Message to any would-be criminals seeking to hide out in East St. Louis public housing: “Run, but you can’t hide; especially in East Boogie.”
That’s the message coming from U.S. Attorney Steve “Elliot Ness” Wigginton and St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan “Wyatt Earp” Kelly.
I have the utmost respect for Wigginton and Kelly, who have become notorious for their relentless efforts to clean-up ESL’s scandalous criminal and political landscape.
So, why the focus on this particular issue? Primarily because of the lack of enforcement of rules pertaining to felons and other criminals who have become comfortable hanging out or hiding out in public housing as some sort of safe haven.
It’s a not-so-quietly kept secret, in the hood, that crooks just blend into “the P.J.s” (housing projects) without fear of eviction or retaliation; especially those whose friends and family live there.
But that day is over according to Terry Delaney, assistant to U.S. Attorney Wigginton. According to Delaney, any non-residents of public housing who commit felonies, such as violent or drug-related crimes, on or near public housing will be banned.
First of all, such perpetrators will be served with an affidavit, from either the police or Housing Authority staff, barring them from all housing projects within ESL.
Then, if the individual or individuals violate that order they would be arrested for criminal trespass, a class A misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
And it’s long overdue, if you look at the statistics from 2000-2010. During those years, the per capita murder rate of ESL’s Roosevelt Homes was 12 times the national average, the Gomper Homes was 30 times the national average and the John DeShields Homes was a whopping 54 times the national average for murder.
With those numbers, ESL public housing residents would face better odds of survival in an Iraq war zone or on the drug-plagued streets of Juarez, Mexico, according to Brendan Kelly.
From a tactical and theoretical standpoint, such an initiative would disrupt the felon’s ability to congregate so conveniently, as well as significantly reduce the crime and murder rates. It also, oftentimes, smokes out fugitives and leads to gun and drug arrests.
The housing projects shouldn’t be viewed or used as some sort of “country club” for crooks to gather and strategize.
So, hopefully, it will produce results. Nearly 50 arrests have already been made for everything from felony drug charges to criminal sexual assault, as well as for a variety of felonies and misdemeanors, with 40 non-public housing residents banned as a result.
That means that residents of ESL’s housing projects must, also, do their part by being proactive in reporting any unsavory characters who commit crimes and feel that they can just “chill-out” without consequence.
Crime Stoppers (866) 371-8477 is an anonymous option for those who have an aversion to “snitching” (which I’ve never understood), because snitching is better than dying as the result of a stray bullet intended for some thug that YOU refused to snitch on.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com Twitter@JamesTIngram.
NOTE:
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