Has Elmwood Park really changed that bad for the worst?

[sjm76]

Originally Posted by BOBNCHI

I find it funny......"I don't have anything against good people of all races but the fact is that a lot more criminals tend to be black or Hispanic......." total nonsense of course. Yet, "....Elmwood Park back when Italians ran the town and it was a nice place to live, raise a family etc....." Ahhhh when the mafia ran things!!!!! Just sayin....

There definitely used to be a fair share of crooked Italians in town but at least they scared the riff-raff away from the town and it was a safe place to live and raise a family.
Now I wouldn't be surprised if it turns into another Cicero within the next 5 years.
There never used to be any shootings in EP up until about 10 years ago when more of a criminal element from the city started moving in.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by BOBNCHI

I find it funny......"I don't have anything against good people of all races but the fact is that a lot more criminals tend to be black or Hispanic......." total nonsense of course. Yet, "....Elmwood Park back when Italians ran the town and it was a nice place to live, raise a family etc....." Ahhhh when the mafia ran things!!!!! Just sayin....

I'm not condoning the irrational panic that may be going on in Elmwood Park due to Latinos moving in. I lived in Berwyn so I know first-hand how ridiculous this can get.

But you should check out Chicago's crime statistics if you actually believe what you just said. Blacks and to a lesser extent Hispanics commit crimes at a substantially higher rate than whites and Asians do. About 80% of Chicago's 2016 homicides were of African- Americans. To pretend that isn't the case or to minimize it does everyone a disservice.

[Peer79]

Originally Posted by sjm76

Ironically, I just saw this story on the news this morning and sure enough, it involved a Hispanic and the gunman was likely Hispanic too. But some of you can keep living in denial thinking that "white" people have the same percentage of criminals in our ethnic group.

Man killed in Elmwood Park gas station shoot-out | abc7chicago.com

That story is getting a lot of discussion this morning. The prevailing opinion is that they were not residents, but brought their nonsense with them from outside of EP (probably Chicago), but no one knows for certain yet. I'm not too pleased that this happened in broad daylight at 5 P.M. Fortunately, a shooting is not a common occurrence in EP. I have seen more of a troublemaker crowd by the gas station at Diversey/Harlem.

By the way, Italians still do run the town. The mayor and most of the village staff are Italian. Many of the public works guys are Italian.

The prime days of the Outfit are a little before my time, but what I understand is they kept EP free of petty crime. It was a major problem in the criminal world if criminals brought their crime into the home turf of the outfit bosses.

[toosie]

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