Why is this the top post on hacker news? What does this have to do with anything other than anecdotal, hysterical media BS?
Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
131–140 of 365 posts
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#132Let's see.. in the 20 odd years here in Chicago, the sum of my police interactions are: Hit by a white shirt (supervisor) who came out of an alley on clark st while in a bike lane - somehow my fault, detained. Hit on foot, by a car with no lights on in a residential neighborhood while crossing at a crosswalk - somehow my fault for being outside while there was "a suspect being hunted" Watching officers on foot in 7-1…
I'm moving to Chicago in a few months. Are there certain neighborhoods that should be avoided on the basis of corrupt police activity? I wonder because I could see neighborhoods that are relatively safe in terms of civilian crime, but cops posted in that area might have nothing better to do than mess with its inhabitants.
Chicago neighborhoods are a useful designation for access to services, housing prices, likelihood of being shot on the way to the subway, being able to walk your dog at night, distance to the nearest ANYTHING besides a liquor store and check cashing store... but Chicago police are everywhere and nowhere. You don't call them, they call you.
They'll show up 5 times a day to question the family of the drug dealer who lives in your basement apartment and can somehow not figure out which unit it is... so you live in constant fear they're gonna come break down your door. They'll ticket and boot every car on a street despite a clearly visible permit on half of them...
But you'll hear gunshots down the block and ... nothing. You'll have an emergency and you won't get a response for an hour.
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Helping a friend move to another city because he ended a relationship with a cop who made his life a living hell after they broke up. I was dating this girl a couple of years ago and we were pretty early on, but she wanted to spend the night. And we were cool so it wasn't an awkward thing, but what I figured out as that she didn't necessarily want to stay the night as much as she was afraid to go home at night. Her r…
Police officers abuse their romantic partners at about twice the average rate. Domestic violence occurs in about 40% of households with police officers.
Note: those rates span a lifetime. It doesn't mean that every current relationship has a high rate of abuse.
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Helping a friend move to another city because he ended a relationship with a cop who made his life a living hell after they broke up. I was dating this girl a couple of years ago and we were pretty early on, but she wanted to spend the night. And we were cool so it wasn't an awkward thing, but what I figured out as that she didn't necessarily want to stay the night as much as she was afraid to go home at night. Her r…
Police officers abuse their romantic partners at about twice the average rate. Domestic violence occurs in about 40% of households with police officers.
Do you have a citation for this statistic?
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#135maybe all police officers should have to record audio and video and do a live broadcast while on duty (someone has to make sure their equipment is working properly)...
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#136This is a problem at the top and the bottom of the department, and it won't get fixed until both sides are held appropriately accountable.
The beat officers don't care because their management stack doesn't care. This should be pursued criminally, and would be were it anyone else messing with municipal equipment.
This is a departmental corruption issue first and foremost - and it's the senior management that should be held to account. Unfortunately, the problem won't be fixed until some of them go to jail and/or are made to make compensation for the damages and time spent repairing the system. Only then will the policies change to where the guys on the street quit damaging equipment.
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#137We need badge-equivalent cameras. What I mean is that we need to make cameras work the same way as badges and uniforms, in the sense that you just can't do police work if you don't have a working camera. A working camera has a red light on it which means that it is currently streaming (possibly buffering if temporarily out of wireless range).
The police don't have to record anything, they just need to stream somewhere with associated meta data. NGOs will come forward to read the streams and save them.
I understand it will be hard to get unions to agree to this and I don't have a solution, but I'm minded of the reforms made to policing in Northern Ireland as a success story.
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
a concerted and coordinated criminal conspiracy Yes. It's Chicago. You've just described city government in six words.
Another poster already alluded to the point, but I'd like to make it explicit: if you believe Chicago is exceptional in this, you are wrong. The NYPD is almost as bad (as far as we know, the NYPD doesn't have an off-the-books torture chamber[1], rather preferring to sodomize arrestees with brooms in the regular jails on a more ad hoc basis). But just as life-destroying are the things that go on in smaller communities…
The worst part of the "few bad apples" deflection is that when used, everyone is dropping the second part of that idiom. It's "a few bad apples spoil the bunch|barrel"
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#139Let's see.. in the 20 odd years here in Chicago, the sum of my police interactions are: Hit by a white shirt (supervisor) who came out of an alley on clark st while in a bike lane - somehow my fault, detained. Hit on foot, by a car with no lights on in a residential neighborhood while crossing at a crosswalk - somehow my fault for being outside while there was "a suspect being hunted" Watching officers on foot in 7-1…
I'm moving to Chicago in a few months. Are there certain neighborhoods that should be avoided on the basis of corrupt police activity? I wonder because I could see neighborhoods that are relatively safe in terms of civilian crime, but cops posted in that area might have nothing better to do than mess with its inhabitants.
I'll be honest with you... Chicago is very much a place where you take your chances.
You can live in Streeterville for example, as rayiner alluded to in another post... but what happens when you go out with friends??? What if they want to go someplace in say... Wrigleyville... some night??? You're walking back to your car, or trying to get a taxi back to the loop, and you cross too close in front of a police officer, or his vehicle. (Basically, the same thing that bbarn was talking about in his post.) Even though it's completely inadvertent, and done with no ill intent, I've seen this very thing go decidedly bad for people in the past. It seems that it didn't go too well for bbarn either.
So if you're asking for guarantees... I think that reasonable people will concede that there are none.
The best advice is to be aware of your surroundings, and be aware that police are extremely dangerous and best avoided. Just do the common sense kind of things... allow police the path if you see them walking on the sidewalk. Don't look directly at an officer. When approached by a police officer, be extremely deferential. And for goodness sake, if you see police abusing power don't try to intercede. Don't let them see you recording or videoing the incident. When you have an opportunity later... just write an anonymous letter to a newspaper with the video or something. Etc etc etc.
Also... not trying to be even more of a dark cloud here, but I think a word of warning is appropriate on this particular point... if you are black and male, and assuming you are professional as you are a hacker news reader... I'm not entirely certain any of this will work for you in any case.
Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm moving to Chicago in a few months. Are there certain neighborhoods that should be avoided on the basis of corrupt police activity? I wonder because I could see neighborhoods that are relatively safe in terms of civilian crime, but cops posted in that area might have nothing better to do than mess with its inhabitants.
Lifelong Chicagoan here. I've never, ever had these issues and all my run-ins with cops have been fairly uneventful, if not pleasant. Chicago cops have better things to do than give traffic tickets usually and the last time I got pulled over (blew through red from a fast yellow) and I was just let go with a warning. Recently, there is a mentally unstable person in my neighborhood and he decided to sit on my porch and…
"Also, not to attack the GP, but there is a Chicago cyclist personality I see frequently. They do dick moves with their bikes, cause accidents, never obey any traffic law, scream at pedestrians, and constantly pretend to be innocent and are often incredibly confrontational when criticized. I can't imagine cops being nice to these people and the GP sounds like one of these people, which may explain many of his experiences."
No, I'm the mild mannered, just let me get home without dying type. Stopping at lights, yielding at stop signs, pedestrian in crosswalks. Not in a particular hurry to get anywhere usually, overweight, calm demeanor. What makes me "sound like" one of these people to you? You'll note I mention this is the total sum of my interactions over 20 years in this city. I have yet to have a positive one, but still, there aren't many to speak of. Also, only the one experience there had anything to do with being on a bicycle.