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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 anothe
by bilbo0s 11y ago
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.
- finid 11y agoIf 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?
- mbesto 11y agoHeh, the elected officials are exactly the problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_history_of_Chicago#Corruption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_history_of_Chicago#C... I grew up in Chicago, my family is still there, and most of my colleagues are based there. There is weird pseudo-Stockholm syndrome phenomenon where people just accept that the corruption is widespread and unavoidable.
- logfromblammo 11y agoBasically, it's all Gotham and no Batman.
- bbradley406 11y agoAny chance this contributed to the Dark Knight being filmed there? Choosing Chicago for the cityscape makes sense by itself but the film focused heavily on corruption. I found a nice breakdown of scene / real locations while looking into this: http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/d/DarkKnight.html http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/d/DarkKnight.html
- trhway 11y agowhen i visited Chicago, it was felt like it is a matter of local pride when journalist on radio was telling something about corruption in the school district. Like "look how big! how brazen it is! we can do corruption like the best out there!"... pretty much like Jon Stewart in that bit about New Jersey corruption.
- jMyles 11y ago> then what you have is not a police force, but a criminal organization. This is the only reasonable conclusion, and it's neither new nor particularly controversial. The real question is: what to do about it?
- shitgoose 11y agobend
- shitgoose 11y agoto all the downvoters - you prefer being shot?
- finid 11y agoPerhaps they'll rather stand up to bullies, criminals and injustice, rather than say, "how low", when asked to "bend" by a bully.
- shitgoose 11y ago"bullies, criminals and injustice" are the police. this whole rather depressing discussion is dedicated to the consequences of standing up to police. again, your choice is simple - bend or be shot.
- shitgoose 11y agohere is another "self-defense" by Toronto police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx2iQnYMQfM 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.
- rorykoehler 11y ago
- ViViDboarder 11y agoChicago is notorious for organized crime.
- gambiting 11y agoIt sounds exactly like Russia to me. Same level or corruption and danger to regular citizens.
- rorykoehler 11y agoI've always found vast similarities between the USA and Russia but it seems to bring on deep offence if you mention it to an average American.
- vectorjohn 11y agoProbably because Chicago is not America.
- hvis 11y agoIt may be different in the more rural regions of Russia, but I'm from Saint-Petersburg, and I've never seen anything similar to a police officer go "in 7-11's, local shops, etc, just walk in, take what the want, and leave". They're usually civil, and sometimes helpful (you can ask directions, etc). There is corruption here, but it seems to be more prevalent among the civil cervants and the higher ranking police officials.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]