Alarmed about an alleged drug house operating in their neighborhood, and two shootings that occurred in La Grange in the past year, residents from the 200 and 300 blocks of 6th Ave used Monday night's meeting of the Village Board of Trustees to voice their concerns that police and Village officials were not adequately responding to their pleas for help.
"What is being done in La Grange to steady ourselves for a crimewave that seems to be moving steadily west?" Catherine Rossmiller asked the trustees during the meeting's public comment session, likely referring to Chicago and near-west suburbs such Cicero and Berwyn, where gang-related drug crime and violence is not uncommon.
A former prosecutor in the Cook County state attorney's office, Rossmiller, who along with her husband purchased a home on the 300 block of 6th Ave in 2002, said she initially viewed the neighborhood of graceful, century-old homes as "a safe place" to raise a family. Following a gangland-style shootout that occurred last November along 47th St at 6th Ave, and with an alleged drug house operating at the intersection of La Grange Rd and Maple Ave, she said she now fears for the safety of her children.
"Can I let my four year old and my two year old outside and not be worried about somebody who is high on drugs driving down the street, hitting my children, driving up on my lawn?" she asked the trustees. "[Can I] not be worried about somebody who is carrying a gun, who is buying drugs or who is participating in some way in the drug trafficking that is going on on La Grange Road? And not be worried about kids walking down my street who are wearing gang signs, gang clothing, and flashing gang symbols?"
Rossmiller's concerns were echoed by Nancy Weiler, a 23-year resident of 6th Ave, who said she has witnessed suspicious activity at the alleged drug house, which can be clearly viewed through the windows of her home.
"I have full visibility to almost everything that goes on in that house," Weiler told Village trustees. "Just last week, a young boy in our neighborhood walked down the street and watched packages of a white powdery substance being dropped from the second-floor window to a customer below."
Village President Elizabeth Asperger defended the police, saying that the department had "participated in, organized and carried out an extremely successful drug and anti-gang prevention activity in which they were involved with the FBI. Very, very successful; very, very professional. The purpose behind that was to keep the potential for drugs and gangs out of our community."
Nonetheless, Asperger acknowledged that crime does occur in La Grange, but dismissed concerns that the community was subject to a crime wave.
"Although it does seem like Mayberry at times in La Grange .... crime happens everywhere," she said. "[But] in my own personal opinion, and based on the statistics that I’ve seen from our police department—both monthly and annual reports—I cannot agree with you at all that we are facing an increasing wave of criminal activity which is either unprecedented, unusual or certainly .... for which we are not unresponsive."
The two shootings, said Asperger, "were two incidents that happened for different reasons in different areas of town, and they happened to be in a short period of time."
One of those incidents transpired Nov. 12 between two young men who exchanged gunshots along the sidewalk of 47th St between 6th Ave and La Grange Rd. (Read a related post describing that shootout.)
Asperger also defended the response by police to calls from the neighborhood, stating it was her understanding that the police had received only four calls in the past three years from neighborhood residents regarding any activity related to drugs or gangs.
Weiler challenged those figures, saying the Village president was "highly misinformed."
"I have personally called [about activity at the alleged drug house] probably close to a dozen times since this time last year," said Weiler. "I have a neighbor who has personally gone to the police department and had a conversation about it. I have been in the last 10 days in the presence of two other people, one at the time she was making the call. I myself have made a call within the past 10 days. I'm not really quite sure what constitutes making a report if [not my] calling the police department, and speaking to the dispatcher and saying, 'If you get here quick you can catch the person who is coming out of the house having just made the drug buy.'"
Weiler conceded that police did respond immediately on three occasions when she called to report "underage drinking parties" at the house. "Maybe for those calls I erred because I didn't say, 'Well, you need to go to the house for this and this and this and this.' Rather, I just said, 'There's an underage party going on.'"
Listen to an audio clip of the comments made at Monday's Board meeting
Read a transcript of Catherine Rossmiller's complete remarks
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