You have shown yourself to be no friend of the police or the firefighters, and you’re posts about the teachers union shows that you’re just another union-busting Republican.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If this blog is “no friend of the police or the firefighters” or the teachers union because we don’t reflexively genuflect to their every request, or because we’re more concerned about the majority of taxpayers, then we admit to being guilty as charged.

But as for being “another union-busting Republican” you’re only partially right. This editor would happily bust every PUBLIC sector union because their collusion with this state’s politicians (almost exclusively Democrats) has contributed mightily to the pervasive corruption and financial death spiral of this state.

On the other hand, this editor supports the existence of PRIVATE sector unions, which are almost totally responsible for the favorable working conditions and economic success of this country.

Finally, this editor blames Republicans (especially RINOs like former govs. Thompson, Edgar and No. 16627-424) for aiding and abetting the 30-year reign of that Dark Lord of the Sith, Madigan, and the Democrats who have destroyed this state by their virtually complete control of state government for the past 30+ years.

Not sure I can come up with strong comments to say about the POS 3 kids (waste of life…dirt….I’ll think about it), but to be honest, there were several other little worthless kids cheering them on. That raises several comments / questions:

* In my research, the main offender’s parents RENT their home and obviously USE our public school system. Why does that matter?
1. It seems every week, we are being inundated with more apartment developments. Is this what we want?

2. Renters generally are not part of the community…they are specifically here to use our school system.

3. Renters generally will create latch-key kids. There aren’t’ many stay at home moms/dads who rent homes.

* Where are the parents? Ladies & Gentleman, from my research, these were primarily all Maine South kids. Boy, I’m happy that my tax dollars pay for these little unwatched scum pieces to grow up without morals. So, former graduates of District 64…maybe parents should worry about parenting their kids more instead of sucking more dollars out of us for Chromebooks.

* The one boy (I won’t name his name) was amazing. Out of the whole crowd, he had the guts to try and stop this. He saved the situation from getting much worse.

TO the 3 boys, enjoy jail. Your life is ruined. One was already on probation.

To the Maine South Football program- Control your kids. What happened to the football team being taught community respect?

Editor, Not sure how the Chief gets blamed for this. These are unwatched upper middle class dorks. The Chief should find each name of the chanters and try to find a charge against them or pay visits to each parents home to show them what kind of offspring they are raising.

Lastly, that skateboard park should get torn down. It gets no revenue. It draws scum and it’s ugly.

Sorry for the harsh words, but when you have roving unwatched upper middle class dorks herding around town, steps need to be taken.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Your point about whether the community wants more apartments implicates two considerations: the current City Zoning Code, which permits them; and the fact that owners of condos, townhouses and single-family residences rent out their properties, so it’s not just an “apartment” issue.

Although wondering about parenting is legit, we don’t see how you can tie “latch-key” status to hooliganism during the evening, when presumably a parent with a day job is at home.

As for blaming the Chief, we subscribe to the Harry S Truman theory that the buck stops at the leader’s desk. Chief K is the head of a police department that appears – and, unfortunately, we’re still stuck with appearances and conjecture because we’ve got nothing more substantive from the police department even though it’s now 2 weeks since the incident – to have mishandled pre-incident group misbehavior at Hinkley, and/or the rousting of another group from the Library grounds that simply migrated to Hinkley without any police attention.

Frankly, we hope there IS a reasonable explanation for how the police handled this entire situation, but the people of this community shouldn’t have to wait 2 weeks to hear it. And when no such explanation has been offered, we find it very disappointing that the first words out of the Chief’s mouth reportedly were: “It’s a community problem.”

9:31:

Sorry but you peg the crap-o-meter!!! There were 200 kids in a park chanting USA while taping one of their peers assault a father and you say the problem is renters……give me a break!! You apparently can’t pass up a chance to take a tragic and complicated event to further your own “agenda”.

EDITOR’S NOTE: While we don’t necessarily agree with the “renters” explanation, what’s so “complicated” about a few local boys who were feeling their oats (and perhaps their booze?) tuning up a 48-year old man?

To anon 7:26 I can’t se your disgrace with the PW owner. Especially since you’ve given no reason for it.

While perhaps the chief maybe right in some ways, perhaps the PRPD didn’t do as well as they should of which I might very well agree. I’m 41 and have lived here most of my life and it’s the first time I’ve ever known of such an incident but it could of happened long before this past 4th of July and perhaps should of kept an eye on the mob and obviously didn’t.

Do I sound logical PW?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Without a complete report from the police about the ENTIRE incident – including the preliminaries that set the stage for it – we don’t KNOW as much as we should.

We do, however, have some precedent for what appears to have happened at Hinkley.

Ten years ago, a crowd of yutes gathered in “Hidden” Park after dusk when the park was officially closed. The neighbors called the police, who came out, talked to the group, and drove away with the yutes still there – after which a scuffle ensued and a kid got his arm broken. Oops!

On the other side of the coin, in 2006 we had a respected police officer lose his cool and tune up a kid who has been apprehended and is sitting in the back of a squad car. The kid filed a federal lawsuit which the City settled for $185,000. The officer was indicted by a Cook County Grand Jury in 2009 and was on paid leave for approximately two years before the charges were thrown out by a Cook County judge.

We also hear there are a lot more stories that don’t make the papers, but it’s hard to place any real stock in them.

Hidden Park?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sorry – Rotary Park.

Yes complicated. By the way, I had to go to the urban slang dictionary to confirm the meaning of “tune up”.

While I completely agree with the questions you as about policing and the need for answers, that is only one piece of this puzzle. You touch on another piece with youth and alcohol but add in 200 people watching (were they all renters) and video taping and only one (it appears) trying to help and the situation is not so simple. Aside from the 2-3 who actually did the attacking, the others showed a complete lack of respect for adults and/or a complete lack of courage. Put another way, when I was a yute we had plenty of “oats and alcohol” but it NEVER once involved a beating a parent.

Whether you think the situation is complicated or not, my main point was to hang it on renters it BS.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We try to expand our readers’ vocabulary.

The point of this post is that it is NOT “complicated” from the policing standpoint. And in that context it doesn’t matter whether the yutes were kids of renters, kids of lifelong residents, kids from other towns, drunk, drugged, or enraptured. Maintaining safety and security is a here-and-now thing, and there was an as-yet-unexplained fail in doing it.

We’ll leave the opinions about the “Lord of the Flies” mob dynamics, suspect parenting, etc. to the sociologists and psychologists who specialize in coming up with programs for that sort of stuff.

What!?!? You want our tax dollars spent on protecting the community from hazardous conditions created by high schoolers, when it’s the responsibility of each private citizen to raise and monitor their children correctly? You’re just like those freeloaders who expect tax dollars to protect us from the hazards of flooding. Freeloader!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Droll. Stupid, but droll.

Anon 702am, try reading a whole comment. The renter comment was one point of many (parents, schools, football team…..). But nice try deflecting.

The point about renters was, in a “bedroom community” as it is so called and bragged about, do we want it to become a “transient” community where people stop in for our resources (public schools) but aren’t investing in the community itself?
People who lay roots in a community are much more likely to care about it. Open a paper, and count how many apartment developments are being pushed forward. You know the ones, where only the developer or landlords make out!!

Now, I also imbibed very in parks as a “yute” but never ever would do something like that or hang out with anyone like that. That’s a different breed. The stupidity of the chant even shows how stupid our expensively coddled public school kids are.

I’ll also point you to the last point of that comment, where it said that the police should go to each home of the chanters and do-nothings and tell their terrible parents what their little offspring is.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We suspect that any parent who gives a rat’s derriere has already watched the video from one of the many sources available and has looked for any sign of their little darling(s).

But just because 2 of the perps were Maine South kids doesn’t mean private/religious schools weren’t well-represented in the knucklehead brigade.

Finally, if you want to reduce the number of rental-only (a/k/a “apartment”) buildings, you need to contact your alderman or show up at a Council meeting and propose amending the Zoning Code. But remember: a number of townhouses, condos and single-family homes are currently being rented out by their owners.

Glad you wrote something on this incident because it’s been almost impossible to find any in-depth information. I found that video incredibly depressing. I was raised in Park Ridge and was part of a large family — my brothers and I could be idiots, but never anything like this. Mom and Dad would have skinned us alive and hung our hides on wall, for God’s sake.

You’d think that adults of my generation would care more, but instead they won’t be accountable for their kids and they won’t insist that the kids, in turn, be accountable for their own behavior.I know from my own experience raising a child that you can’t control everything they do, but the fruit never does fall far from the tree. I do feel the parents bear a good deal of responsibility here.

The Police Chief’s reaction strikes me also as avoiding responsibility — this was a screw-up for his department, and now he wants to keep a low profile. I’d have a lot more respect for him if he discussed this as enthusiastically as he discussed the rescue of little Drake Whitker.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Of course parents deserve at least some blame for raising kids poorly. But when they don’t, it’s up the the police to deal with the results.

It was JFK who, in taking the blame for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, said: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” Little Drake, obviously, was one of those successes.

Your reference to Harry Truman in your note to 07.26.14 9:31 am’s comment is appreciated. I, too, would hope there’s a good explanation for why the police dealt with this situation they way they did, but the way the chief seems to be ducking directing it head on makes me wonder.

Your alleged support for private sector unions is safe and convenient, given that the Republicans and their canned Supremes have, by hook or by crook, by law or by lawlessness,reduced the number of unions to about 6% of all private sector companies, down from about 20% between WWII and the mid-l970s — not coincidentally, the period in which the average schmo could raise a family on one income, send them to decent schools and own a home. Would you support private sector unions if 20% of Americans worked for them and had good benefits like — gasp! — health care, pensions, days off, etc.? I thinketh not. And God forgive your wretched reader who seriously blames “renters” in our community for raising the hooligans. Lack of decent-paying jobs with decent benefits is why there are more latch-key kids than in the 1970s, and are no small part — along with the bailed-out bank screw ups — why so many people have lost their homes and have to pay almost as much to rent apartments or houses. You are beyond disgusting in your hateful ignorance.

Just as many spoiled brats with their own cars are problem children in Park Ridge. But the Lord of the Flies analogy (I thought of it at once until I read the story) does not hold. Two of the three perps were 18. Not kids. I used to work with a guy who ran Taste of Chicago and he said, in re event management, “crowds get ugly. Never forget that crowds get ugly.”

Herding yute of any age from one public area to the next like lepers is Park Ridge’s idea of a solution. Why don’t they go home and get drugged up in some oblivious parent’s basement, for cripe’s sake? But you’re right, PubDog. FIrst and foremost, it was a police problem. They beefed up for the Carnival at Hinkley this weekend. Maine COmmunity Youth Assistance Foundation (MCYAF) did have some teen-oriented activities on the LIbrary lawn the Friday night of Taste, but not enough to amuse 200+yutes from age 12 to 18. Hopefully, Taste will have more ideas next year, and we can assume there will be more policing if kids are herded to Hinkley.Young people have just as much right to take part in community social events and to congregate peacefully as anybody else, but when they don’t behave, there need to be real consequences.

I’m personally more upset by the cowardice of the many others who stood by. I don’t even know what to make of those who cheered on the perps. Clearly, our efforts to teach them to respect and come to the aid of others needs work. But your scornful, ignorant anti-renter jerk isn’t gonna be a role model for that. He’s all about kicking somebody when they’re down.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Membership in private sector unions has declined so substantially since the 1970s NOT because of Republicans and the SCOTUS but because: (a) the newly “global” economy sent so many unionized blue-collar manufacturing jobs overseas where the cost of labor is much cheaper, and many of those jobs that stayed here were mechanized to save labor costs; and (b) the service industry, which traditionally was not unionized, grew substantially. Frankly, we would love 20% private-sector unionism, especially if it meant those manufacturing jobs were coming back. But we’re not holding our breath.

As for 18 year olds not fitting the “Lord of the Flies” analogy, our sociologists and psychologists now tell us that 26 is the new 21, which is why so many kids return home to live after college. So by that measure 18 might be the new 13; and our LOTF analogy fits.

12:20:

First you talk about renters was only one of your points but then you go on to hammer away at it as your main point.

Have you ever heard of generalizing?? Do you have any facts to back up your opinion about renters. I rented in my 20’s after college because I could not afford to buy but I was still a contributing member of the community. Such is the case with most renter individuals and/or families here in PR.

Do you really thing PR is in any danger of becoming a transient community?!?!?! Are you kidding me???

Lastly, do you really think that a renter is not paying for property taxes?? They may not receive a property tax bill but the landlord does and what do you think he does with that bill?? Do you think he/she pays it as the benevolent landlord or the people??? Again let me say…..give me a break!! The landlord passes along the cost of the property taxes on their property to his renters.

Sorry but I will repeat what I said in my original reply. For you to connect this event in any causal way to renter is simply fitting this event to an agenda you already had.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We don’t agree with the “renter” complaints, but primarily because there’s no way to tell at this point whether they have any relevance to this situation.

However, let’s not forget that the recent housing/mortgage bubble and crisis was fueled in large part by the federal and state push to turn as many people as possible, irrespective of their financial qualifications, into home OWNERS instead or RENTERS – on the theory that home OWNERSHIP “strenghtens and stablilizes” families and communities in ways that rentals (and renters) do not.

I see little in the way of solutions being proposed here other than some statements that the police need to do their job. Do we have an ordinance, or could the city put one in place, that prohibits gatherings of under 18s exceeding 5-10 kids without adult supervision? Give it some teeth in setting a hefty fine that would make the parents upset when they have to pay it, rather than ignoring what they kids are doing in and around Uptown.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Until the police department (or, failing that, the City Council) comes up with its version of what occurred and why, it’s a little hard to propose “solutions” – especially ones that involve more ordinances that, for all we know, may be duplicative of existing ones that might not be regularly enforced.

Once again, where is the police report on the entire situation?

I share PW’s reservation about attributing the beating to “renters.” However, the editor’s point about home ownership being viewed by urban planners, demographers and sociologists as a community stabilizing force is an excellent point.

Even if renters pay property taxes through their rents, that’s the only stake they have in the property’s value. The owner’s stake in the property, on the other hand, goes far beyond just the taxes he pays and extends to the long-term value of the entire community that affects the value of his individual investment in ways a renter has no concern about.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Good point re the “investment” component of an owned residence over a rented one. Even if the owner is only “in” for his down-payment, even 10% of a $350,000 Park Ridge home/condo is $35,000, so if the value declines to $315,000 (as many did, if not more, during the recession) the owner is out $35,000. The renter, on the other hand, would not suffer that same consequence.

P.S., I also am troubled by the police department’s “head in the sand” treatment of the events leading up to the Hinkley incident, and even more so if the police really were called to Hinkley earlier for fireworks and vandalism.

I well remember the day I saw President Bush crowing that home ownership had reached its highest level ever. Geeze, I thought, maybe he’s not so bad. That was, of course, about two weeks before all hell broke loose and we bailed out the banks, who promptly stashed OPM, leaving homeowners high and dry. Yes, home ownership encourages skin in the game, but until the GI Bill after WWII gave average Joes a shot at home ownership, most people in America, even those on the then-predominantly farms, were tenants, not landowners. And yet somehow, they contributed enough to the community to have us still standing. News flash: Money is not the only way one can contribute in this world. And no, in case your wretched reader is wondering, I’m not a renter. I’m one of the lucky ones whose hard work DID pay off.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sorry, but your own set of facts doesn’t work here.

Bush ’43, with an accommodating Congress, used his “Ownership Society” program to CONTINUE the home ownership expansion started by Clinton’s
HUD Dept. under Sec’y Henry Cisneros in 1994, when it published “The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream.”

And just for good measure, more Democrats than Republicans voted for the bank bailout legislation.

All irrelevant to how the Park Ridge Police did or didn’t do their job the night of July 12. But, then again, why why solve a simple police problem when you can turn it into a complex social and class-warfare issue?

I sure hope the young hero who stood alone against the mob is recognized and awarded by our mayor, city council and police. It’s the very least we can do!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Let’s not start calling him a “hero” and awarding him the Congressional Medal of Honor just because he was taller than the 190+ assorted midgets and knuckleheads surrounding him.

Prattle on folks but I defy the original poster, or anyone else, to give any facts as to how rental apartments had any damn relationship to what happened in this case. I will patiently wait.

You can go on about who did or said what related to ownership versus rental (repub or Dem) but there is zero causal relationship to what happened here.

Hell if the poster gets his wish and no new rental units are built in PR, it would appear that this case involved (at least one) rental home. Are you saying the PR take away peoples right to rent their home?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Exactly.

Anybody who wants to try to limit rentals in Park Ridge should contact their alderman or the Council as a whole and propose a change to the City Code. And make sure it includes owners of condos, townhouses and single-family homes as well.

It’s to bad that the 48 year old was not carrying a gun. He could have shot those punks and claimed self defense. It will only be a matter of time when residents are carrying guns, and when they are attacked, they will respond with lethal force.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Illinois statute on self-defendse (720 ILCS 5/7-1) provides that a person’s use of deadly force is justified “only if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or another, or the commission of a forcible felony.”

Watching the video, do you believe the victim was suffering or about to suffer “great bodily harm”? If you do, then deadly force could have been used, whether it was provided by a Glock, a samurai sword, or Count Dante’s “dim mak” karate death strike.

Bynon:

Please explain the following:

“Even if renters pay property taxes through their rents, that’s the only stake they have in the property’s value. The owner’s stake in the property, on the other hand, goes far beyond just the taxes he pays and extends to the long-term value of the entire community that affects the value of his individual investment in ways a renter has no concern about”.

How does that relate to the events in Hinkley Park? Are you suggesting that somehow because these people are renters (said with a sneer) they raised their kids in a way that caused this event?? What about all the kids chanting USA who come from families who own homes in PR?? Please tell me how an owners stake in the value of their property had anything to do with the events in the park.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is what happens when we let the discussion meander into irrelevant areas, like “renters” v. “owners.”
If you think the effects on a community of home ownership and rental is the same, take it up with the Clinton and Bush ’43 administrations and their encouragement of 100% no-doc/lo-doc financing.

But until somebody can identify each kid as coming from either an “own” or “rent” home, it’s a waste of time.

quick follow up…..I have friends here in PR who, like more than a few folks, were hit hard by the recession. THey were way under water on their house and were able to work out a way out from under their mortgage but could not afford (and did not want) to buy another house. They wanted to stay in PR and now they rent. THey are a wonderful family with wonderful kids. They are good neighbors and I am glad they still live in PR. How that fit into your blame the renters mantra??

By the way, I find it hysterical that people mention the whole idea of transients and using our services. You want to look at the real transient problem?? How about all the people who move south as soon as the kids head off to college. Do they not take all “our” services only to leave for the lower tax havens as soon as they can??

EDITOR’S NOTE: Parasites and freeloaders come in all shapes and sizes: human, corporate and institutional.

5:19, so it’s the job of the Taste of Park Ridge to entertain 200 unwatched kids!!!???? There’s a clear program online and in the paper weeks before. If they aren’t interested, don’t go!
WTF is wrong with you. Is there ever a level of parental or personal responsibility?

Here’s your quote:
“Clearly, our efforts to teach them to respect and come to the aid of others needs work. But your scornful, ignorant anti-renter jerk isn’t gonna be a role model for that. He’s all about kicking somebody when they’re down.”

1. Who is teaching them “respect”? I know D64 isn’t. That is where my comment came about the football team, since two were on the PUBLIC school football team. When I played football at a non-public high school, we were told and berated that we are a representative of the team in the community.

2. If you are so pro-renter, why the hell do you live in a town with 82% home ownership? You are the face of white liberal guilt. You have a big mouth, but live in the least diverse community you can afford.

3. I”m pro people taking care of watching their own little brats. I’m not pro adding a 20 story apartment complex that was also being reported as a proposal in the paper. I’m not anti single-family home renters, I’m anti new apartment complexes that make developers and realtors money while giving a sh** about the city.

Also, nowhere did anyone talk about “limiting” current rentals. It was in reference to all the new projects starting or being proposed that are multi-units / apartments.

If you are blinded or confused about the product of people who rent vs own, just do a simple google search. I just did and there are a ton of articles. I’d rather keep Park Ridge 82% owner occupied.

Ok parents, when your kids leave today, please tell them not to attack anyone nor cheer as someone is being attacked, because clearly there are about 100 – 200 parents who have never told their little sh** how to behave in public.

The More You Know.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Not a bad rant.

But don’t confuse D-64 with D-207, as at least the two “adult” perps were identified as Maine South students, without any information about where they went to grammar school.

PD:

Thank you!!! It is completely irrelevant!!! That is my point.

Here you have a person (or people) who have a bee in their bonnet (or bug up their a$%) about renters, which is certainly their right. So they jump on an “opportunity” to attach that predisposition to an event that it has absolutely no bearing on. “See we told you so!!!!”

To the extent that I felt compelled to reply, and thereby carried the conversation forward, I am sorry.

EDITOR’S NOTE: “Owners” v. “renters” may be a valid public policy issue, but it doesn’t seem to have any relevance to the cause of the July 12 Hinkley Park incident, or the police department’s handling of the matter.

1:40 pm-nice try but you specifically mentioned renters without qualifying it to apartment dwellers.

Your disgusting name calling of the kids gathered at Hinkley and your generalizations of renters/renters offspring and the parents of the kids gathered at Hinkley is offensive. Do you know any of them personally? And do you think your hate filled rant is helpful to addressing the incident?

Are you a parent? Did you know where your kids were all the time and what they were doing when you were not there to control them? Maybe they too did bad/illegal/criminal things and just did not get caught. Perhaps they were disrespectful and did not get caught. If you are not a parent, then you can’t really know the challenges of raising a child.

Most of these kids at Hinkley-and they are kids prone to making dumb decisions for which there will be consequences (and not ones that will ruin their lives forever as you assert) and from which they hopefully will learn-would likely never behave the way they did unless the mob mentality was present. LOTF fits nicely.

EDITOR’S NOTE: You may be walking the wire without a net here.

Those perps appear to have blown past “disrespectful” even before the video starts. And knowing any of the knuckleheads “personally” seems about as relevant as whether or not they were renters.

But do you really consider aggravated battery and mob action simply “dumb decisions”?

I’ve been waiting to see what you and your readers had to say about this sad story.

I work in a high school, and often feel that we are just a few “fightin’ words” away from this kind of painful and useless event. How do I successfully deal with it? I DON’T LET LARGE GROUPS OF TEENAGERS–ESPECIALLY ONES THAT MAY HAVE BEEN DRINKING OR DRUGGING–STAY WHERE THEY ARE WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION. I do this to protect them from themselves as well as others from getting caught in the crossfire. Teenagers are physically and psychologically immature and when in a large group tend to make really, really bad decisions, not because they’re bad at heart but because their KIDS. This is why they’re not allowed to vote or sign contracts or be allowed to make their own decisions–they’re stupid kids that do stupid things that can ruin their lives and the lives of others. We as adults are supposed to prevent this and help them to learn.

And don’t start saying how more than just that one kid should’ve stepped in–you are asking something that most adults I know aren’t capable of. Between the dopes that are enjoying the show and the raging jerks that are doing the beating, there is a good reason for these kids to fear for their own safety if they step in a do what they know they should. I guarantee that there are more than a few hidden victims of this event, kids that will spend the rest of their lives reliving the night they could’ve done the right thing but didn’t.

So I agree–the police blew it in this instance and they know it. Let’s all vow to do better next time (and this whole renter vs. owner discussion is stupid).

EDITOR’S NOTE: Barb, you might want to check out the EDITOR’S NOTE to the previous comment about aggravated battery and mob action being just “dumb decisions” for teenagers.

“Let’s all vow do to better next time”? Why not just throw in “move along, nothing to see here” while you’re at it?

If the police really “blew it,” then that’s something they need to admit and explain what they will be doing differently to ensure that it won’t happen again. Or else they can say they DIDN’T blow it but handled things exactly by the book, and then explain why.

4:00:

I understand what you are trying to say and agree with your thoughts on the renters comments.

Having said that, I think this event goes beyond youthful mistakes. I think most people are like me in that they can look back at their own teen years and see huge “mistakes” and periods of experimentation and pushing the boundaries. WE did the whole drinking thing, whether it be at homes of parents out of town or in parks. I have to say we had the good sense to make the parks a bit more secluded than in the center of freakin’ town but I digress. There were some in our group who had brushes with the law (drunk and disorderly or DUI) but I am grateful that no one was injured or worse.

I think where you lose me on the whole youthful mistake thing is in physically attacking an adult. I mean sure we would sometimes speak badly about adults, even swear or yell about it but NEVER can I recall anyone even considering raising a hand to an adult….even when drunk. Beyond that, while I understand the whole group dynamic or mob mentality as you call it, I cannot even grasp that only one person even attempted to aid the victim and most seemed to be chanting in favor of the beating.

SO I have to agree with PD. This goes a bit beyond dumb decisions. Like you, I very much hope they all learn from it.

Kids’ brain chemistry is very different from adults and they are often the victim of their physiology. They should make better choices, but don’t always do so. This is why adults need to help them stay away form situations that have potentially bad outcomes.

This truly is a worst case scenario of kids being incredibly stupid and making incredibly bad decisions that hurt themselves and others.

And I agree, the police need to explain why this wasn’t handled better.

First and foremost, this is an embarrassment for Park Ridge. This was a national news story heard by millions and millions of people. Drudge listed it under the heading “Chicagoland”, which makes it an even more an embarrassment.

Second of all, I, with my family, rode my bike past this group of kids on my way home from the taste. I specifically remember turning to my wife and telling her that my NW suburban community would have never allowed 200+ high school kids to congregate on a Saturday night in a park. By the time the group reached 25 kids the police would have broken it up and sent everybody home. The police really blew this one. I understand they were probably busy with the taste and dealing with other summertime shenanigans, and they figured a group of 200 teens behaving reasonably well wouldn’t be a problem. But three testosterone filled meatheads can wreck it for everybody.

Third, the ‘renter’ label is irrelevant. This type of high school behavior – fueled by hormones and probably some booze – could have happened anywhere 200 high school kids congregate in a park at night. Again, which in my experience, I’ve never seen or experienced.

Finally, this ‘dad’ should have known better than to go looking for his son in the middle of a crowd. How embarrassing for the kid. Dad wanted to be a hot shot and embarrass his son in front of all his friends by forcibly removing him from the crowd, and instead, he got himself beat up. What a goofball dad.

EDITOR’S NOTE: So if a dad hears that his 14 year old kid is over at Hinkley Park with 200 other knuckleheads, tries to reach him/her by cellphone but can’t, and decides to go over there to find him/her…the dad is suddenly a wannabe “hotshot” intent on “embarrassing” the kid by forcibly removing him/her from the crowd, thereby inviting a tune-up? Seriously?

Yes I do think this goes beyond a “dumb decision”. I feel mad and sad that so many kids made such bad choices and the consequences may change the course of their lives.

But does it really matter what we think? The police and the attorneys will to the best of their abilities determine all the facts of the incident-including what happened before and after the cell phone cameras started to roll. The courts will then decide the appropriate punishment based on all the facts-which no one has heard yet.

My comments were mostly directed at the comments of 1:40pm/9:31 am. His/her rant provides no help or insight into the situation. Instead the rant comes off as a holier-than-thou renter hater that apparently has disdain and contempt for renters, their offspring, the couple hundred kids at Hinkley and their parents, D64 and the football coach at the public high school Maine South for not controlling his players. Nothing but hate filled offensive comments.

PWD’s post is about how the police handled the events of that evening. Hinkley is a regular spot for kids to go and hang out. Surely the police are aware of that. Most of the time there is no trouble. But there was a fight in the park at the end of May that was witnessed by 150+ kids as the story goes. Were the police not aware that this incident? Do the police monitor the park as part of a patrol officer’s nightly shift?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Who knows, since when last we heard anything close to an official police account of the incident it was being described as “a community problem.”

Hormones fuel a beating of an adult by two 18 year olds, and a 16 year old? This is “felony aggravated battery” of an adult in a setting which was caught on film with them being merciless and with repeat action. They appeared like they wanted to do even more damage than a concussion.

Blaming testosterone tells me why certain children grow up without any discipline.

The comments above are interesting.
Finding out why something happens is imperative to stopping a repeat of it. It now is pretty telling that we read complaints about a month ago in the Advocate, and several scoffed at it I the message board.

serf- your comment can’t be serious? You blame the father for looks for his child then getting jumped?

Azz backwards

EDITOR’S NOTE: What “complaints about a month ago in the Advocate”?

“But does it really matter what we think?”

Are you kidding me??? It absolutely matters what we think!! Our kids in this age group even those not attending this little fiesta)are going to be watching very closely how we deal with this and what we think. Even if they did not go they have already all heard ever detail. THis is a great opportunity to revisit difficult discussions or have them for the first time to make sure they know what we think.

It is also an opportunity to take a hard look at our own role it this and take a hard look at our kids having freedom and independence versus at least knowing where they are and what they are doing.

Lastly, it would seem you are frustrated by all the conversation. I have noticed that people are talking about this a lot too, everywhere I go in town. I think that is because many find this whole event so strange.

I have been lucky enough to know a lot of kids in PR, from D64 to MS. From Scouting to sports to the parks to the pools to even those groups of kids in uptown. I am not a rube and I realize that at a school as large as MS there will be bullies and booze and drugs and kids with problems. Hell, I went to a school much smaller than MS and we had all those same issues. But this event simply does not match the large group of kids I have come into contact with during my time here in PR.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Swell, so what’s the story with these “kids” that night? Too many testosterone-and-alcohol cocktails? Meth? Too much candy before bedtime? Ne’er-do-wells imported from other communities with undisguised contempt for our fair city and its inhabitants?

We’ll leave it to the sociologists to wring their hands and propose more programs designed to teach “kids” how to manage their impulses and social skills so as not to commit aggravated battery and mob action when their in the presence of 200 of their closest friends.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the official police explanation of the incident and the lead-up to it. Or, more accurately, the explanation that doesn’t start with it being “a community problem.”

There was a letter written by “Adrienne” on 7/2. On 6/18 there was an article titled “Kids descend on uptown, police respond with a plan”

People all around the city are talking about this, and are really shocked, so trust me the dialogue is happening everywhere. What an embarrassment. I’m just glad two names were in the paper, wish the little juvie was as well so we know.

By the way , what is the jail time for felony assault and mob action? Whoever said “life’s aren’t ruined” is off his rocker.

EDITOR’S NOTE: People talk about all kinds of things, expecially shocking things, until they get bored with the topic and they move onto another one. As a result, nothing gets done about those things.

But if people truly believe that what went on at Hinkley on July 12 is unacceptable, they should show up at City Hall tonight at 7:00 p.m. for what is billed as a “Police Chief’s Roundtable.” Although the City’s website reports that the roundtable will feature “Representatives from ABC Wildlife will speak about ‘Co-existing with nature’ in Park Ridge,” these roundtables are intended to give residents the “opportunity to provide valuable feedback regarding crime trends and other topics/programs that will improve police service and keep Park Ridge a safe community.”

So perhaps the discussion can morph into what the police department is doing to facilitate “co-existing with knuckleheaded local yutes.”

“Finally, this ‘dad’ should have known better than to go looking for his son in the middle of a crowd. How embarrassing for the kid. Dad wanted to be a hot shot and embarrass his son in front of all his friends by forcibly removing him from the crowd, and instead, he got himself beat up.”

Here’s a huge part of the problem: adults who believe that “embarrassing” a teenager is more terrible than getting him away from potential trouble. Nice way to set an example, Serf.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We wonder whether Jordan Gonzalez’s dad, or Mac Piazza’s dad, would have preferred embarrassing their sons on July 12 than to having to accompany them to Criminal Court; or to having to post bonds of $40,000 and $30,000, respectively, to get them out of Cook County Jail.

And that’s just the beginning of the process.

I have a couple follow-up questions regarding the football team aspect of this:

Jordan Gonzalez, clearly the ring leader was on juvenile probation, http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/07/17/cops-teens-attacked-adult-near-taste-of-park-ridge/ it also said that he was member of the varsity football team. How is that allowed?

Will Coach Inserra and his staff as well as school administration be reviewing the tape independently to see if any of our local High School kids were involved? Every single one should be reprimanded from taxpayer subsidized activity. Hmmm, I wonder what kind of attitudes lead to hazing as well????

I think Inserra, staff and administrators should go through every tape, interview students and suspend anyone found yelling or “acting a fool” during this felony assault.

It’s time to make an example of this trash. My tax dollars shouldn’t be subsidizing these kids to play football or ping pong.
There is a big kid with a red shirt who should also be charged with assault. Bet he plays some sport.

The pressure shouldn’t only be on the police department on this. A kid should know there are consequences for their stupidity.

Finish last for all I care.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For teenaged male athletes, coaches are often the highest authority figures – so the imposition of some kind of consequences on any identifiable athletes based on their involvement in the incident might have some meaningful effect.

But since you’re so concerned about your tax dollars, the police – not the Maine South football coaching staff – are the ones being paid to deal with public safety situations such as this.

Regarding the police response, it’s possible that Kaminski will eventually explain that the fight took place while they were waiting for the mayor to secure a $60K federal grant that focuses on training the force to deal with teenage issues. Or maybe they spent the entire budget they had allotted for riot gear and tear gas on those cool new black SUVs around town?

But more importantly in my opinion let’s take a closer look at the “victim”. Blaming the dad for simply going into the park to find his son (or for how he was dressed or anything like that) is ignoring his basic right as a citizen to freely move about all public areas of town whenever he pleases, and so is totally irrelevant. But what HAS been totally left out of this discussion is that these guys didn’t just pounce on him the second he walked into the park. He is NOT an innocent victim. Let’s start with the most detailed description I’ve seen of the moment leading up to the assault:

“…someone threw lit fireworks in his direction. The fireworks exploded near his feet and a group of girls who were standing nearby, said Deputy Police Chief Lou Jogmen.

“He took exception to that and began inquiring about who did it,” Jogmen said.

A crowd reportedly gathered around the man and began verbally assaulting him, police said.”

So we already have strong reason to believe that the dad was, in fact, a hotshot (a lone gun on a mission to solve the case of the fired fireworks) and with more eyewitness testimony it might become clear that his version of “exception” and “inquiring” involved threats and aggression (maybe something like: “Whoever threw those $%@&#*! fireworks is going to get his head bashed in!”). That is just speculation, but you have to use your imagination to get from the point where he enters Hinkley to the moment we see in the video, until better information becomes available. Which leads us to what is absolutely clear, which is that in the video linked above, we see the dad making the FIRST aggressive move on record (a shove to white t-shirt boy followed by a retaliatory shove back by yellow tank-top boy and then the actual beating commences). If you slow the video down to 1/8th speed you can clearly see that the yellow-tank teen who shoves him back is over a foot away when he first shoves his friend.

Now what kind of 48-year-old man walks into a park and allows himself to get to the point where he shoves a teen around, is the question you all might want to ask yourself at least once! Even if he was a police officer it would be unacceptable. Are we all big fans of vigilante dad in town now? I certainly hope everyone isn’t so entranced by the bias that “teens=bad, parents=good” that they can actually, objectively look at the evidence at hand. If this dad willingly picked a fight instead of making every attempt to simply walk away and call the police (like a truly mature adult would) then he is operating at the same psychological level as the teens and is no more a victim than they are. He also deserves to be charged with at the very least, disorderly conduct. I think the teens involved would be smart to use a self-defense plea since the video clearly shows him to be the instigator of physical contact and violence. Whether or not their response will be considered “excessive” is up to the courts.

We also should consider that anyone who wanted to break it up at that point might have been risking aggression from both the father and the three teens. In my opinion that would explain why the kid who eventually broke the fight up for good waited until it was clear that the dad was going to be the loser if it continued on. Most likely the unknown presented a larger threat to him than his own peers, who he clearly was not scared of. If he (or anyone) attempted the same thing in the first seconds of that video, they probably would have been the primary victim.

Barring a longer “director’s cut” video that shows the moments leading up to the dad deciding to shove one of the teens, we will only have eye-witness testimony to go on. I will admit that I could be completely wrong and the dad may have made every attempt to be reasonable and level-headed, but as of now the video is the only real evidence we have (Exhibit A, if you will) and in my opinion he is going to need conjure up some extraordinary explanation for why he started that fight.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An entertaining scenario, and not totally implausible given what is known so far – except for the fact that the three perps, not the dad, have been charged and jailed. But we’re sure you could explain that away with a back story about how the police and the state’s attorney always conspire against “kids” in favor of middle-aged white guys – even liquored-up ones gratuitously picking fights with well-behaved, respectful young lads over imaginary fireworks thrown at him and imaginary girls near him.

But once again this illustrates the problem of not having any comprehensive report by the police as to the lead-up to the start of the video, including any pre-incident police calls and on-site fireworks use or vandalism. Unless, of course, an “investigation” is ongoing and disclosure of the information we’re referring to might compromise it. If thats the case, however, we would expect Chief K to say so, instead of (as reported in the H-A story) treating the situation as some kind of “community” morality play requiring a “city-wide” (a/k/a non-police social services) strategy to deal with large groups of “kids” congregating in public places.

I agree with you re: the police being more forthcoming with information. It is a big problem, when at this point the lack of information probably has a lot of people in town feeling like they could be beat up by any of these monster teens any time they leave their houses.

And my point is that I don’t need any back story, when I have a video showing the unnamed 48-year-old CLEARLY starting a fight in a public park. One second there are two people standing near each other and then two seconds later the fight has begun, and we know who started it! Anything that came before that can only be viewed as a contributing factor to the ACTUAL USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE. We can also pretend, if you like, that the dad wasn’t about to retaliate (with his fists or another shove?) against the teen in yellow-tank around the 3 second mark, before he was pulled to the ground. I’m sure he was just turning around to say “Thanks for the shove back son, now we can go along on our merry ways!”

So yes, I would very much like to know why he wasn’t arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The only conclusion I can come to so far is that the PR police are absolutely incompetent and haven’t fully realized what the evidence they have on hand is showing. The fact that they missed the actual perp in this case isn’t terribly surprising based on their recent performance. They also missed catching the guy who murdered his drug dealer and left the body by the tracks (Chicago police caught him just as he was about to board a bus and flee the state) and allowed Drake Whitker’s kidnapper to escape town and head to Skokie (a Skokie resident was the true hero in that case).

Of course if the PR police want to charge these teens with setting off fireworks in a way that was dangerous to others (if they can even prove they were the ones doing it) or if they want to charge them verbal abuse or with using excessive force in self-defense those all might both be reasonable charges. Letting vigilante dad off the hook is totally outrageous though.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sorry, DA, but we can’t agree with your Zapruder-like analysis of this video as showing “the unnamed 48-year-old CLEARLY starting a fight in a public park.”

The very first “frame” of the video shows the white-shirted perp and the dad already seemingly engaged in physical contact even before the dad shoves white-shirt, with white-shirt’s and the dad’s hands/arms already up at what looks to be chest level, in aggressive or defensive mode.

But maybe there are more videos that the police have which start earlier. And maybe someday we’ll find out all the other stuff that lend up to the opening scene of this video. Maybe even at tonight’s Police Chief’s Roundtable at City Hall, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

I can only predict disappointment from tonight’s roundtable. There is no way the chief is going to provide all the information people are looking for.

PD, you are the lawyer so correct me if I am wrong, but do you really think the chief will or can adequately answer even the relatively simple question you posed above considering there are ongoing investigations and prosecutions? Are we not going to hear a lot of “I cannot answer that do to an ongoing investigation……”

EDITOR’S NOTE: If the investigation of the incident truly is ongoing and information about such things as prior police call(s) about a large group of yutes, fireworks, vandalism, etc. at Hinkley is part of that investigation, then by all means that’s what Chief K should say. And if he HAD SAID THAT instead of appearing to pull a “there goes Elvis” shift of accountability to parents and the “community,” we likely wouldn’t be sharing all this quality time.

Barb is right and you are wrong, PubDog: Any teenager who risks being ostracized or physically attacked (to a teen, equally painful; remember, peers are their transition loves from parents to their own future spouses and kids)by 200 peers is a hero. A real one. I’d like to bottle what he had going on and teach it to some of the 197 losers who cheered the violence on.They’re the really scary ones to me, because they’re not the mini-minority we can dismiss as the bad seed. They’re us, writ young. Think about it.
Conservatives will say the kids ain’t got no respect, liberals will say young people are lacking in empathy because our culture rewards self-seeking and glorifies aggression. Either way, why didn’t anyone back up the boy who spoke up? And interestingly, why did the hooligans stop when one kid told ’em to? I’d like to know. It’s like Gary Cooper in High Noon!
Meanwhile, your tedious anti-public-school ranter is also wrong. Civil Behavior and its many permutations are taught consistently and seriously at D64 and, with somewhat less success, at D207. We’ve seen bad behavior from both public and parochial school students of all ages. Remember the St. Paul school incident a few years back? Just because the public schools don’t threaten the students with hellfire doesn’t mean they don’t work hard to instill good citizenship, fair play, kindness, etc. To a sometimes annoying level, in fact! Personally, I’d like to blame the nonstop selfies that treat everything in the real world like a docudrama to earn one 15 minutes of fame. Did the 197 kids even get that this was a real beating of a real person? Barb is right: this is an excellent opportunity to talk with one’s own kids about peer pressure, what matters, who they are as people, values, etc.

EDITOR’S NOTE: “It’s like Gary Cooper in High Noon”? No, not even close.

PW: “The very first “frame” of the video shows the white-shirted perp and the dad already seemingly engaged in physical contact even before the dad shoves white-shirt, with white-shirt’s and the dad’s hands/arms already up at what looks to be chest level, in aggressive or defensive mode.”

Personally I don’t see the evidence as being nearly as questionable as you. This is essentially the part I am referring to, which occurs within the first 1-2 sec. of the video above (for anyone having a hard time making out what I am referring to in the video)-

http://s28.postimg.org/oiotohea5/hinkley.jpg

Frame 1 white-shirt and dad appear to be standing and not engaged in physical contact, Frame 2 dad shoves white-shirt, Frame 3 white-shirt puts his arms up in defense (note that his arms were delayed and are lower than dad’s, and Frame 4 we notice that white-shirt appears to be wearing a cast on his right hand, making it HIGHLY doubtful that he had been throwing punches at the dad beforehand (and conveniently off camera where it is mere hearsay).

Like you say a lot, you can have your own opinion, but not your own set of facts and with no other information to go on at this point, the fact is, this appears to be a large 48-year-old man who decided to shove a teen with a cast around in front of his friends and didn’t like the way it turned out for him.

Like I said, I’m sure the situation leading up to it was complex and heated, but unless there is any evidence of previous physical contact between these two, then there is no explanation other than extreme bias for this to be viewed as completely one sided. I hope everyone here realizes that there is usually a reason why in a bar fight, both parties are arrested. Instead, what we have here is public sentiment in town pretty much 100% against these teens, with very serious consequences to their futures, and seemingly not a single bit of backlash against this hothead here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We continue to disagree with you about the lack of physical contact as the video opens. And your poor-kid-with-a-cast argument falls apart in the first 3 seconds as white shirt lands his first two punches to the dad’s head with his “casted” right hand.

But maybe Chief K can also clear up this disagreement tonight at his “roundtable.” City Hall, 7:00 p.m.

I don’t know, PW. When I slow the video down it does show the dad making the first “shove”. If that’s all the evidence we have at this point, then one can hardly claim that any of the three kids made “the first move” to attack physically.

This post being about the police handling of the incident, my question would be why, if there were some 100-200 kids at Hinckley Park, there were no police there to begin with?

EDITOR’S NOTE: The altercation – verbal, physical, or both – clearly commenced before the video does, as dad and white-shirt are already eyeball-to-eyeball before the push occurs.

We also know that the three yutes, and not the dad, were arrested and charged. Of course, that could be part of a police and state’s attorney conspiracy against well-mannered suburban yutes, and/or in favor of middle-aged white guys.

The poster analyzing the video and stating the video clearly showing a 48 year old man starting a fight in a public park has created a scenario that seems to coincide. with what some of the kids at Hinkley say happened-words were exchanged and the dad shoved one of the alleged offenders first.

That is why there are lawyers and courts. There are plenty of witnesses to interview along with the 4 people involved in the fight. The facts will be agreed upon-hopefully-and appropriate punishment will be determined.

What the courts and lawyers can’t answer is why the police chose to let the crowd stay in the park after making two visits there to deal with alleged unlawful behavior. This seems to be a pretty simple question for the police to answer.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The answer to your last question is what we’ve been waiting for since we first saw the video and heard about one or two calls to the police prior to the incident in response to fireworks and vandalism complaints.

Haha, Chief K clear anything up!? He couldn’t even provide proper documentation to “clear up” the question of who really dropped the ball (him or S. Hamilton) on securing the $59K mental health grant that he was so happy to blame entirely on the mayor.

Anyway, I’m going to leave it up to the defense attorneys to sell the story that these teens might actually deserve reduced or all-together different charges. That was never my goal and the existence of this video should provide them with plenty of ammo.

My whole point has been that it’s disturbing that no one this entire time has questioned why this 48-year-old man let this situation escalate to the point where we are watching him on video shoving this teen and encouraging a fight. Any other rational, mature adult would have tried above all to calmly exit the scene and then have called the police. The moment this guy decided to act like the police instead of do that, he was crossing at least one line in my opinion.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since we don’t have any video or audio record of what transpired prior to the commencement of this video – to capture, for example, what might be viewed as a fireworks assault against the man by these (or other) yutes, or possible threats against the man, or possible prior physical contact in the nature of a battery against him – we don’t know what “line” might have been crossed or by whom.

But the purpose of the post wasn’t to decide the culpable party(ies) among the 4 combatants but, instead, to question how 200(?) yutes were able to operate as a mob without police attention.

I told you, this dad was a hot head idiot picking fights with teenagers. He didn’t like the way it turned out when he lost. Going to the park to forcibly remove your kid who didn’t answer his cell phone is a power play meant to embarrass his kid. Unless there was some family emergency on a Saturday night that required immediate attention, it could have waited. But no, this loser of a parent got himself in to a fight with a couple of teens. Upper middle class high school football playing teens. He’s lucky he didn’t try to pick a fight with teens in the city or else where – he could have been shot dead. The dad obviously lacks common sense. This doesn’t excuse the teens mob action, but absent the hotshot dad trying to grab his kid by the ear and drag him home for staying out past curfew, park ridge wouldn’t be the laughing stock of a suburb it has become on a national level. This one is for you, loser Middle Aged dad….

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ll stick with our response to your 07.28.14 @ 7:46 PM post.

Today’s (7-30) Park Ridge Journal quotes Deputy Chief Lou Jogman as saying that the kids had a right to be in the park and police can’t go in and kick kids out of there. Is that true, and should that be the end of the discussion, that it’s not the police’s job?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Any police officer who wants to move yutes out of a particular place has many available ways – and legal grounds – to do it. As we understand it, an officer can legally walk into a crowd like the one at Hinkley and simply start asking questions, even though there is no legal duty on the subjects to answer; but if the officer has reasonable suspicion of criminal activity (e.g., the shooting of illegal fireworks, the vandalizing of public or private property), he/she can request identification, and choose to detain the subject for refusing to provide it.

But just the presence of police officers tends to disperse crowds of callow yutes.

DA- Well, one guy is on the ground, and three people are kicking him, usually you can pick out the aggressor.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Usually, but not always.

PW, back to your original subject here, the police were called out twice to the park, saw a mass of teens assembling, and they didn’t have the common sense to “hang around” and monitor things? Had a couple of cops, maybe with their car lights on (for everyone there to see and take note of their presence), hung around (like they do at ME fireworks), none of this would have happened. In fact, how many of those teens would have stayed in the park had cops been present, just milling around and keeping an eye on things?
Guess will never know.

EDITOR’S NOTE: There’s a well-known and well-regarded business practice called “management by walking/wandering around,” which has been translated effectively to police work as part of “community policing.”

But until the public gets to see and/or hear some explanation from the police department about the reported one or two police calls to Hinkley prior to the incident, it’s hard to tell what did and didn’t happen, and what could or should have happened instead.

7/28 11:51 said “It will only be a matter of time when residents are carrying guns”

People are already carrying CCW here. Parks/parks districts are a gun free zones also permitted events like the taste was. I actually drop my kid off at school carrying while complying with the regulations set forth.

12:18 pm-why do you feel the need to carry a gun to drop your child off at a school in Park Ridge? Do you really think that is safe or are you really putting others at risk? What risks do you perceive their to be to you or your kids that causes you to play tough guy or gal and carry a gun?

In reading section 430 ILCS 66/65 Sec 65 lists Prohibited Areas as “including (1) Any building, real property, and parking area under the control of a public or private elementary or secondary school.”

One could argue that the streets bordering the school property including the building, fields, playground and parking lot while technically city of Park Ridge property are really controlled by the schools. So one could assert you are violating Sec 65 of the CCL if you are parking on these streets to drop your child(ren) at school. Perhaps the PR police and the D64/D207 administrators should be made aware of what you are doing along with any other irresponsible parent who thinks it is appropriate to carry a concealed weapon when dropping of their kid at school.

EDITOR’S NOTE: One could argue that, but one would be wrong: schools do not “control” the public streets that border them, or provide access to them.

Concealed carry is the now the law in Illinois, just as it has been in the other 49 states. And that law does not require concealed carriers to justify their need or desire to carry a weapon.

Why? Cause a cops too hard to carry around.
Seriously, two schools have already had the need to go on lock-down this past year due to a “crazy person” running from security at Lutheran General. One kid was abducted as his mother was in eyesight. Just this last week alone one nutcase walked into a park dist on Sibley claiming to be with a drug cartel and stated he had a gun. This was followed by the 30 year old exposing himself to two young girls. I don’t know of you get the updates on the school district but this happens about once every 6-8 weeks or so around here. Not necessarily exposing, but men attempting to lure girls into vehicles.

You can argue whether I’m breaking the law and such but the rules regarding carrying are cut-out pretty simple. You even posted them yourself. Real property does not include sidewalks and or streets, parking lots are prohibited but you can keep it in your vehicle while there, teachers can as well. There are others besides myself doing this here, yes even some women.

I always chuckle when people say there’s no need to CCW near a school. I have a question, do you have smoke detectors?

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are fine with concealed carry laws, and with people who comply with them.

But, hopefully, should you see somebody expose themselves on a Park Ridge street, you’ll resist the urge to shoot them…or any part thereof.

My children have been through the dist here for a few years now and I have seen a ton of these dist emails sent off. I never once heard of one being caught. These are just a few of them. I guess my point to prove is that a lot more happens around here than people think.

http://parkridge.suntimes.com/2014/07/29/park-ridge-police-man-claiming-gun-arrested-maine-park-leisure-center/
______

To All District 64 Parents/Guardians:

Suspicious Incident Announcement – July 28, 2014

The Park Ridge Police Department has informed District 64 of a recent incident of indecent exposure that occurred in the community. The incident occurred in the vicinity of Belle Plaine and Clifton, when a white male described as being in his 30’s, wearing denim jeans, a green baseball cap and carrying a beige backpack, exposed himself to two 15-year-old females who were about 100 feet away walking on the sidewalk. The male fled the area.

Please contact the Park Ridge Police if you have information or questions regarding this incident at 847-318-5252.
____________

To all Parents/Guardians:

Park Ridge Police have informed District 64 of a suspicious incident that occurred on Wednesday, May 29 around 8:50 p.m. in the area of 1100 N. Northwest Hwy (near Northwest Park). A gray, 4-door sedan, described as being occupied by two males in their 20’s, stopped next to a young, teenage girl and asked her if she wanted to get into the vehicle. The girl declined and ran home; the vehicle fled S/E bound on Northwest Hwy. Please contact the Park Ridge Police for more information or to report non-emergency concerns at 847-318-5252.

Philip Bender, Superintendent
______

To all District 64 Parents/Guardians:

The Park Ridge Police have informed us of a suspicious incident that occurred on Friday, May 24:

“At approximately 3:50 p.m., an 11 year old Female student was approached in the 800 S. block of Western as she walked home from school. An unknown male in a Black Sedan (No further description for the driver or the vehicle) called out to the girl as he came alongside her. The driver stated that the girl’s mother wanted him to drive her home. The girl ran home and the Police Department was contacted immediately. Police units checked the area and were unable to locate a black sedan with a lone male driver. Park Ridge Police Officers are continuing to investigate the incident. Please be vigilant and have students and parents report any similar suspicious activity.”

Park Ridge Police may be contacted at 847-318-5252.

Philip Bender, Superintendent

8:37-laugh all you want. But I am going to guess D64 and D207 administrations don’t want parents with concealed weapons anywhere near their schools and the thousands of children they are responsible for protecting while on school grounds or on the streets and sidewalks bordering school property when being dropped off or picked up. What a cavalier irresponsible attitude you have about a deadly weapon being around children.

EDITOR’S NOTE: D-64 and D-207 should focus more attention on TEACHING and leave the POLICING to the folks paid to do that work.

On the other hand, everything’s becoming a “community problem” for which neither the educators nor the public safety pros should be held accountable, right?

If some gun toting parent’s gun goes off on or near school property D64 and D207 parents will very likely look to the school district administrators before they look to the police to find out why it happened and why a gun totting parent is on school grounds with a deadly weapon. So in addition to educating students the districts now need to worry about CCW parents.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the rankings (and, presumably, the quality) of our local schools continue to decline while the costs continue to spiral upward, we fully expect that administrators will come up with whatever they can to distract parents and taxpayers from how the schools are “educating students” – whether it be by parents with concealed weapons, trouser droppers on Belle Plaine, or reports of Elvis at Nonna Silvia’s eating peanut butter and banana pizza and drinking Pepsi.

How does the school district protect my children while being dropped off or at pick up?

There is poor communication between d64 and the Police when situations arise, and when it’s good the Dist makes poor decisions. I have talked to all sides and most of the poor decisions fall on the school district. Doors propped open or not locked. Parental custody battles with violations being done at school. People getting buzzed in then asked what their business is or doors being held open for others. I have asked and had different responses from teachers on what to do during lock downs and other emergency situations. Trust me when I say nobody really has a clue.

Irresponsible you call me? That would be not being able to protect my children if the need be. Would you rather I call 911 and wait the 5 minutes?

I could also care less what the district thinks. There is nothing illegal with what I do. I would even bet that there are some teachers that have them stored in their vehicles parked on school grounds, which is legal as well.

On another note, Park Ridge had one of the most FOID cards issued than any surrounding suburb. Almost 6000 currently, I am sure a few have expired so I’m guessing even more.

I do not question the legal right of the poster to carry a gun. The law is the law and I have no problem if someone wants to carry a concealed weapon so long as they follow the rules. It would appear the poster is doing just that so god bless.

I do have to say one thing. I feel sorry for them. The idea that a person, living in PR, somehow feels so threatened or fearful or god knows what, that they feel they must carry a concealed handgun to drop their child off at school is simply very, very, very sad.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Stop the hand-wringing, please…he/she did not say he/she felt the need to carry it to drop their child off, only that it was along for the ride – as it may well have been everywhere else he/she went that day.

And do you think anybody felt MORE safe and secure after watching that Hinkley Park video?

I am not wringing my hands. Carrying a gun is their business but they brought it up here so I believe I get to comment.

Unless they are an officer or have a very dangerous line of work or work in a dangerous location, the fact that they feel the need to carry a concealed gun around all day is sad.

I know I am not like every person but I am not unusual either. I have kids, work, take the train to the city a few times a week, am at the parks for games, shopping, living life in and around the PR and Chicago area. I even take trips to states all over the country and spend quite a few weekends in the state just north of us.

Sorry but if this person has a life anything like mine and feels the need to walk around with a concealed gun everyday, I stand by what I said. It is sad.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Boy Scouts have long had as their motto: “Be prepared.” So perhaps our concealed carry commentator just likes to be a little more prepared than you do.

And that “state just north of us” has had concealed carry since November 1, 2011 – so you probably should have been feeling sad on your weekend trips up there for the past couple of years.

I know many folks in WI who own guns (many in IL as well). I have a friend who lives on a farm about 20 miles from the nearest town. He has guns loaded and ready and I do not blame him a bit.

But if there is a guy living in let’s say Milwaukee or a suburb, or Madison, who is a regular shmo like me and feels the need to pack a piece, I think it is equally sad to the same here in Illinois.

Lastly, I was involved in scouts and remember that motto well. The fact that this person considers carrying a concealed gun as part of being prepared for their day is……you guessed it…..sad!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Opinions vary.

But if someone lawfully and peaceably carrying a concealed weapon is “sad,” then what happened at Hinkley on July 12 would have to be considered tragic.

That is the exact word I used to describe it. I stated the following on 7-26 at 10:19…..”You apparently can’t pass up a chance to take a tragic and complicated event to further your own “agenda”.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ah, yes, so you did…responding to the anti-renter.

By the way, to be clear, a person carrying a weapon in and of itself is not sad. The fact the a person, in the course of living their everyday life, somehow feels it is required or somehow feels the need to carry a concealed weapon is the sad part.

As you say, opinions vary. Maybe I will be shot to death and this person can say I told you so which won’t matter much because I will be dead anyway, but I think about my life and I just cannot imagine the need or desire to pack a piece. “Honey, off to Oberweis for ice cream. Oppps, almost for got the Glock!!”

What on earth does this person do in a given day where they feel the need to have a concealed weapon?? I have done some silly things in my life and found myself in some bad places but I cannot think of a single moment where I look back and think….gee it would have been nice to have a gun……oh well.

The “Park Ridge Bubble”. I was first told of this by a few PRPD officers. That’s what they say the people are living in around here.

My CCW is nothing more than the editor stated, and yes I was a Boy Scout. It is here for myself to be prepared if the need be to protect my family, nothing more. If you think that crime has not found its way into Park Ridge then yes, you too are in the bubble.

Just because some people think your need to carry a CCW is sad and irresponsible and dangerous to others-as well as yourself and your loved ones-does not mean we live in a bubble and don’t recognize that crime has come to PR. But guns are meant for one purpose only-to kill. How much of the crime in PR should be responded to with deadly force?

EDITOR’S NOTE: We suspect (and some studies demonstrate) that every time something violent happens to “good” people, like the July 12 incident, it persuades more folks to arm themselves. Which is one of the reasons why we have been pushing for a thorough public airing of the lead-up to that incident to determine whether the our public safety professionals dropped the ball, or whether it was an unfathomable, unstoppable “Act of God.”

Frankly, we’re not all that enthusiastic about folks walking around Park Ridge strapped. But we also understand the “I’d rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6” mentality. So unless somebody wants to amend the Constitution to repeal or modify the 2nd Amendment, these are the cards we’ve been dealt and these are the ones we’ve got to play.

Sorry, 5:33. You cannot blame my “sad” comments or my views on the “PR bubble”. I was not born here and I have not even lived here that long. The largest chunk of my life was spent living in Chicago.

I am also not naïve about crime. I have been robbed at gunpoint. However, my reaction was not and is not to feel so threatened that I carry a concealed gun as if I were putting on a wrist watch in the morning.

If the world is such a scary and threatening place that you have to carry a concealed gun “if the need be to protect your family”, how can you even drop your kids off at school? You, their parent need a gun to insure their safety. Those teachers are not armed while in school. How do you or will you let your kid ride there bike to the park by themselves?? I mean if you do not feel they are adequately protected unless you have a concealed gun they are going to be in many situations where they will not have that protection.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Very true, but that still doesn’t change the fact that they will be “adequately protected” more often than if the mom/dad didn’t have the gun.

The world is not, nor will it ever be, perfectly safe – or at least not until after the Rapture.

“The world is not, nor will it ever be, perfectly safe – or at least not until after the Rapture”.

That is my point. The world is not perfect place so what do I do. When my kids are out of my physical control (school, sports etc) which is most of our waking hours, I do my best to know the who’s what’s and where’s and I pray a lot. At home I have an alarm on the house and a big dog who has a loud bark. He is really a complete wuss but don’t tell anyone. I do not walk around carrying a concealed gun.

What does this person do if they are like most of us. It appears they drop their kid off at school in the AM carrying a gun. There will probably come a time their kid walks to school. The kid might have scouts or sports after school. Hell, in high school it is not unusual for the kid to be getting home at 6-7PM. THey are not with their family most of the day. Meanwhile this person has walked around all day like Wyatt Earp for the purpose of protecting their family??!?! That gun they have been carrying around all day has not protected their family at all.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Now you’re just re-making the losing argument against concealed carry, which is now the law in all 50 states. What’s next – trying to de-fund Obamacare?

PD:

I am sorry. See if a person says something I sometimes have this strong desire to respond. The poster and you made the argument about protecting his/her family. I felt compelled to respond and point out the problem with that explanation.

Again, I do not want to change the second amendment or even this persons right to carry a concealed weapon. But this is apart of the reason I think it is sad. It is not just that they have this need to carry around with them all day. It is that their own explanation as to why is essentially crap.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Once again, you seem to be missing a key point of the Illinois concealed carry law: the licensed carrier gets to carry for any reason, or no reason at all. The law doesn’t require him/her to prove a need for concealed carry. So what you call a “crap” explanation is actually more than you (or anyone else) deserved.

I never said I want to take away his/her right to carry. I never said I wanted to change the law. What I said is it is sad. They brought it up and engaged with another poster.

Of course there is no requirement in the law for them to explain or provide a reason. They could have said “I am following the law and I owe you no explanation at all. I choose to carry a gun and that is just the way it is”. They did not do that. They said they do it protect their family. I pointed out that is crap.

You are all over the place if that’s the same person posting.

You applause your friend who lives 20 minutes out of town for having “guns ready and loaded and you don’t blame him a bit”. I’m only guessing you are ok with that due to the time it would take for the first responders to respond. What time is your cut-off? Around here it’s about 5 minutes.

You jumped to the conclusion I was breaking the law told me I had a cavalier irresponsible attitude……

Then you go about how you only think police need to carry a gun.
btw, there are between 9-10 million permits issued US wide, with over 50k in the first 30 days in IL. Crook Co with 12k to start with. Current #’s N/A but it’s been 6 months.

You asked — How much crime in PR should be responded to with deadly force? Tell me whats ahead…..Is your crystal ball fuzzy, or can’t you see outside the bubble? Just last week a crazy person was in the Park Dist building acting erratically, stating he had a gun while around a hundred or so kids. If I was there would I feel the need to have been ccw? No, would it of been my choice? Yes — Also Pk. Dist is a gun free zone anyway so no ccw there but it probably would of been stored in my vehicle.

Can I guarantee their safety? Nope, nobody can. Can I try to stack the odds, yep…. I know you call it a killing machine or something but I look at it for defense, plain and simple.

Please stop feeling sad, I don’t want or need your sympathy.

All this, then when you go to sleep you have to punch in your secret code to keep the boogeyman out. Make sure your dog is fed also….

Don’t put too much thought into carrying it either, when you have been doing it, it becomes second nature. I guess it will upset you more too know that I am employed by a suburban school district as well?