This weekend Naperville police reeled in yet another gun arrest…19 in all since last September. A shocking number….that’s a felony gun arrest every two weeks over a 9 month period.
Could there possibly be a parking lot anywhere in America that comes close to such a number? In safe and largely crime free Naperville of all places…
It is all indeed quite a curiosity and demonstrates the astonishing level of stupidity on display by these gang-banging golf enthusiasts.
How dumb does someone have to be to leave a loaded gun laying in the front seat of their car…visible to any passerby who may happen to walk by? It’s worth noting that none of those arrested ever have a FOID card (which makes their leaving the gun out and visible even more reckless).
This soap opera creates quite a quandary for City leaders. Like moths to light, our TopGolf is drawing these hapless gun-toting criminals to a Naperville parking lot that is filled with readied police and security on alert and lying in wait. One could argue the TopGolf is helping mightily to clean up Chicagoland with all of these arrests. No violence has occurred – yet – and in fairness to TopGolf, none of these incidents has taken place inside the actual establishment.
On the other hand, any place that attracts this number of guns and criminals is going to have a bad incident. If an innocent is harmed there, Council will have a tough time explaining why this place was allowed to remain open after so many arrests on its property.
Maybe the answer is an obvious one:
TopGolf is ordered to erect a large neon sign at its entrance which loudly reads “Cook County Dumbs$&its: You Are Going to Prison if You Come in Here With a Gun!”
Then just as McDonslds used to tell the world how many millions of people it had served, TopGolf signage would tell the world how many people it has served – to prison – from this parking lot.
Dozens at this point.
The Watchdog says safety first. If the TopGolf is attracting this many criminals, it is time they self-assess. Like a single person out in the dating market and who keeps attracting losers, TopGolf should ask itself what it is that makes them so attractive to Cook County gangbangers …. and then change it.
Until they figure this out and make those changes, the TopGolf should be closed.
The growing popularity of a particular sport or sport related activity is not the “fault” of any organization involved in an industry related to a given sport. You don’t see people saying Nike needs to do something about its Brand because it has become so popular with people that carry guns or engage in the “gangster” culture. How many of the vehicles found with guns in them were Escalades?
Top Golf, like these mentioned brands, are just as much victims of this crime culture as anyone else and blaming the victim has never done anything to reduce crime rates.
Yes, we can all agree this is a serious problem that needs a serious, workable solution, but victim blaming and stereotyping are not among these solutions. Actually appealing to a “populous” mentality of victim blaming and stereotyping will only make the situations worse. In fact this “solution” was put into place months ago when concerns were first being expressed by many and it have done nothing to improve the situation. As this very article notes, even with this “solution” in place for months the situation has only gotten worse.
This issue deserve serious discussions and appropriated solutions recommendations, not name calling, victim blaming, finger pointing, divisive politics, etc.
Fascinating, that the first response would call for “appropriated solutions” because everybody knows the best way to stop bad people doing bad things that threaten good people is to appropriate funds to study the issue, and potentially create a Sanctuary Golf and Narcotics Recreational Facility. Dumping the tiresome litany of feel-good dog whistles about “name-calling” “victim-shaming” and “divisive politics” is exactly the level of discourse that encourages criminal elements to infest our society. Using the Typo Defense to say you meant “appropriate solutions” is equally vapid- the only solution for this chaos is the immediate imposition of order. Up to and including the seizure of Top Golf through Public Domain to rectify an attractive nuisance that is going to get Naperville children killed.
Top Golf is not a victim. They have not operated their business in a manner that has discouraged criminal behavior. They have not supplied adequate private security to prevent guns being left on front seats in their lot. They have not changed their operating hours to limit the attraction to thugs who want to conduct heavily armed drug business close to I-88. Top Golf has not approached the City offering to provide for the extra Police patrols and close engagement needed to scare the bad people away. Metal detectors? Lifetime bans for the first misbehavior on any Top Golf facility? Using facial recognition scans to prevent known gangsters from entering the premises? Just spitballin’ here, but seems like it makes less of a bad thing for all of us.
It is the mollycoddling and comfort given to criminals by apologists and pro-crime leftist cadres that emboldens them to act this way, when there are no consequences for bad behavior, why would they take on the challenge of doing what is right? But if we shut down their playgrounds, turn the floodlights up high and chase them out of a comfortable spot to do wrong? Better place to live.
It is important to remember that Top Golf operates over 80 facilities in the US, without any issues of higher crime rates.
Applying critical thinking, using this fact, would indicate the problem is not with the business, its business model or is management practices, but with crime factors unique to this location.
This further implies that if you some how make Top Golf’s parking lot “unappealing” to these criminal eliminates, they would simply move to another parking lot in this area (i.e. WhirlyBall parking lot).
WOW, you actually believe “seizure of Top Golf through Public Domain” (actually it is called eminent domain) is a solution? How does seizing private property from a company prevent anyone from going on this property with a gun?
Exactly what are the things you believe Top Golf should be doing to “discouraged criminal behavior”?
How many private security personal are “adequate” to “prevent guns being left on front seats”?
What are the hours you believe would make Top Golf less “attraction to thugs who want to conduct heavily armed drug business close to I-88”?
Who at the NPD told you that Top Golf has not approached them or engaged them on this problem?
How are metal detectors at this facility going have any impact on guns being found in cars? Don’t you think the reason the guns are in the cars is because the are already not allowed in this facility?
How do you implement and enforce a lifetime ban from a parking lot?
How does one set up a facial recognition system that cover every square inch of this parking lot with cameras that have good enough resolution for this job? And what database are you going to use for facial recognition?
It is amazing to me that standing up and defending a business and it management is consider “leftist”, “pro-crime”, “mollycoddling”, etc in Naperville. Since when did Naperville become a community were businesses are the bad guys?
WOW- you are certainly a cultural revolution absolutist aren’t you? I said Public Domain intentionally. Seizing property through zoning action is Eminent Domain, and abhorrent to all person of decent character. My clever legal tactic is to seize all of their intellectual property through Public Domain, and slowly wear them down with interference slap suits on their advertising.
Anything, they should do anything. Because sitting on their hands and clutching their pearls because they are being victimized is clearly not working. And since they can’t, we need to.
The actual number would be “enough”. Maybe 2-3 times enough would work- so many uniforms the cowards that are victimizing our entire community become frightened and run back to their safe spaces in Cook County where they won’t be prosecuted.
Hours? Until they prove that they can handle family-friendly non-drug violent business, I would propose from after school hours until 7:00 pm on weekdays, Noon to 5:00 pm on weekends. And no liquor license ever.
I will not share who I have had conversations with in any department of government, their open and honest conversations with those they serve are not subject to your review and correction ever.
Aside from the obvious fact that whole car scanners are a thing if you knew anything about preventing terrorism, scanners to access the property could easily be integrated into a controlled entrance point, mantraps and sally ports spring to mind. As none of the firearms recovered in this onslaught of Wild West cosplay were being carried legally, it really doesn’t matter or change the ramifications of criminals bringing guns to the party. Trying to split grammatical hairs about the obvious logical gesture of leaving their extended magazines and bumpstocks in the car while they are golfing heavy with fentanyl just makes you stink like a defense attorney.
Lifetime bans would be from the property of all Top Golf entertainment venues. Violating the ban would be criminal felony trespass with a mandatory incarceration period. I leave enforcement of social persuasion to the appropriate authorities.
Facial recognition is now advanced enough that portable scanners are no larger than the current iPhone. They could be run when every person entering the property is greeted by a Guest Experience Ambassador who is there to make sure everyone at the facility is there for golfing fun, and not nefarious shenanigans. Without breaking operational security on the accessibility of databases think: State Police, FBI and the Terrorist Watchlist for a start. Bad hombres are easy to catalog.
Actually I would never call anyone out for defending a business if their motives were pure. However, such behavior conducted in service of a pro-crime agenda, or as cover for drug dealers is absolutely a legitimate target. It is exactly that kind of public display of nonsense that has forced this particular voice to come out of lurking to confront evil. And defend Scott Huber. Too much hate on Huber, and we seriously need to laugh at ourselves more often.
First, during my time in the military, one of my duties was port security. So I am actually very aware of the technology available to secure and open space like a parking lot. And port of entry “scanners” do have very specific limits. The first of which is it has to be given parameters to “scan” for that can easily been seen from a distance (not laying on a floor or a seat that can only be viewed by an up close look in a window).
Second, other then gun offenses, what other crimes have these nefarious characters at Top Golf been arrested for? Yes, fentanyl is a problem, but not just at Top Golf…at the schools, at the parks, at apartment complexes, etc. Laying Naperville’s fentanyl problem at the doors of Top Golf misrepresents the nature of the problem and the difficult of finding solutions.
As to seizing “intellectual properties” only federal agencies have this authority, not state or local agencies. This is because these properties are protected by federal law and are completely under the jurisdiction of federal agencies like DOJ, NSA, Homeland Security, etc. Any state or local government trying to seize these properties would quickly find themselves in a very lengthy and expensive federal court battle, which they would almost certainly loose. Actually this actions sounds more like socialism or communism then capitalism in a democratic nation.
As to a “lifetime ban” from all Top Golf facilities, this again would be a federal matter since Top Golf operates in roughly 36 states and only the federal government has jurisdiction that crosses state lines. So while your “ban” may sound rational to you it is one of the most irrational ideas you have mentioned.
Yes, facial recognition does work using cellphones, but again, what database will it be using to compare too? All facial recognition systems need a database to compare to and it can only find matches to faces in that database. Federal courts have placed very strict limits on when a person’s facial image can be placed in any database legally, without violating civil rights laws. If you are thinking in terms of the system the downtown bars use, it is not a facial recognition system, it is a notification system were bars can post images of customers that have caused problems that can be accessed by all the bars downtown.
Yes, cities can pass ordinances limiting hours of operations for specific industries operation within their limits, but these limits must apply to all specific businesses in the city and not target just one. And were is any data you can provide that shows limiting Top Golfs hours of operations would actually fix anything?
Yes, cities can pass an ordinance declaring any facility that has a specific level of criminal activity be designated a “nuisance property” and place restricts on any operations on that property. But again this would apply to all properties in Naperville and in some cities, that have passed such a ordinance, it has had some very unpleasant unintended consequences.
Yes, Top Golf has a liquor license, but city liquor ordinances specify what violations justify revoking a liquor license. Again these justifications apply to all license holders in the city and can not target any specific business.
As to your claim that you will not “rat-out” your source(s) I would point out you are not a journalist and your source(s) are not protected by any confidentiality laws or code. So just making this claim provides grounds for legal action against you to force you to talk. Of course if you have no such source(s) then statements on this issue are as irrelevant as any “information” you supposedly received from them.
In fact the Naperville PD has been very forth coming on this issue and would have no reason to do otherwise. This applies to all city officials involved in this matter. If they have made any suggestions of how to improve the situation, that Top Golf has rejected, they have no reason to keep quite about them. Just as they did not with respect to the downtown bar situation a few decades back or the apartment complex crime problems roughly a decade ago. To imply otherwise simply defies credibility.
Finally, you completely ignored the fact I posted that Top Golf does not have these type of problems at any of its other, over 80 locations, in this country. This would indicate the problem is not with their business model, security systems, hours of operations, etc, but is unique to this location. You ignored the fact this is not the first time this area has had these type of problems. This area had these problems when the Odyssey facility was in operation. You also ignored my question of how, if you do stop these nefarious characters from hanging out at Top Golf, you will prevent them from simply moving over to the WhirlyBall facility?
Your constant personal attacks on me, in a poor attempt to deflect from your failure to make a rational argument that you can support with any facts, are pitiful at best.