Live data from Hacker News

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

dnainfo.com

351–360 of 365 posts

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

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no national body that oversees police, but Chicago has the Independent Police Review Authority. However IPRA rarely upholds complaints against police (it's staffed by ex-cops and other people connected to the police), and recently an investigator was fired after finding a shooting unjustified[1]. [1] http://www.wbez.org/news/city-fires-investigator-who-found-c...

"Since its 2007 creation, IPRA has investigated nearly 400 civilian shootings by police and found one to be unjustified." Alrighty, then...

Devils advocate but wouldn't they investigate every shooting incident, so you'd expect the vast majority to be clean.

I know every discharged weapon in the UK is followed by immediate officer suspension and investigation, and I suspect very few are actually ruled as bad and rightly so.

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

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your whole series of comments in this topic seem to be along the lines of, "Don't be a dick and nothing bad will happen to you." Maybe that's been your experience, and I'm not going to call you a liar. But that's simply not the case for everyone. I moved to Brooklyn from Texas last June. Moved to a part of Crown Heights that my coworkers said was probably fine. Kind of on the edge of where things get genuinely sketch…

First of all, I hope everyone reads your whole comment so they can learn about the police murdering someone when they thought they could get away with it. That's important to hear. That being said, I have experienced something like the racial tension you say happened after that incident. It was scary but in the end I was safe partially because I made the time to get to know the people who lived around me. Not even ha…

I don't understand what you mean when you say that you are "a good member of the community" and I also am skeptical that it was ever possible to be that in that neighborhood.

I was a good member of the community in the sense that I paid rent on time, I helped my elderly neighbors get their groceries up the steps and into the house.

But I don't want to hang out with anyone. I am not a particularly sociable person. I'm an extreme introvert. I play the violin and write code.

I'm not going to hang out with the local people in the neighborhood and smoke weed with them because I'm on probation for a DUI, and any interaction with drugs or alcohol could land me in state prison in Texas for 18 months.

What exactly is it that you mean when you say be a "good member of the community"?

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

#354
post #49
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's part of my point. When most cops became cops that wasn't the case at all.

We're talking about dash cams here, not body cams. They had TV shows in the 90s based on police chase videos from dash cams. World's Wildest Police Videos first aired in 97, though I suspect there were shows prior to that, the names I cannot recall. So police dash cams have been in the popular culture for almost 20 years. I think cops in Chicago (or any city) knew what they were signing up for at this point.

Most police officers are not just older workers forced to adapt. According to the NYPD, the median age of their academy graduates is 26.

Younger beat officers are overwhelmingly utilized for patrol duties. They knew or should have known dashcams could be in use during during those patrols.

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

#355
post #329
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing to keep in mind is that America isn't as homogeneous as a European country, it's as diverse as the entire European continent. Would you say that Denmark is a dreadful mess because of the crime rate in Serbia? Probably not.

Even including the "safe" parts of the US in the equation the murders per capita rate is three times higher than Serbia. If you count police shootings the numbers get so crazy compared to any other first world country it is pretty safe to say there is a problem.

Didn't Serbia have a massive civil war just few years ago?

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

#356
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

If it's that bad in Chicago, then what you have is not a police force, but a criminal organization. Who's overseeing them? Are your elected officials powerless to do any thing?

Chicago is notorious for organized crime.

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

#357
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be unconstitutional for the Congress to pass laws taking full oversight of state and local police (it's not one of the Congress's enumerated powers, and per the Tenth Amendment 'The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'). Sometimes police are found to have violated federal civil-rights law…

Actually, ensuring that states provide equal protection of the laws to all persons, that states do not deprive persons of life, liberty, or property without due process, and that states do not abridge the privileges and immunities of US citizens is an enumerated power of Congress; see the Fourteenth Amendment, particularly sections 1 and 5.

You make a good point. I suppose one might be able to justify such a commission on that basis (although that itself indicates the problem with the post-Civil War order).

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

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

here is another "self-defense" by Toronto police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx2iQnYMQfM first 3 bullets in the chest, then 6 in already dead body, then taser the corpse. policemen successfully argued self-defense and was charged with attempted (???) murder. the only reason why this made to trial, was because video was released to public. otherwise he would have walked.

I thought they were supposed to use a taser first and live fire as a last resort? What in the world were they thinking? The guy is clearly not conscious/possibly already dead and then they taser him?

This is going to look bad. I'd better tase the corpse so I can claim I tried non-lethal means first, but the guy was unstoppable and I had to kill him.

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

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They are the most ... actively dangerous group of commuters I've witnessed. Do people commuting on bike in Chicago kill more people than commuting in cars?

You don't compare fractions by their numerators alone, do you?

No

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

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that's "being soft on crime" which will lose you an election here. The propaganda machine makes it very hard to oppose the police.

So what you are telling me is that the people are being represented by who they elect. If the people want hard on crime to the point of violating civil rights and they get what they want, what is the issue? That a minority has to suffer because of the will of the majority... that is an inherent issue with democracy. Isn't there a quote that goes something like: People are ruled by the government they deserve.

> Isn't there a quote that goes something like: People are ruled by the government they deserve.

Minority groups aren't.

Post reply on HN