Evanston police say an ice cream vendor working in the area of Lake Street and Dewey Avenue was robbed Tuesday evening.
Police say five to seven teenagers wearing white t-shirts stopped the victim to buy ice cream from him about 7 p.m. When he went to make change, the robbers grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground, before running off with his money.
Ice Cream Man Robbed
Several times last summer we heard of victims being assaulted by marauding bans of youth in white t-shirts, and here we go again. I guess we can be thankful we’re not on the southside of Chicago, but it sure would be nice to enjoy the summer without fear of being ambused in broad daylight. Oh, by the way does the city have any plans for curbing this violence before it turns deadly or is this the price we pay for living in Evanston.
Being Robbed on the streets in Evanston is a normal event!
In the late 90’s I pointed out in the Evanston Review in a letter to the editor
that basically Evanston has robbery rate that was much higher than the surrounding communities by a factor of about 10 times. Basically a robbery occurs ever few days here. Are people hurt? Yes – one lady told me of her friend who was robbed by an individual who robbed several people -she end up in the hospital for a month. The police are not really reporting what is happening to the vicitms other than they are knocked to the ground – recently in Oak Park a doctor died a few months later due to head injuries he suffered in a robbery.
These bands of youth last year were screaming racial slurs and attacking people in the downtown – were they tried for hate crimes? It was all covered up.
That is what has been going on here for years a cover up – in the profiles of the council members that are on here not one of them will talk about the crime problem Evanston has – most are clueless.
By the way in 1997 Evanston index crime rate was higher than chicago! I pointed this out at a city council meeting – a few weeks later the new index crime rates came out a 25% drop in crime – largest drop in 25 years! interesting?
Lets face it the people in power and the special interest groups – want to keep the public in the dark about the problems here. At the so called meeting they had on crime at the high school a year ago – a few hours before someone was gun down on the street not one public official in attendance mentioned it!
Maybe the second ward
Maybe the second ward alderman needs to go back to ETHS and have another talk about how the youths’ actions are perceived. As if violence and anti-social behavior is a matter of perception. Please.
Neighborhood Watches
Perhaps creating Neighborhod associations could help eleviate the perception of helplessness in these situations? I think it might not only get the message out to these punks that they cannot run rampant through our neighborhoods, but it would also create a tight-knit community of neighbors as well.
How many of us know the people on both sides of our blocks?
Gang Initiation
This sounds like a gang initiation to me. The west side alderman need to have a gang info meeting, bring in the Evanston police and Chicago gang unit, and explain better how gang uniforms are now “white t-shirts” so that gang members can disperse quickly and not be recognized.
The amount of money stolen would be smail, meaning no felony if caught, and the victim is among the least powerful in the community, probably not from Evanston, or someone who speaks English well.
There are gangs in Evanston. They are from Evanston families, and live in Evanston neighborhoods. The louder we talk about gangs, gang actions, gang culture, gang connections, and who we know for sure are members of gangs, the less obvious they will want to be.
I like to see the Mayor posing with bike riders. I’d much rather she held a gang summit in Evanston so that our community leaders better understood this part of our city’s culture and population. I don’t expect to see this anytime soon.
A Summit May Be a Timely Suggestion
I don’t mean to be fear mongering, but I was just discussing this thread with a neighbor and he told me that our neighborhood had a similar issue last Thursday, 6/12, at 7:00 pm. This occurred on Keeney, a few houses east of Grey. A very large group of older African-American teens jumped one of the bicycle push-cart ice cream vendors that are seen around town. So far, I have not seen anything reported about it publicly. Several of the neighbors came running out of their homes and tried to track down some of these teens. One person drove around and was able to locate 2 of these young men walking near the Levy Center, south of our area. He was able to flag down an EPD patrolman who arrested both of them. This happened while it was light outside and there were people around or nearby.
Seems that this has been happening too frequently this year, already.