7:47 PM: All hells breaking loose on Morse Avenue tonight. Police radio calls went out tonight for a fight at Sub Brothers at 1417 West Morse. Tom Mannis is at the Common Cup and reports a customer coming in said the police are chasing two fighters. A call went out for the ambulance - as one person has a head wound.
While all this is going on, those CAPS Beat 2431 mutts are holding a CAPS meeting down the street at 1530 West Morse. I'm guessing they're telling the 20 or so residents who showed up that "Crime is Down" right about now.
8:37 PM: Playground Follies. A group of teens are beating up another teen in the Field School Playground at Greenleaf and Ashland right about now.
8:41 PM: The suspects in the school yard brew-ha ha split on their bicycles. Two are heading east on Greenleaf and two are heading west. Nothing further.
6 comments:
ah, springtime!
Monitoring the scanner for the past couple of years I've noted; Current methods to keep crime numbers down is to move the perps of the crimes from one corner to the next.
Better known in police circles as dispersal's.
The goal is to find a crappy street the majority of neighbors don't care about. One where no one really cares what happens.
You know, the street you've always have been told has a bad reputation and your parents told you to stay far, far away.
A better term would be 'Skid Row'.
Conclusion; CAPS monthly stats should include gang and drug dispersal's in the monthly readings. You'll find zero tolerance is just a political catch phrase used to reassure the gullible people who attend.
If Crime is really down, it's only because Gang and Drug Dispersal's are way, way up.
If you're really skeptical that crime is down like I was - I urge you to buy a scanner and listen for yourself.
The police aren't too blame as much as the homes these kids are raised in. There are too many unsupervised and poorly cared for young black kids in Rogers Park. The problem is not going to go away until they do--and that's not going to happen because there are just as many people in RP who want to defend them as there are who want to complain about them and have them arrested.
Craig, you're probably right that dispersals are up -- that seems to be the police m.o. in many places.
Are you sure that it's a top-down conspiracy to produce lower crime stats, though? It could also be lazy cops, or police made cautious through too many complaints that they are targeting minority youths.
Either way, the dispersal technique is unacceptable policing.
Craig, I've explained the dispersal process and the reason for it to you before. What part did you not understand. If your unhappy with it, don't blame the CPD, call your friends at the ACLU. It is because of them that it exists, not lazy cops, Joe Moore or any other reason you care to come up with.
The consequence of a conviction may be significant for a teenager, let alone an adult. If no one was hurt, then the fact that police dispersed and intervened is better than no action.
Police get familiar with isolated cases and regular aggressors. In doing so they can make judgment calls in the future. Sometimes, it is difficult to figure out who is the instigator. Often, it takes two.
Some kids, and adults, are too foolish to know when to turn around in the other direction and/or shut their mouths every time someone acts like an asshole. Occasionally, we all forget without realizing it.
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