Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

dnainfo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 365 posts

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#171

Post by stonemetal »

maxerickson wrote: post #102
stonemetal wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see no mention of systemic checks and balances or corruption investigation further than a couple of bad actors. So yeah cover it up replace it with something hopefully less corrupt, but not what needs to happen to prevent it from happening again.

I'm trying to establish some common ground. When I read something like this: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/year-in-review/20100221_Ca... I see the "federal investigation" as a systemic action, and I don't really see how disbanding the old department is a cover up, it's a pretty real consequence.

Action after it makes the evening news, not an on going part of the system that is actually capable of changing it.

> how disbanding the old department is a cover up, it's a pretty real consequence.

Consequence to who? Not the corrupt officers who weren't the scapegoat, all they had to do was re-apply for their old job.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#172

Post by sixothree »

bbarn wrote: post #74

Let'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…

The worst years of my life were living next door to an Orleans Parish Sheriff. He would follow my friends home, he would spit out his gum onto my sidewalk, he let my dogs out of the yard every day for a week, he would blow his leaves onto my yard, he would let his dog bark all day and all night, he would hang his running leaf blower on the fence at 8:00 in the morning on a weekend. I really could go on and on.

There was no use getting help from the city. One night at maybe 1:00 AM I called the police because of the barking. He told me maybe I should just move.

I look at the police in a totally different way now. He was so clearly in the wrong and such a menace to all of the neighbors. Yet somehow he had an entire department on his side - a department he didn't even belong to. I told his wife my next step was the FBI. They moved shortly after that.

I'm sure wherever he is that he is harassing everyone around him. I can only imagine how his lack of ethics translates into his professional life.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#173

Post by [deleted] »

MCRed wrote: post #80
bbarn wrote: post #74

Let'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…

Unfortunately, where to move? The situation is like that all over the USA. The increasing militarization of the police in the past 20 years (one thing about being "old" is you can see these things happen before your eyes) have produced a very bad scene. I spent a couple years in Chile. They cops there walk around with machine guns (they're called "carabineros") but are professional, uncorrupt and trustworthy. The dif…

[deleted]

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#174

Post by ChrisBland »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #13
pjc50 wrote: post #8

Until police are jailed for this, nothing will improve. What's the US equivalent of the Independent Police Complaints Commission?

As I argued elsewhere here, I believe a stronger incentive would be to come after pay and pensions for police units whose officers have cost the municipality millions in lawsuits. Instead of friends and coworkers trying to protect each other for abuses of power, they will instead take on the role of protecting their families' livelihood. You would be less likely to abuse your authority if your entire department and t…

While your idea sounds great in theory, what I believe would happen would be a stronger blue wall of science. They wouldn't report anything and would side with their own as not doing so could risk their family livelihood. IMO, a better solution would be to require officers to pay their own liability insurance, similar to medical malpractice. Let an indep 3rd party set rates, then you can price out the worst officers and the payouts come from the 3rd party and not the tax payers. Then the officers would want the bodycams as they would protect them. Imagine if a doctor did something wrong and said, oh whops, i guess the patients chart disappeared. They would be uninsurable after that point, same with a cop.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#175

Post by phil21 »

callinyouin wrote: post #106
bbarn wrote: post #74

Let'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.

Some of these posts here are a joke. Chicago is like any other major US city, probably better than the mid-tier cities I've spent time living in in terms of police and crime. It's simply very much two cities and you only hear news stories about one.

Just like anywhere else, don't act like an idiot or seek out trouble in rough areas and 99% of your interactions with police will be fine.

You're on HackerNews so presumably you make money and won't be living on the South Side or somewhere like it. If you're living in Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Streeterville, etc. you will likely never witness a bad police interaction the entire time you live there - unless you go looking for it. Live in some of the more marginal neighborhoods and those you fear will almost assuredly not be the police.

It's like anywhere else - dressed like a young professional, out with other similar friends, not being confrontational and get caught doing a minor infraction? You'll be warned and maybe yelled at. Do the same acting like fools and giving attitude back? Yeah, you might be taught a lesson and spend the night in jail.

I've had plenty of interactions with CPD between myself and my drunk friends in my earlier days. The cops acted just like you would expect and desire them to in all but one situation. That situation was a friend jumping a security gate on the El to photograph some train stuff. He went to jail for the night.

As with everything like this the hyperbole is just nuts. If you're a poor minority living on the South Side my answer may be different, but for the typical Hackernews frequenter Chicago is no different than NYC or LA, and honestly in terms of "living in the city" you are likely to find far safer and wealthy neighborhoods than you will in the "inner city" of any other mid-tier NFL town in the US.

That said it's a big city. If you're used to living in a big city, Chicago is just another one with better than normal public transit. Same problems and concerns as anywhere else. You can find neighborhoods that have similar crime rates to the most wealthy suburbs there are, and neighborhoods with a higher homicide rate than Iraq. The latter gets you the police department in those areas you would expect.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#176

Post by jjudge »

callinyouin wrote: post #106
bbarn wrote: post #74

Let'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.

> Are there certain neighborhoods that should be avoided on the basis of corrupt police activity?

No. It's largely a very safe city and a great place to live in. I've lived here for 16 years (2 in Lakeview, 1 in Uptown, 3 in the West Loop and 10 in Lincoln Square). If I can help answer any questions about the various neighborhoods, you can reach me via jeff@judge.io.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#177

Post by cjslep »

rayiner wrote: post #122
__jal wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> rosecutors and especially judges, always slow to change when change makes their jobs harder, will take longer to get used to the notion that wink-and-nod isn't going to work any more. Police unions are going to lose this fight, especially as activists are starting to become savvy to the tactical advantage of splitting Republicans between law and order fears and union busters. I'm optimistic. State budgets are such…

I envision asset forfeiture of houses and cars increasing as police budgets decrease.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#178

Post by entropicmind »

ej3 wrote: post #131

Why is this the top post on hacker news? What does this have to do with anything other than anecdotal, hysterical media BS?

I'm just speculating but I'd say that with the recent death of Ian Murdock and how that situation played out, tensions are high between the HN community and the police in America.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#180

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

ChrisBland wrote: post #174
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I argued elsewhere here, I believe a stronger incentive would be to come after pay and pensions for police units whose officers have cost the municipality millions in lawsuits. Instead of friends and coworkers trying to protect each other for abuses of power, they will instead take on the role of protecting their families' livelihood. You would be less likely to abuse your authority if your entire department and t…

While your idea sounds great in theory, what I believe would happen would be a stronger blue wall of science. They wouldn't report anything and would side with their own as not doing so could risk their family livelihood. IMO, a better solution would be to require officers to pay their own liability insurance, similar to medical malpractice. Let an indep 3rd party set rates, then you can price out the worst officers…

Wow, great idea. Probably even better than mine. The only problem I can point out is that over time budget increases (for they always increase) could be partially set aside to bury the insurance cost and effectively shield the department from the damage of higher premiums.
Post reply on HN