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HARVEY, Ill. (CBS) ― Dozens of mailboxes remain empty after the post office suspends service in one south suburban neighborhood. Some people get angry when their mail is late. But in Harvey, people have been waiting for days and days. They’re not getting any mail at all. CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports that one mail carrier in Harvey feels threatened.
The U.S. Post Office seems to think that this is one of the most dangerous blocks in the country. People who live on it say they haven’t gotten any mail delivered to their homes in almost two weeks. Venus Jones is one of them. “Between robberies and shootings and delayed police response, several things going on, that would make it unsafe,” said Harvey resident Venus Jones.
One of those shootings on the morning of October 10th reportedly happened yards away from the mail carrier. That’s when the mail stopped on Marshfield between 151st and 152nd streets, but the post office didn’t tell anyone. “Some of the people didn’t even know that it was being held at the post office,” Jones said. Now Jones, who says her own home has been broken into three times in 30 days is talking to her neighbors about the mail problem and what should happen next. Jones says someone from the post office told her they were going to put a cluster box for mail at the corner of 152nd and Marshfield. But she says that’s not a good idea.
“We have a lot of elderly people, a lot of older people that’s working, and for us to have to go to that corner to pick up our mail, that’s unsafe for us,” Jones said.
Who would have thought Mail Carrier was on the list of dangerous occupations?
# 129 bobbo
“I told her to STFU or I would charge back some opening and closing fees. ”
You told your mother to STFU??? Man that is just brutal!!! More brutal than I never have been. I know I seem really mean on this blog but I have a very giving and very forgiving heart. I am a total sucker for redemption too.
The constitution of the Untied(sic) States of America, empowers Congress “To establish Post Offices and post Roads”.
The Clause has been construed to give Congress the enumerated power to designate mail routes and construct or designate post offices, with the implied authority to carry, deliver, and regulate the mails of the United States as a whole. An early controversy was whether Congress had the power to actually build post roads and post offices, or merely designate which lands and roads were to be used for this purpose, and to what extent that power could be delegated to the Postmaster General.[5] The U.S. Supreme Court construed the power narrowly during the early part of the 19th century, holding that the power consisted mostly of designation of roads and sites, but gradually gave way later on, allowing appropriation of land for postal purposes.[6]
The Postal Power also includes the power to designate certain materials as nonmailable, and to pass statutes criminalizing abuses of the postal system (such as mail fraud and armed robbery of post offices).[7] This power has been used by Congress and the Postmaster General to exclude obscene materials from the mails, beginning with an act in 1872 to ban lottery circulars from the mails, as well as the Comstock laws in 1873.[6][7] These attempts at limiting the content of the mails were upheld by the Supreme Court, but in the 20th century, the Court took a more assertive approach in striking down postal laws which limited free expression, particularly as it related to political materials.[6][7] The First Amendment thus provided a check on the Postal Power.