CHICAGO'S POLICE ARE GENERALLY PRETTY GOOD. (
Generally.) But Tuesday night's performance in Rogers Park was a sad - and all too frequent - example of
lousy public relations, callous disregard for the residents they claim to "serve and protect," rudeness, overreaction and .... and so on and on.
I have much respect for most police officers. (
Most.) But Tuesday night's fiasco makes it progressively more difficult to love them. Sure, they're willing to take a bullet for you and me.
But do so many of them have to be such assholes?
On Tuesday night, as mentioned in my earlier post, a call went out to cops in the 20
th and 24
th districts here on the north side of Chicago.
"Bomb and arson" caught my ears while listening to my police scanner. It was 9:40 p.m. I decided to bike up and take a look.
I arrived at 10:02 p.m. I took my first photo of the scene at 10:04. I asked a cop what was going on.
"Nothing," came the predictable and annoying answer.
"Why is Bomb and Arson on the way?" I asked. One of the uniformed cops told me to not say that too loudly. Sure, like the block being blocked off, a large residential building being evacuated, fire trucks standing by with engines noisily running for hours (think of the carbon footprint!), and tons of cops on the street won't worry the neighbors.
But shhhh! Don't say "bomb and arson!" THAT will make folks nervous!
Summary: Some guy in the evacuated building was growing pot, about 5,000 grams of it, and his irrigation system leaked into the unit below. Police were called, they entered the apartment, see a bong and mistake it for a bomb. Building is evacuated. Alleged pot farmer, a skinny little guy, has his great
Dane out for a very long walk. Street closed off at approximately 9:45 p.m.
Fast forward to approximately 11:
oo p.m. on Tuesday.
A skinny little guy walks his
great dane through the crowd. The guy walks into an alley just east of
Damen. Just then I heard a scanner call for cops to watch out for a skinny little guy with a great
dane. Seconds later, squad cars arrest the skinny little alleged pot farmer.
By this time, all the cops knew there was no bomb.
I went home.
At 12:10 cops ask if they can let the people back in.
12:15, dispatch says to let fire trucks only out of the street.
12:25, dispatch tells cops to open up the street.
For nearly three hours, people were standing on the street. Understandable at first, but by 11:00 it was
inexcusable.
CPD Superintendent Jody Weis has had a bad week. A bad, bloody week in the streets of Chicago have not helped
CPD's public relations, although they are certainly not to blame for the crimes. But
Weis - and every district commander - had better get wise to the fact that their utter lack of any public relations sense does them no good. When a woman who is locked out of her home by cops asks the cops what's going on, she has a right to an answer other than, in effect,
"None of your business."
Try calling CPD's News Affairs and hoping for a call back, unless you're with one of the Big Media. No go, pal. You're not important enough. Try standing at a respectful distance from a police or fire scene with a camera on a public street, and see what kind of abuse you get from the police. You won't like it.
And where was Alderman Moore? No rep from his ward office. Do the commanders of the 20
th and 24 districts not think enough of him to notify Mr. Moore that they just got what they initially thought was a bomb in a residential area? Or did they call, but Moore just didn't care enough to go himself or send a trusted aid to the scene? (And try calling Moore's office and hoping for a call back.)
RELATED:
IS MR. WEIS IN OVER HIS HEAD?
CITY MISFIRES
"Why is Bomb and Arson on the way?" I asked. One of the uniformed cops told me to not say that too loudly. Sure, like the block being blocked off, a large residential building being evacuated, fire trucks standing by with engines noisily running for hours (think of the carbon footprint!), and tons of cops on the street won't worry the neighbors.
But shhhh! Don't say "bomb and arson!" THAT will make folks nervous!
Summary: Some guy in the evacuated building was growing pot, about 5,000 grams of it, and his irrigation system leaked into the unit below. Police were called, they entered the apartment, see a bong and mistake it for a bomb. Building is evacuated. Alleged pot farmer, a skinny little guy, has his great Dane out for a very long walk. Street closed off at approximately 9:45 p.m.
Fast forward to approximately 11:oo p.m. on Tuesday. A skinny little guy walks his great dane through the crowd. The guy walks into an alley just east of Damen. Just then I heard a scanner call for cops to watch out for a skinny little guy with a great dane. Seconds later, squad cars arrest the skinny little alleged pot farmer.
By this time, all the cops knew there was no bomb.
I went home.
At 12:10 cops ask if they can let the people back in.
12:15, dispatch says to let fire trucks only out of the street.
12:25, dispatch tells cops to open up the street.
For nearly three hours, people were standing on the street. Understandable at first, but by 11:00 it was inexcusable.
CPD Superintendent Jody Weis has had a bad week. A bad, bloody week in the streets of Chicago have not helped CPD's public relations, although they are certainly not to blame for the crimes. But Weis - and every district commander - had better get wise to the fact that their utter lack of any public relations sense does them no good. When a woman who is locked out of her home by cops asks the cops what's going on, she has a right to an answer other than, in effect, "None of your business."
Try calling CPD's News Affairs and hoping for a call back, unless you're with one of the Big Media. No go, pal. You're not important enough. Try standing at a respectful distance from a police or fire scene with a camera on a public street, and see what kind of abuse you get from the police. You won't like it.
And where was Alderman Moore? No rep from his ward office. Do the commanders of the 20th and 24 districts not think enough of him to notify Mr. Moore that they just got what they initially thought was a bomb in a residential area? Or did they call, but Moore just didn't care enough to go himself or send a trusted aid to the scene? (And try calling Moore's office and hoping for a call back.)
RELATED:
IS MR. WEIS IN OVER HIS HEAD?
CITY MISFIRES
