Monday, December 29, 2014

Archer BP Holding Holiday Raffle; Stop By Soon For Your Chance to Win Prizes!

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Hey, check out this new offer from our friends at Archer BP, conveniently located at Archer and Oak Park.

Stop by and enter for your chance to win!

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Crime News Update


Editor's note: The crime news reported by the Southwest Chicago Post---taken directly from Chicago Police Department incident reports---is not by any means an exhaustive catalogue of all crime reported in the Chicago Lawn (8th) District. For example, it typically does not include news of crimes committed in the eastern and southern sectors of the district---because the Southwest Chicago Post's coverage area is primarily the neighborhoods that border Midway Airport and secondarily because including the relatively large volume of crime news from elsewhere in the district would be a logistical challenge. We make this note to offer a little helpful perspective and remind everyone that while crime is definitely a concern in all parts of the district (as it always has been), crime remains relatively low overall in Sector 1. May all of us work together diligently to keep it that way. May all of us also remember that a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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A 20-year-old Scottsdale man told police that he was robbed at gunpoint by two thugs on the street at 8000 S. Pulaski, moments after he stepped off a CTA bus at 11:49 p.m. Friday, Dec. 26. The victim said the criminals brandished a gun and said, "Hey, b~tch, gimme your money." The victim handed over his wallet, which contained $100 cash, and the offenders fled in a blue van, west on 80th Street. They are described as Hispanic men, about 5-feet-10 and 180 pounds.

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A lone thug made off with about $3,000 from a safe at the Dollar Tree store located at 5101 S. Cicero, the store manager told police. The crime occurred at 8:45 a.m. Monday, Dec. 22, when the robber walked in, pulled a black revolver and demanded cash. After obtaining the cash, he walked out and fled in an unknown direction, according to the police report. He was described as a black man age 35-40, 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds, with black hair and a light complexion. He was wearing a black hoody and a black coat, witnesses told police.

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Want to work directly with Chicago Police to prevent crime in your neighborhood? If you live in Beat 815 or 821 (see map), come to St. Bruno School (south entrance) at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 7. Hear updates on crime in your neighborhood and learn how you can work with neighbors and police to make the community safer and better for all.


A 25-year-old West Lawn man told police he was punched in the face and robbed by two criminals as he walked down a sidewalk near 71st and Lawndale at 2:05 a.m. Friday, Dec. 26. The attackers managed to take his cell phone, but the victim told police that the offenders failed to get his wallet because he pinned himself against a nearby chain-link fence. He described the robbers as black men age 18-25, 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds.

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A 37-year-old clerk was robbed at gunpoint moments after she closed up shop at the Check Into Cash store at 8547 S. Cicero, and was walking to her car at 6:20 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22. The armed thug made off with the victim's purse and fled on foot. He is described as a black man age 19-23, 6-foot-1 and 140 pounds, brown eyes, dark complexion.

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While a 69-year-old West Elsdon woman put up Christmas decorations in front of her house near 57th Place and Karlov, a burglar entered the dwelling via the unlocked rear door and stole her purse from a second-floor bedroom. The crime occurred at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 23. Her friend, a 79-year-old Archer Heights man, was helping her at the time and later told police he saw a man hop a fence in back and flee the scene. He was not able to provide a significant description of the man.

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Burglars forced open the rear window of a home near 80th and Knox and stole assorted jewelry, six pairs of Air Jordan athletic shoes, two video game consoles and $1,500 cash. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 36-year-old woman, when she came home from work at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 23.

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Want to work directly with Chicago Police to prevent crime in your neighborhood? If you live in Beat 814 (see map), come to Vittum Park at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, January 8. Hear updates on crime in your neighborhood and learn how you can work with neighbors and police to make the community safer and better for all.

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A 55-year-old Bolingbrook man was robbed by a male accomplice of a female prostitute he picked up at 47th and Cicero at about 8:30 p.m. Christmas Day. The victim told police that the streetwalker suggested he drive to 44th and Leamington before she performed a sex act. He complied and was met by the accomplice, who brandished a handgun and said, "Drive to the ATM and withdraw money, or I will kill you." The victim did as instructed, eventually surrendering $200 cash, his cell phone, and a bar code reader that belongs to his employer.

When questioned by police, the victim claimed he could not recall which ATM he used, and he gave only a vague description of the offenders to police. He added that he had no interest in pressing charges, according to the police report.





A burglar forced open the service door of a garage near 62nd and Tripp and stole a snow blower, a hydraulic jack, a box of screws, and other items. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 34-year-old man, at 10 a.m. Christmas Day. Surveillance video revealed that the criminal was a Hispanic man but nothing more, according to the police report.

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Burglars forced open the service door of a garage near 54th and Kilbourn and stole assorted power tools. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 32-year-old man, at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 24.

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Burglars entered the back door of a home near 49th and Keating and stole a TV, a Blu-ray Disc player, a microwave oven, a box containing watches, and a cell phone. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 60-year-old man, when he came home from Christmas shopping at noon Wednesday, Dec. 17.

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Criminals broke into a home near 47th and Kostner and stole two watches and assorted jewelry valued at $3,000. The crime was discovered by one of the victims, an 85-year-old man, who woke up at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20 when he heard the invaders in his home. He could only describe them as Hispanic men age 20-25, police said.

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http://www.getbehindthevest.org/

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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Letters to the Editor

Editor's note: We respect your opinion and are privileged to share it via this website. All letters to the editor will
be reviewed before being posted. We do allow anonymous comments, yet we will not allow the Southwest Chicago Post to serve as a forum for bigotry of any kind. We also will not allow personal attacks against anyone, including elected officials and other public figures. On this site, all of us need to keep our tone respectful and our criticisms constructive. That's important as we work together to build better Southwest Side neighborhoods for all. So please join the conversation by sending your letter to editor@swchicagopost.com.



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Editor,


Regarding your editorial of 12/4/14, we must heartily concur. Only recently has our family become aware of the fine group of officers and board members who have guided the operations of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch in its efforts to maintain the highest standards of a peaceful, strong and vital community. Having had a career of 30-plus years with the CPD, we can personally testify of how important the eyes and ears of a neighborhood are to providing good police service.

As to the official police component, a district such as Chicago Lawn (008th District) is in many ways put to a definite disadvantage because its residents are overwhelmingly working folks of a law abiding nature. Let us explain.

Because the assignment of manpower is determined by the reported crime rate, a district with a higher rate of serious crime will get more officers assigned, be constituted in a smaller geographical area and have much smaller Beats. In bold contrast, a more peaceful, "quiet" and family friendly place has a much smaller roster of personnel; which is charged with patrolling a much greater area in size.

We do understand that this practice is a necessary to the needs of a community as it relates to the severity of its crime problem, we also believe that this application of the old adage of "It's the wheel that squeaks that gets the oil" is grossly unfair to residents of communities such as ours. It is, after all, people such as our neighbors who pay the lion's share of the taxe$; only to get the leftovers from City Hall.

So, you say, what is our suggestion for a remedy to this situation of obvious inequity? Well, it is very simple and maybe even so obvious that no one has  thought of it until now.

With s simple redrawing of the beat structure, the City and the police department could establish a maximum size for beats. This would not be detrimental to high crime areas, yet it would bring some additional service to those in the districts which are greater in square miles.
(The attempt to compare one police district to another is one that would be similar to that of the relationship in size of the planets of our solar system. Some are small, like Mercury and ex-planet, Pluto. Some are great and huge; such as Jupiter. For sure, no two are alike.)

This would, of course, mean that the city administration would have to do some additional hiring of cops; but we are in a definite need of that already. We believe that the CPD is down many more bodies than those in power will admit to.

But that is a subject for another day.
John T. "Red" Ryan
Garfield Ridge               

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Editor,

"Build it and they will come!"

As familiar as this phrase is to us, it has been given a new, relevant meaning here, in Garfield Ridge. Whereas the mysterious voice in the cornfield was giving Kevin Costner cryptic messages in the now classic film, Field of Dreams (Universal, 1981) about turning his cornfield into a baseball park; today's message is clear, straightforward and even profound.

We are, of course, referring to the highly successful Christmas tree lighting ceremony held on the Saturday following Thanksgiving Day (on 11/29/14). This was the first such ceremony which is planned to be an annual Garfield Ridge event.

A veritable standing room only (SRO) crowd were treated to music, food & refreshments and the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus (whose sleigh was delivered by way of a siren blasting fire engine!) The only disappointments that of not having the artificially frozen Wentworth Park ice rink ready; although this was a very minor point.

While the event was sanctioned by 23rd Ward Alderman Mike Zalewski (who also acted as a co-master of ceremonies), it is the culmination of months of hard work by a small group of extraordinary ordinary local residents.

Sponsored by a neighborhood redevelopment oriented group known as the Garfield Ridge Retail Entertainment & Amusement Team, or GRREAT for short. The founding members of the community oriented group are: Elisa Mondia, Rich & Gale Voytas, John Kapusciarz (of European Chalet) and Tim Gorzkowski. 

It is this small core of hard-working residents that got the ball rolling. Now let's get behind their efforts and keep it rolling!    

(Oh yeah, by the way, you can check out the organization on the Internet at http://www.wearegrreat.com).

John T. "Red" Ryan
Garfield Ridge    


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Editor,

Is there any update on Checkers? Did they get back to you with the information they promised, on how many people from Garfield Ridge and Clearing applied for jobs there?

Dave Hubalik
Garfield Ridge

Editor's reply: They have not, and all of us should draw our own conclusions from that.


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Dear Editor,

Thank you for once again for publishing the crime news of our neighborhood. The Tribune and Sun-Times will write about the big crimes, like murders, but yours is the only local news source I know of that consistently gives us information about garage burglaries, home and business burglaries, thefts, purse snatchings, graffiti and the so-called smaller crimes. That kind of news is important to us. We don't even get that information at CAPS meetings. It's valuable and helps us organize ourselves to fight back.

I read every word of your crime reports. Please keep up the good work in 2015.

Mary Ann McLaughlin
Scottsdale

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Editor:

Your "coverage" of crime is racism at its finest, or should I say worst. Picture after picture of African Americans who are arrested. Where are the photos of whites?

Anonymous

Editor's reply: We apply the same rules to everyone charged with a crime, regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. If we can get our hands on a mugshot, we post it, regardless of who the person arrested is.


* * *

Editor:

You've criticized Checkers for not hiring local kids, but what about the Southwest Chicago Post? I look at who your advertisers are, and some of them are not from Garfield Ridge. So what kind of hypocrisy is that?

Anonymous

Editor's reply: First, our criticism of Checkers is not so much that they haven't hired locally (for the most part), it's the fact that they went out of their way to say they'd hire locally but then didn't.

Second, the Southwest Chicago Post is not a "Garfield Ridge" news service. It is a Southwest Side news service. We serve the five city neighborhoods that border Midway Airport (Garfield Ridge, Clearing, Archer Heights, West Elsdon, West Lawn), plus Scottsdale to the south. So yes, the advertisements are more than Garfield Ridge, as would be expected.

Third, we do accept advertisements from beyond the Southwest Side, in cases where:

a. there is no comparable business located on the Southwest Side. Example: Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield or Berwyn's Toys & Trains.

or

b. there are comparable businesses on the Southwest Side, but they have chosen not to advertise with us yet. Example: The handful of Southwest Side law practices do not advertise with us right now, and that's certainly OK by us, but it won't stop us from engaging law firms outside the area, especially highly respected ones like the Loop-based Disparti Law Group.

So yeah, in our perfect world, all Southwest Chicago Post advertisers would be locally owned, locally operated and employers of local men, women and teens. That's what we strive for, and our advertising rate structure reflects that. Businesses that meet those three criteria qualify for our lowest rate, while others do not. If you know of a Southwest Side business that you think should advertise here, please let them know and send them our way. :-)


* * *

Editor:

I notice you made a big deal out of Santa Claus coming to Martin Arteaga's campaign headquarters and then to Paulino Villarreal's office on Archer, but no mention at all of our Alderman Mike Zalewski and crew making the rounds on an old-fashioned fire truck. Why do you ignore our alderman?

Anonymous

Editor's reply: First, we did not make a big deal out of the visits to the Arteaga and Villarreal offices. We simply reported them as news, so that local parents and grandparents would have another option that is local, something other than a Santa in a suburban shopping mall. Second, why did we not report what Alderman Zalewski did for Christmas? Because neither he nor his staff let us know. Had they done that, we would have shared it with everyone. Instead, we saw more than a few disappointed residents of the 23rd Ward posting in local Facebook groups things like "What? I didn't know about that. How do I get them to come to my house?" So, we are not ignoring the alderman. He's ignoring us. And that's his prerogative, of course.





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Five Charged in Clearing Murder

Just released to the press by CPD earlier this morning:




Tuesday, December 23, 2014

South Side Man Charged in Death of Pedestrian Hit Near 53rd and Western

Just released to the news media by the Chicago Police Department at 12:46 p.m.:


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Thursday, December 18, 2014

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Archer Heights Civic Association Salutes 5 Great Young People of the Community

Just sharing a press release from our friends at the Archer Heights Civic Association:


Every year the Archer Heights Civic Association (AHCA)  presents a Junior Citizen Award to one student of the eighth grade graduating class at each of the five grammar schools located in Archer Heights – St. Bruno, Edwards, St. Richard, Pfc Omar Torres, and Spc Daniel Zizumbo - in recognition of outstanding school spirit and school/community/church participation.

It is our civic association’s hope that by presenting this award we not only thank a student for being involved in the community and their respective school, but also to encourage all graduates to become actively involved in our community of Archer heights or whatever community the student will ultimately reside in.

The awards were presented at the graduation ceremonies of each school and the recipients were acknowledged at the December 10th meeting of the AHCA.



Pictured from left to right are:

Stanley Lihosit – AHCA Executive Director, SPC Daniel Zizumbo School winner Adrian Ortiz and his father Oscar and sister Sofia, Pfc Omar Torres School winner Alicia Pimentel and her parents Nancy and Carmelo, St. Bruno School winner Alexander Rosado and his parents Elizabeth and Javiar, Edwards School winner Rene Valtierra and his mother Lorraine, St. Richard School winner JuanCarlos Paez and his father Juan, and AHCA President Thomas S. Baliga.


Photo by Karen Duddleston

Crime News Update


Editor's note: The crime news reported by the Southwest Chicago Post---taken directly from Chicago Police Department incident reports---is not by any means an exhaustive catalogue of all crime reported in the Chicago Lawn (8th) District. For example, it typically does not include news of crimes committed in the eastern and southern sectors of the district---because the Southwest Chicago Post's coverage area is primarily the neighborhoods that border Midway Airport and secondarily because including the relatively large volume of crime news from elsewhere in the district would be a logistical challenge. We make this note to offer a little helpful perspective and remind everyone that while crime is definitely a concern in all parts of the district (as it always has been), crime remains relatively low overall in Sector 1. May all of us work together diligently to keep it that way. May all of us also remember that a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

* * *

An 82-year-old West Lawn woman was pushed to the ground and robbed as she walked in the back yard of her home near 60th and Komensky at 5:30 p.m. Friday, December 12. Stolen was her purse, which contained $100 cash, credit cards, a cell phone and other items. The victim was not able to provide a description of the offender, because she was pushed from behind and the crime happened so quickly, she told police.

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Want to work directly with Chicago Police to prevent crime in your neighborhood? If you live in Beat 813 or 833 (see map), come to West Lawn Park at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 23. Hear updates on crime in your neighborhood and learn how you can work with neighbors and police to make the community safer and better for all.


A 22-year-old Scottsdale man, said by police to be a gangbanger, was reportedly assaulted by rival gang members at 12:37 a.m. Sunday, December 14. The victim told police he was sitting in his car near 80th and Kostner when he saw two men approaching. He bolted from the car and fled on foot, with the two offenders in pursuit.

He added that he heard a gunshot and several trigger pulls, indicating the weapon had jammed. The offenders then fled on foot in the direction of Stevenson Elementary School. Police searching the area found a loaded pistol and are investigating, according to the CPD incident report.


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* * *

Burglars forced open the rear door of a home near 57th and Meade and stole a TV, a PlayStation video game console and games, 20 pairs of Nike Air Jordans, and $200 in two-dollar bills. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 41-year-old man, when he came home from work at 6 p.m. Saturday, December 13.

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Burglars smashed the window next to the rear door of Beggars Pizza, 5133 South Cicero, entered and stole $5,000 cash from a safe. The crime was discovered by a manager at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, December 9.

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Burglars broke into a garage near 59th Place and Hamlin and stole assorted power tools. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 38-year-old man, at 10 a.m. Saturday, December 13.

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A transom above an apartment door was the point of entry for a burglar who stole a laptop computer and a video game console from a residence near 50th and Keeler. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 25-year-old man, when he came home from work at 3 p.m. Saturday, December 13.

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* * *

Burglars entered the unlocked service door of a garage near 86th and Keating and stole a pair of designer sunglasses. The crime was discovered by the victim, a 25-year-old woman, at 7:20 a.m. Saturday, December 13.

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Two Garfield Ridge boys were arrested after they allegedly burglarized Byrne Elementary School, 5329 South Oak Park, at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, December 6. The boys, age 13 and 14, were apparently caught on surveillance video committing the crime and were taken into custody three days later. They allegedly entered an unlocked window at the school and then stole $75 cash from a first-floor room, an electronic megaphone from the main office, and a number of tennis balls. Parents of both were notified, and the teens were taken by police to the city's Juvenile Intervention Support Center, 39th and California.




Two teenage boys were apprehended after they allegedly robbed a 64-year-old West Elsdon man at gunpoint shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, December 6. The crime occurred on a sidewalk in front of 5220 South Tripp. The duo--a 17-year-old from California and Congress on the West Side, and a 16-year-old from 51st and Halsted on the South Side--allegedly took $70 cash from the victim before fleeing on foot.


A short time later, they were spotted by police on the CTA Orange Line platform at Pulaski. Witnesses said that as police approached, one of the two threw something atop a train leaving the station. It may have been the teen's gun, which was found by police under the platform, next to the train tracks. The cash was recovered and returned to the victim.


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Burglars forced open the service door of a garage near 84th and Komensky and stole an air pump. The crime was discovered by a neighbor of the victim, a 90-year-old woman, at 3 p.m. Saturday, December 6.

http://www.getbehindthevest.org/

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