The 200 South Block of Kenilworth in Oak Park, Illinois

Robberies, Thefts, Burglaries, and Illegal Car Parking...murders happen only a Block
Away.
report and commentary by Ed Vincent

On this tree lined idyllic street in Oak Park, with some homes
a million dollars or more, if crime is on your mind and you
don't mind walking a couple of blocks you can come hunting
here for the cost of a ride on the available mass transit system.

Some criminals coming to Oak Park, not of the white collar variety, make use of our fine transit system, the same one that many of us use to get to work in the city or just for a day long visit to many events downtown.   London has one of the highest per capita use of public camera recording a lot of the citizens activity.  Recording an event will not directly protect you, but it will let others know, that police will know who they are and that they will be found and have a date with justice.

In Oak Park and Forest Park the cost of installing a good
high resolution camera system at each of the Green and Blue
line stops is long overdue.  When someone is robbed like the
two young teens, Alex and James, they would likely have been
able to pick out their felons from the photos stored on the
cameras--but there are no cameras. 

Alex and James were walking down the block at the same time of day that the picture was taken, about 7:30 pm on Monday
the 4th of August, right across the street from Trustee Galen Gockel's house.   They were approached from behind by two 18-19 year old black men about 5 feet 10 inches tall with
do-rags on their heads.  One said they had a gun and they took all that the boys had on them.

They each lost their cell phones and felons ran off down the block.  The police arrived listened to what the young men
had to say and told them that there were some 7 other cases
like that which happened in the past week. 

The offenders in all the cases more than likely came here on
public transportation, if they were recorded they would have
been caught, if they knew they were being recorded they might
not come here.  Realtors have been quoted as saying that home
prices here have fallen from 7-8%, if you add daytime armed robbery to a block of homes I would guess the % would increase
in falling home prices-not to mention the nerves of the residents.





The Mass transit systems carry lots of people in and out of the suburbs.

Below is a Partial List of  Murders and Felons Who Came to
the Suburbs for Crimes Probably Using Public Transportation