are suffering the ills of the demolished urban housing projects and all the dreck they housed. Now the ghetto has come to us. Landlords work hard not to rent to this element but the system is stacked to promote their influx and their dispersion amongst the nice folks. The next social experiment by the nation's largest landlord. HUD.

Landlord's didn't suddenly get greedy and evil around the year 2000. HUD started tearing down all the projects en masse. Where do people think those 200,000 displaced souls went? Do you not understand that they still have friends back in the "hood" and that Skokie is "easy pickings"? They come out to visit, or co-habit covertly and illegally.

The immoral people who now live amongst us DO NOT THINK LIKE WE DO.

.http://www.sudhirvenkatesh.org/books

Please go to the library and borrow this book and study the problem which has come to us. This book is a true sociological and economic study or how housing project residents bring their version of morality to good communities and superimpose their world on others.

Venkatesh virtually lived in the Robert Taylor homes for seven years and befriended one of the gangs top lieutenants. His book is an inside look at their twisted "morality" as well as their methods of economic survival. Their underground economy. Crack cocaine and heroin are the two top commodities whereby gangs earn their income.

Be realistic. Chicago not only has the largest public housing population in the nation but also the largest gang population. And where do you think the largest numbers of the gangs reside? And when you demolish their homes, where do you think they go?

1) HUD, 2) CHA, 3) HACC 4) Open Communities and 5) Housing Opportunity Development Corp all have a vested interest in relocating this population. ITS THEIR JOB.365 DAYS A YEAR. EVERY DAY. Their vetting process is weak at best.

Can you really believe that these agencies are unaware of what they are transplanting in our village? Seriously? How do you work with this population and remain completely blind to the criminal component contained therein? Maybe solace can be found in a pay check.

Try your own experiment. Try calling the Housing Authority of Cook County with a complaint about one of their Section 8 residents. Noise or trash...take your pick. You will be unable to reach anyone by phone. Voicemail only.

Then try emailing them a photo of the trash the their residents dump in your neighborhood. Or send any email. They have firewalled out the general public and your email is returned. Yes, that's their internal architecture.

Can intelligent residents of Skokie honestly believe that landlords are so desperate for cash flow that they would sacrifice their own neighborhoods and the greater community as well? That's just foolishness. That's naive. It would destroy the underlying value of their property assets. There are a few naive landlords though that don't understand the trouble they are courting when they "go with the program."

Gangsters in most cases are minors and doing criminal background checks on them is both impossible and illegal. Thank God all these housing agencies can hide behind that law. Claiming no knowledge that the "little ones" were monsters. And gangsters of majority (adults) don't apply on initial lease applications but rather, move in after the fact. Undocumented on the original lease. Thereby remaining "invisible".

Skokie residents are naive as to the behavioral patterns ingrained in the ghetto community. Venkatesh's book informs. He is currently a Sociology professor at Columbia University in New York.

A statistical "study" which purports to provide revelations has little substance. Skokie Voice is well intended, but their assertion that slacking or lacking landlords have brought these problems to our community is without merit. A similar "study" could be "conducted" in any major metropolitan area of the country where the housing projects are enormous, contain gangs,and have been razed by HUD. That situation is actually common across our nation and many inner suburbs nationally are suffering as we are in Skokie. HUD has been solving their problem in major cities everywhere.

Drugs, weapons and violent crime are the currency of gangs. They don't fear Skokie's traditional residents, only other gangsters as they fight to establish the Alpha males. They trade on creating fear amongst established residents to drive us out.

Criminals don't typically move into single family homes.They move into apartments or other rental properties. Only logical.

Their impoverished element does not relocate out of communities they inhabit. They become PERMANENT residents. They create vacancies first in apartment buildings to create financial distress among landlords, and then later in single family homes vacated by good residents. Then "ghetto maker" buyers come in and buy these homes at fire sale prices and could not care less whom they rent to. Skokie's high foreclosure rate promulgates this movement. Time to get school spending under control so that housing values stop eroding and foreclosures slow.

Burglarizing your homes, cars and garages is just good fun. Practice. Robbing you on the street, more of the same as they earn their credentials within the gangs. These gangs are highly organized and regimented criminal organizations. Wake up to this. Don't be naive. They are a growing enterprise, a cancer, and they are commited to destroying our community and claiming our children and building their drug business.

I apologize for the extreme length of my comments but this is not a simple issue and village residents need to awaken and fight the fight. Together.

George - Please contact Skokie Voice chair. The data has already been mapped on crime in Skokie. It should be published in my opinion. Over 50% of the crimes are committed by people who live in Skokie! And thank you, George, for doing your job well!

Brian,

What do we do?
Many of us have acknowledged the problem, now what?

I suggest we stay vigilant. Map the problem and shine light on the problem. The issues may persist but not if we protect ourselves and the community. People need to be made aware that there can be trouble after dark, home invasion is a reality and that Skokie PD can only be there after an incident if we don't give them the tips they need to do their jobs.

Hey Oliver,

Why not run a a Google seach on the following former Skokie residents: Christian Hardison and Akeem Brackenridge. Sure, hire me...but pay me...handsomely like village employees.

I (then a 50 yr old man) tackled those two darlings as they were burglarizing my home 10/13/10. Akeem is now in prison on an 8 year sentence for armed robbery with a .357 of a Howard street sandwich shop.

And Christian has been arrested at least twice since for felony possession of stolen merchandise from a residence and d felony burglary They wouldn't identify the third invader. Most likely a Gangster Disciple they feared with a gun. Yeah 3 of them by myself Oliver. The DA said she wanted to plead it down to a single criminal trespass as this was their "first offense". More likely the first time a Mofo tackled them in the act. Six felonies reduced to two misdeameanors with $100 fine and probation.

I just love a guy with a big mouth, no brains or guts. Do something constructive pip squeak.

What have you done Oliver? Other than spout off about crap you know nothing about Hero...from behind the cover of a psuedonym. That single misdemeanor shoud have been felony burglary and battery because of the wrestling I had to do as I handed him off to the police. Oh and yeah, Christian his sweet mother and sister were living just 4 blocks away in subsidized housing. Previously he was a west side resident of Chicago...and Akeem was a Niles West line backer. You can sit down and shut up now.

Idiots with big mouths who do nothing constructive to fight for our community should relocate. Might I suggest Chicago's west side. See how long you last there.

Oh dear, Mr. Brian. I was not trying to raise your hackles!

Firstly, your valiant description of the fight led me to pop some popping corn and re-read it again and again. Who needs the picture-show or the radio serials when one has such real-life heroism for entertainment?

But most seriously, your suggestion that I relocate leads to my main point...Skokie is a pretty good, pretty safe place. Sure there is crime, but that's the world today, and we do not have it so bad. Alas, I've lived (in my century-plus of living -- your 50 years make you a relative youngster!) in places much more dangerous and dreary than this fine village. And that is why I don't spend my every breath lamenting its current state. Surely it could be better. And surely I'd like to see the know-nothing simpletons in public office booted to the curb where they belong. But just realize that things could be a whole lot worse, as they are for many not fortunate enough to live in Skokie, Illinois.