There is going to be spillover in violent crime from Chicago into Oak Park. It is inevitable and we have watched it in ugly bursts from time to time over the years. The issue is whether Oak Park and Oak Parkers are going to roll over or respond in the face of such crime.
In today’s Journal we report on the response of neighbors and police to the gang-related, and thankfully non-fatal, shooting of a young Chicago man at the BP gas station at 100 Chicago Ave. on Feb. 11. That was five weeks after another shooting incident at the same station in which no one was injured. The Journal has also obtained, via a Freedom of Information request, all the police reports pertaining to the BP station over the past eight months. It shows many police calls to the station and, remarkably, the theft of seven cars from the site, as they were being gassed up.
In the immediate wake of the second shooting, neighbors organized a march from the gas station to a church on Austin Boulevard where they met to air their concerns. The Suburban Unity Alliance helped organize the march and continues its efforts in the wider neighborhood.
Oak Park police, says Chief Anthony Ambrose, have stepped up their presence at the gas station. Christina Waters, an immediate neighbor of the station and, she told us, a regular customer of the convenience store there, appreciates the increased policing.
Waters is also asking the station’s owner, Daljit Singh, to drop the sale of certain items she believes may be attracting a tough clientele. Anthony Clark, leader of SUA, believes however, it is the 24-hour-a-day schedule that needs to be changed. “We have a suburban business with city practices,” says Clark.
Ambrose and Waters point out that the more serious crimes at the BP have not taken place during overnight hours. And a village spokesman said it is likely not within the village’s purview to limit hours at the BP.
So where are we now? Tonight Clark will host neighbors from Oak Park and Austin interested in forming a Community Watch program in the city and suburban neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the BP. That meeting will be April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Live Café, 163 S. Oak Park Ave. This can be a positive effort, as the weather warms, to get neighbors active in watching over their community and working more closely with police.
The answer is being more active, more present in our own neighborhoods. We would hope village government has engaged the BP owner in identifying ways to keep his business safer for the benefit of all of its customers.