The city of Joliet is about to become the owner of a fire-damaged house acquired for the strategic purpose of forcing out registered sex offenders who live a block away.
The Joliet City Council on Tuesday approved the acquisition of the unoccupied house at 1000 N. Center St. at a price of $124,000.
City officials, siding with Cunningham neighborhood residents alarmed about an apartment house that has been converted to living quarters for a half-dozen registered sex offenders, say they intend to build a park on the corner lot at Center and Moran streets.
They are banking on a state law that bars registered sex offenders from being within 500 feet of a public park.
NewDay Apartments, which owns the apartment building, contends the law does not apply to all sex offenders, and the park won’t stop them from moving tenants into the building. Lake Zurich-based NewDay finds residences for sex offenders, who face multiple restrictions on where they can live.
Illinois residents, take action! Contact Lake Zurich-based NewDay Apartments to find out how you can speak up! If you don’t why should you expect others to stand up for you someday?
The only intelligent words spoken by anyone interviewed was the person who suggested giving away the Ring doorbell cameras. That would at least help reduce the amount of actual crime that probably goes on there (car break-ins, package theft, etc.)
If nothing else, the cameras would also validate what we already know, that registrants typically don’t present any additional risk of sexual crime in their communities due to physical proximity.
Should be a grandfather clause!!!
The way the article reads, the city is purposely scheming to ban registrants by using the law. Hmmm… where have I seen something like this before? Re: Taylor, Ca case.
So if you spend hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars to create a park out of hate to drive out unwanted neighbors, isn’t that straight up harassing sex offenders? I’m confused I thought that was illegal?
When the residency restrictions first came to play here in Michigan, there was a clause that stated if someone was already living near a restricted area before their conviction, they could stay. I don’t see how designating something as a “park” could be used to force someone to move. If this isn’t vindictive punishment, I don’t know what is.
Actions like this definitely needs to be taken to court, and I hope the county spends all the money building it just to lose.
What a waste of $124,000 by this city council to be rid of a problem that doesn’t exist. In my mind this is ongoing financial collateral damage which is the consequence of this Registry.
Fight em. Grab your pitchforks and torches and see how they like it when it’s used against them.
“We are concerned because tons of kids walk by every day.” Oh really, and how many times have any of those “tons of kids” had an issue with the people in that house? We know the answer is never, because if theere had ever been even a suggestion of a problem it would have been in the headline to this story. The apartment manager has discovered what all apartment managers across the country are finding out: RSO’s make excellent tennants. They have been abused and harrassed so much they just want a quiet place where they will be left alone, where they can try to put their life together. They are quiet, respectful, clean, grateful to have a job and a place to live. They are ideal tennants, that is exactly why this management compny says they will NOT stp renting to RSO’s.
Another article: Chicago Tribune: Joliet buys house to turn into park in hopes of forcing out sex offenders
How is banishing where people can live and doing it after the people already live in a place not be a violation of the constitution? (I know the public does not care about the constitution unless it specifically affects them.)
Today I saw a instagram post that read
The post had 800k likes I can’t believe Instagram will let people post something that clearly promotes hate against another group of people, all those strict Community guidelines they, don’t pertain to people forced to register. You can probably even post A screenshot of someone’s Megan’s law information
Animus, anyone?
Honestly, if I were evicted for something like this, the apartment would be left unlivable for the next tenant.
I find it curious that everyone talks about taking “legal action” in the courts against this type of malicious behavior by local politicians. The last time I checked my bank account there wasn’t enough money to hire a lawyer. Why should I be forced to go bankrupt just to remain in my home? Why isn’t there an army of pro bono work against this blatant attack on offenders? Oh, I just remembered. Pro bono doesn’t pay. The only justice you get is what you can afford. As far as I know, sex offenders aren’t growing money trees in their yards. And sex offenders do not inspire empathy on the part of very many people. Just my opinion. I figure I’m entitled to one since it’s free.
“The dispute over the building erupted earlier this year when Joliet officials learned that about five sex offenders were placed there…. Illinois law prohibits people convicted of sex offenses involving minors from living within 500 feet of schools, playgrounds and day cares.”
😂 It would be classic government for them to proceed with their plan and see it through to the end, only to then learn that nobody bothered to look and learn that none of those five individuals was convicted of an offense involving a minor!!
City has plan to force convicted sex offenders to move from their home: Build a park nearby
People are placing these folks there so it would seem, IMO, any move by the mayor would contradict the state’s effort to continue their rehabilitation and wouldn’t bode well for Joilet in the end. Speculation of course…
I’m currently in email contact with Bob Okon, the author of the article. Hopefully he will agree to interview Janice or Chance and get a more balanced view of this incredibly irresponsible position by the Jake and Elwood Blues division of the city council.