8 ms·

Already we've got two top-level comments who think this article is about crime. It isn't. It's about corrupt police shaking down small business owners under thr

by _moof 3y ago

Already we've got two top-level comments who think this article is about crime. It isn't. It's about corrupt police shaking down small business owners under threat of losing their business license. ETA: Please give the pedantry a rest. Of course I know police corruption is criminal. That's not what the people talking about "crime" are talking about.

seanthemon 3y ago
The new mafia game's shaping up nicely.
- lagniappe 3y ago
  Only a short amount of time before it devolves into pizza cartels
  - vimax 3y ago
    And here we are in 2023, you can be a contract food courier for the Uber cartel.
    - dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
      One longs for Ad-Hocracy… I’m the Dirty Hippie Freak and I endorse this message.
  - montagg 3y ago
    When we see Uncle Enzo’s chain launch, we know we’ll finally get the Metaverse we deserve.
- permo-w 3y ago
  this is more or less how the mafia and the yakuza originated
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
varispeed 3y ago
You would think that > about corrupt police shaking down small business owners under threat of losing their business license. would be a crime...
- mlinhares 3y ago
  It’s only a crime if someone is willing to prosecute you for it.
  - bilbo0s 3y ago
    It's still a crime if you're not prosecuted for it. That just means the DA's likely in on it and the criminality is systemic. Doesn't mean the activity becomes legal.
    - brightball 3y ago
      If it's not prosecuted, it's defacto legal. What we really need in this country is a way to prosecute which bypasses the DA since this type of thing seems to be becoming more common.
      - ryanianian 3y ago
        > prosecute which bypasses the DA This is precisely why DAs are elected officials. It's supposed to work this way, in theory. The people vote in the officials who enforce the laws in the manner they wish. In practice, DA elections seem totally ignored. The problem is lack of voting and civic engagement.
        voakbasda 3y ago
        The only candidates are those steeped in the systematic corruption. I have never seen an outsider even run.
        fzeroracer 3y ago
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
Are you kidding? The first sentences of this article sound like a textbook protection racket, which is one of the most seriously handled federal crimes in the US. Then it turns out this is city mandated, and of course since they're cops they operate outside of the law.
- BLanen 3y ago
  The "you're going to work with this guy" is obviously illegal, and part of the racket. I wouldn't be surprised if there was value exchanged there along with it. You understand that protection rackets will 'work' with government officials, right? That this is part of it? And they'll try to codify their existence as much as possible. And even if it was completely legal, its very obviously bad, and that's why its illegal in the first place and we try to combat such outcomes, which is part of the point of the article.
NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
> It's about corrupt police shaking down small business owners I don't believe that there's ever been any other kind of cop. Certainly not outside of fiction. By prefixing the adjective "corrupt" though, you're certainly buying into it. Have you never read the headlines where the entire police union tries to extort the entire city? "If we don't get enough cops on the street, bad things will happen". Hell, even more explicitly in Minneapolis after Floyd. Sometimes in the comments here there are hints of people extorting themselves with stuff like "if we didn't have cops, it'd be chaos!". The linked shakedown is relatively mild by comparison. That feeling you feel is the same as when the tapeworm hooks its jaw pincers into the inside of your gut. But sure, let's just hope for a more gentle tapeworm.
- quacked 3y ago
  What kind of society are you envisioning that can address antisocial behavior without detaining or investigating anyone?
  - Zigurd 3y ago
    Modern policing in the US is pretty terrible in terms of systemic corruption. If you add up the costs of, for example, overtime and detail fraud, it puts normal property crime in the shade.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
    I am not envisioning any society in particular. Instead, I would ask you a question. It's a little contrived, so bear with me. Imagine a situation that you could plausibly find yourself in where you would feel the need to contact the police. It need not be a 911 call, though those are fine too. Imagine how that would go down... the time of day you contact them. Where you would be when it happened. How you would describe the situation to them. In this scenario, what is it that they do to help? Whatever you think happens in that situation, everything I've read over the decades I've been reading about this lead me to believe that there is nothing they would ever do to help anyone reliably/consistently. If your bike was stolen, well fuck you. Why do you even bother to report that. They will neither recover it, nor ever punish the person who stole it. If your home was burglarized, the same. With your car, they'll take the report at least so you can claim insurance, but they will be surly and do so only begrudgingly because if they fail to take those reports to any great degree, there will be a political shitstorm that eventually catches up with them. Are you in fear of your life? They might show up and shoot you. Your dog's in even more danger. Did you see one on the street and ask for directions because you were lost? In Baltimore, that can cause them to point guns at you, scream obscenities, and run you off (and this is considered by some to be a particularly fortunate outcome). The least risky encounter for most of us, is when we're being ticketed, when they're just doing revenue collection. From what I can tell, the outcomes I describe aren't atypical. They've always got more important things to investigate (big drug busts), so the crimes that you and I care about are ignored, and they don't seem to act as a deterrent in any meaningful way. You just have several social filters on your brain that allow you to maintain the illusion otherwise.
otikik 3y ago
> corrupt police shaking down small business owners under threat of losing their business license I am almost certain that qualifies as "crime".
- _moof 3y ago
  It is literally a crime, but it's not "crime."
dang 3y ago
Can you please make your substantive points without swipes or snark, as the site guidelines ask? When other people are mistaken, it's enough to provide correct information. Getting frustrated and lashing out spoils this. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by _moof 3y ago

seanthemon 3y ago

The new mafia game's shaping up nicely.

lagniappe 3y ago
Only a short amount of time before it devolves into pizza cartels
- vimax 3y ago
  And here we are in 2023, you can be a contract food courier for the Uber cartel.
  - dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
    One longs for Ad-Hocracy… I’m the Dirty Hippie Freak and I endorse this message.
- montagg 3y ago
  When we see Uncle Enzo’s chain launch, we know we’ll finally get the Metaverse we deserve.
permo-w 3y ago
this is more or less how the mafia and the yakuza originated
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

varispeed 3y ago

You would think that > about corrupt police shaking down small business owners under threat of losing their business license. would be a crime...

mlinhares 3y ago
It’s only a crime if someone is willing to prosecute you for it.
- bilbo0s 3y ago
  It's still a crime if you're not prosecuted for it. That just means the DA's likely in on it and the criminality is systemic. Doesn't mean the activity becomes legal.
  - brightball 3y ago
    If it's not prosecuted, it's defacto legal. What we really need in this country is a way to prosecute which bypasses the DA since this type of thing seems to be becoming more common.
    - ryanianian 3y ago
      > prosecute which bypasses the DA This is precisely why DAs are elected officials. It's supposed to work this way, in theory. The people vote in the officials who enforce the laws in the manner they wish. In practice, DA elections seem totally ignored. The problem is lack of voting and civic engagement.
      - voakbasda 3y ago
        The only candidates are those steeped in the systematic corruption. I have never seen an outsider even run.
        fzeroracer 3y ago

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

Are you kidding? The first sentences of this article sound like a textbook protection racket, which is one of the most seriously handled federal crimes in the US. Then it turns out this is city mandated, and of course since they're cops they operate outside of the law.

BLanen 3y ago
The "you're going to work with this guy" is obviously illegal, and part of the racket. I wouldn't be surprised if there was value exchanged there along with it. You understand that protection rackets will 'work' with government officials, right? That this is part of it? And they'll try to codify their existence as much as possible. And even if it was completely legal, its very obviously bad, and that's why its illegal in the first place and we try to combat such outcomes, which is part of the point of the article.

NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago

> It's about corrupt police shaking down small business owners I don't believe that there's ever been any other kind of cop. Certainly not outside of fiction. By prefixing the adjective "corrupt" though, you're certainly buying into it. Have you never read the headlines where the entire police union tries to extort the entire city? "If we don't get enough cops on the street, bad things will happen". Hell, even more explicitly in Minneapolis after Floyd. Sometimes in the comments here there are hints of people extorting themselves with stuff like "if we didn't have cops, it'd be chaos!". The linked shakedown is relatively mild by comparison. That feeling you feel is the same as when the tapeworm hooks its jaw pincers into the inside of your gut. But sure, let's just hope for a more gentle tapeworm.

quacked 3y ago
What kind of society are you envisioning that can address antisocial behavior without detaining or investigating anyone?
- Zigurd 3y ago
  Modern policing in the US is pretty terrible in terms of systemic corruption. If you add up the costs of, for example, overtime and detail fraud, it puts normal property crime in the shade.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
  I am not envisioning any society in particular. Instead, I would ask you a question. It's a little contrived, so bear with me. Imagine a situation that you could plausibly find yourself in where you would feel the need to contact the police. It need not be a 911 call, though those are fine too. Imagine how that would go down... the time of day you contact them. Where you would be when it happened. How you would describe the situation to them. In this scenario, what is it that they do to help? Whatever you think happens in that situation, everything I've read over the decades I've been reading about this lead me to believe that there is nothing they would ever do to help anyone reliably/consistently. If your bike was stolen, well fuck you. Why do you even bother to report that. They will neither recover it, nor ever punish the person who stole it. If your home was burglarized, the same. With your car, they'll take the report at least so you can claim insurance, but they will be surly and do so only begrudgingly because if they fail to take those reports to any great degree, there will be a political shitstorm that eventually catches up with them. Are you in fear of your life? They might show up and shoot you. Your dog's in even more danger. Did you see one on the street and ask for directions because you were lost? In Baltimore, that can cause them to point guns at you, scream obscenities, and run you off (and this is considered by some to be a particularly fortunate outcome). The least risky encounter for most of us, is when we're being ticketed, when they're just doing revenue collection. From what I can tell, the outcomes I describe aren't atypical. They've always got more important things to investigate (big drug busts), so the crimes that you and I care about are ignored, and they don't seem to act as a deterrent in any meaningful way. You just have several social filters on your brain that allow you to maintain the illusion otherwise.

otikik 3y ago

> corrupt police shaking down small business owners under threat of losing their business license I am almost certain that qualifies as "crime".

_moof 3y ago
It is literally a crime, but it's not "crime."

dang 3y ago

Can you please make your substantive points without swipes or snark, as the site guidelines ask? When other people are mistaken, it's enough to provide correct information. Getting frustrated and lashing out spoils this. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html