Evanston police say they caught two burglary suspects in the act Wednesday afternoon in the 1400 block of Washington Street.
The police received a tip from a resident who said two men were breaking into a house through a window.
Responding officers say they spotted two men fleeing from the scene with items taken from the home.
The officers chased the men on foot and, after a brief struggle in which one officer was struck in the face, they managed to take the suspects into custody.
Police say witnesses positively identified the suspects as the burglars, and officers searching the area found electronics gear and jewelry taken from the home.
The state’s attorney’s office has filed burglary charges in the case against Eric Seaton, 20, of 8436 Central Park in Skokie, and Dominic Connerly, 17 of 2014 Wesley Ave. in Evanston. Seaton also faces charges of aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting arrest.
Is it a coincidence that
Is it a coincidence that Connery’s place at 2014 Wesley was burglarized on June 11th?
http://evanstonnow.com/crime/incident/burglary/2008/06/11/burglary-at-2014-wesley
Revisit the Registration & Inspection Program for Apts.
Recent police reports have come up with a number of arrestees who list their home addresses as apartments near my home. Just a visual inspection of these buildings from the outside leaves me unsurprised that their tenants involve themselves in criminal activity. Last budget cycle, the real estate folks came out in force against a registration and inspection program for apartments. They focused on the fee included in the program as a hardship, but were really in fear of the extra power the city would be given to deal with problem properties. Most of our alderpeople voted against the program, and then later they approved a license fee on apartments to raise revenue. Some alderpeople expressed interest in re-visiting the original program feeling it was flawed. One objective of the program was that the city could interrupt a landlord’s rental income and remove bad tenants. Alderpeople I think we have reached the point of needing to reexamine this program. Right now, the citizens of Evanston find themselves in a situation where the criminals have been protected. Their rights to rent apartments, rob, assault, fire weapons, attack police officers, and sell drugs have been preserved. Alderpeople, you have put everyone else’s rights above those of your home owning, taxpaying citizens.
Oh, sure, that will help …
Would it cool your jets for the increased inspection program to know that in the case of the gentleman from 2014 Wesley the building is in the CDBG area and is therefore already — at least in theory — being inspected by the city every other year?
And what of the fact that the building is owned by the non-profit Evanston Housing Coalition, which claims to do a great job of screening its low-income tenants … and recently received a big grant from the city to do repairs on the property?
— Bill
Renovating the criminal’s apartment
So Bill, not only does our city give criminals the red carpet to live in our community, they pay to see that they have nice apartments as well.
While I as a citizen get to live by felons and drug dealers and must always be vigilant that I shut my windows and lock my doors against thieves. Will the city pay for my alarm system to protect me in my own home? What happens when one of the stray bullets from our valued criminals hits an innocent victim.
There are good landlords and I live near some of them. Any increased regulation of bad landlords only serves to help good landlords. It makes the neighborhoods more desirable and increases the value of their properties.
It disgusts me that the city and the alderpeople fail to address this problem. They ignore what the majority of the citizens of this community want from their government – why? To help out their friends? To continue the Evanston legacy? To be liberal?
They are so caught up in protecting their own and their high minded ideas they fail to help the people who really need it, their home owning taxpaying citizens.
How do you decide who not to rent to?
The person who was arrested in the case who lives at 2014 Wesley is 17 years old, a juvenile living with members of his family.
Would you throw the entire family out of the apartment because their kid got in trouble with the law?
Would you say a landlord can’t rent to couples with children because their kids might at some time in the future turn out to be criminals?
You sound as if you imagine that landlords have some magic time-travel machine at their disposal that will enable them to peer into the future and determine who among their tenants’ children may grow up to be crooks.
Your argument that subjecting apartments to more frequent inspections for building code violations will reduce the number of criminals in the community it totally bogus.
The added inspections will simply raise operating costs for all landlords — good and bad. It will not change the pool of tenants they have to choose from.
Bounce ’em
If your kids are criminals and you are a tenant in my building- proper notice and then you are out – the Evanston Landlord Tenant ordinance provides for that..
2014-24 Wesley $888,000 Various Funds from CDBG, MSHF, and Rehab programs for Purchase and Rehab.The taxpayers financed 2014 Wesley. for the Evanston Housing Coalition. George Gauthier knows better.
A really bad apple destroys a block – come on Bill, get real.
Landlords need to choose tenants responsibly
It’s in a landlord’s best interest to ensure they know their tenants and what they are up to: certainly, it’s very sad when one member of a family makes it harder on the rest, but it’s no different than sending a family’s breadwinner to jail for committing a crime; active criminals have a negative ripple effect on those closest to them. This is not the fault or the responsibility of the community.
If I were a landlord, I’d want to make sure my other tenants, neighbors, and property weren’t put at risk by one individual. This doesn’t mean refusing housing to someone with unpaid parking tickets, but you have to ask yourself why anyone would rent to some of the characters we’ve seen repeatedly in court. I would also hope that families would pressure their members to behave or leave if the consequence was losing their housing.
Find out more about Brummel Park Neighbors and Michele Hays