A disturbing video showing several contracted city employees working for the Streetplus Evanston Clean Team attacking a senior citizen has been released on Twitter.
The Streetplus team was abruptly discontinued following the Feb. 13 incident.
The video depicts four men chasing a man, knocking him to the ground and stomping him.
Screenshot from video showing Streetplus eomployees kicking a senior citizen they chased and knocked to the ground.
| Kevin Dahlgren / Twitter
The men are clearly wearing bright blue park coats were emblazoned with a logo reading “Streetplus Evanston Clean Team.”
Social services worker Kevin Dahlgren posted the video on Twitter.
Dahlgren described the event in detail in a series of tweets.
“(WARNING GRAPHIC) A few days ago I filmed 5 contracted city employees in Evanston, Illinois (a city that borders Chicago) beat up a senior citizen after a verbal altercation. They work for Streetplus, a clean team that picks up trash, removes graffiti and work closely with the homeless. I was there doing homeless outreach and was sitting with him and his friends having a pleasant conversation when he stood up and walked 10 -15 feet away,” Dahlgren described the event in detail in a series of tweets.
"Streetplus showed up and apparently saw him relieving himself and a verbal altercation started. It escalated quickly. In the video you can see him first thrown to the ground and get punched by two of them. 4 of the 5 then kicked him. You can see his friend desperately trying to help by pushing them off.”
“I won’t repeat everything that was said, but one thing you can hear is ‘I’ll put your ass to sleep!’ These workers then quickly jumped into their city truck and sped off. I ran up to the man beaten and he had had blood dripping off his face and was in shock. His friend asked me to take a photo of his face which I did but won’t publish.”
“The clean team returned 20 mins later and resumed their cleanup and outreach as if nothing had happened. This team like other clean teams works closely with the public, homeless or not. It was clear they had zero deescalation training. It was a shocking thing to witness. While it appears that one of the employees did not participate in the beating they also did not try and stop it. I spent several days in both Chicago and Evanston and Evanston up until that point felt far more safer. I did not though see or hear about one outreach worker in Evanston yet ran into them regularly in Chicago. (Thresholds) It seems this beautiful suburban city is headed in the wrong direction.”
Public security footage has also been released of the attack.
The clean team was suspended after the altercation according to the Evanston Round Table, which noted the attack occurred on Feb. 13.
The City of Evanston released the statement below:
“The City of Evanston is aware of a physical altercation that took place in the area of Fountain Square on Monday afternoon, Feb. 13, involving staff of Streetplus, a City of Evanston maintenance vendor.”
“The city has reviewed and made public security camera footage from this incident, which shows Streetplus staff arriving at Fountain Square and observing an individual allegedly urinating on a utility box. Streetplus staff made verbal contact with the individual, which then escalated into a physical altercation.”
“The actions captured in the footage of this incident are disturbing and entirely unacceptable, and are not in line with the city’s values. The city has immediately suspended the Streetplus program pending further investigation of this incident.”
The Streetplus Clean Team was introduced to the city last fall and focuses on cleaning and maintenance primarily focusing on downtown Evanston, Main Street and Howard.
Team members are in the community from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“Elevating the experience for those visiting downtown Evanston and the city’s neighborhood business districts, the City of Evanston launched the ‘Streetplus Evanston Clean Team’ in November 2022 to provide enhanced cleaning, maintenance and landscaping services in retail areas across the city,” the City of Evanston’s website reads.
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