Vandalism in Macomb

In one of my first posts, I remarked that certain sections of Macomb could be considered the "front lines" of zoning battles in Macomb. I was referring to the always-ongoing verbal spats (as opposed to literal brawls in the streets) between single-family residents and students/landlords regarding multi-family housing in the city. Lately, however, the tensions have taken a different form.

At around 2:25 a.m. on Sunday, October 7, a group of college students ripped down a chain-link fence in front of a house at 120 W. Adams, owned by Macomb resident Barbara Martin, who lives there with her son. The property sits in the middle of the route from the downtown bars back to campus, so it's not surprising that Martin apparently has been having problems with late-night vandalism for some time.

What the students didn't know was that Martin recently installed security cameras to monitor her grounds. A few days after the incident, the Macomb Journal published this image of the crime, caught by Martin's equipment:


The police have been trying to enhance the image, but so far only have been able to identify clothing, not faces. Despite several articles in the local papers and condemnation by both Macomb Mayor Mick Wisslead and WIU President Al Goldfarb, the crime remains unsolved.

There's a second part to the story. On October 23, members of WIU's Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and the Macomb Police Department's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 189 teamed up and rebuilt the fence. The Macomb Eagle, Macomb Journal, and Peoria Journal Star all covered the story.

Nevertheless, the neighborhood vandalism continues. The Macomb Journal ran a front-page story last Friday about a fence that was recently damaged at 541 N. McArthur Street.

But is vandalism actually on the rise in Macomb? Maybe not. From that same Journal article:

Macomb Police Detective Matt Gass said that since the Martin incident, the Police Department has been learning of previously unreported incidents of vandalism.

"Throughout the past few weeks we've had people say, 'Yeah we've had property damage all the time, just never reported it,'" Gass said. "The University Baptist Church has said they've pretty much had their fence destroyed, it's the same thing, that it's happened over a period of time."

One of the challenges with Macomb's town-gown geography is that the boundaries of where students are allowed to live haven't ever been truly defined. Students and local families are all mixed in together, with spotty results. If this were a different sort of college town (e.g., Champaign-Urbana) where the campus was largely separated from the rest of the community, students would vandalize properties belonging to other students (rather than the townies). In Macomb, students simply vandalize their neighbors -- who could be anyone.