• Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Victims Of Violent Crime
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[quote]CHICAGO -- As Jessica Shaver and I chat at a coffee shop in Chicago's north-side Andersonville neighborhood, a police car pulls into the parking lot across the street. Then another. Two cops get out, lean up against their cars, and appear to gaze across traffic into the store. At times, they seem to be looking directly at us. Shaver, who works as an eyebrow waxer at a nearby spa, appears nervous. "See what I mean? They follow me," says Shaver, 30. During several phone conversations Shaver told me that she thinks a small group of Chicago police officers are trying to intimidate her. These particular cops likely aren't following her; the barista tells me Chicago cops regularly stop in that particular parking lot to chat. But if Shaver is a bit paranoid, it's hard to blame her. A year and a half ago she was beaten by a neighborhood thug outside of a city bar. It took months of do-it-yourself sleuthing, a meeting with a city alderman and a public shaming in a community newspaper before the Chicago Police Department would pay any attention to her. About a year later, Shaver got more attention from cops than she ever could have wanted: A team of Chicago cops took down her door with a battering ram and raided her apartment, searching for drugs. Shaver has no evidence that the two incidents are related, and they likely aren't in any direct way. But they provide a striking example of how the drug war perverts the priorities of America's police departments. Federal anti-drug grants, asset forfeiture policies and a generation of battlefield rhetoric from politicians have made pursuing low-level drug dealers and drug users a top priority for police departments across the country. There's only so much time in the day, and the focus on drugs often comes at the expense of investigating violent crimes with victims like Jessica Shaver. In the span of about a year, she experienced both problems firsthand. THE BATTERY On the night of May 13, 2010, Shaver was smoking a cigarette with her friend Damon outside the Flat Iron bar in Wicker Park. She said she saw a woman walking away from the bar alone when two men began shouting profanities at her. The men then began walking toward the woman. "I made eye contact with her, and she looked like she was in trouble," Shaver said. Shaver shouted at the men to leave the woman alone, at which point she says the the two men turned their attention to her, approached her, and began shouting at her. Damon told the men to leave Shaver alone. They jumped Damon and began to beat him. Shaver said she then tried to pry the men off her friend, and managed to free him long enough for him to get away and call 911. Shaver said she was punched repeatedly, including in the face. She fell, stood up, and was hit in the face again. The men then robbed her and left. When she woke up the next morning with bruises, she went to the hospital. Doctors found a concussion and several contusions. Two weeks later, Shaver still hadn't heard from the detective assigned to her case. When she finally went to the police station in person to get an update on the investigation, she was told there was no record of the incident. She filed another report, but was told it was unlikely police would be able to track down the witnesses again, and that even if they were, the witnesses' memories were likely to have faded. Shaver says she decided to investigate on her own. She went back to the Flat Iron and questioned customers and employees herself. A bartender gave her the men's nicknames: "Cory" and "Sonny," the guy who hit her. Shaver learned that Sonny was also a reputed cocaine dealer. She heard he had a violent streak, and had been banned from a number of neighborhood bars. "I was scared," Shaver said. "I'd heard bad things about this guy, and he knew who I was." Shaver is thoroughly tattooed, which makes her easy to recognize. So she dyed her hair, covered her tattoos with clothing, and kept investigating. She worked her way through social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace until she was able to put actual names to her attackers' faces and nicknames. And yet she still couldn't get anyone at Chicago PD to help her. "I gave them the guy's name and everything," she said. "There were even hip hop videos online with him in them. I told them, 'That's the guy!' They still wouldn't listen to me." In August 2010, three months after the attack, Shaver contacted a reporter for Time Out Chicago, who began asking around about her case. Shaver also met with Chicago Alderman Joe Marino. Shortly before the Time Out article went to press, a detective finally called Shaver down to the police station to identify her attacker. But even with her identification, the police didn't arrest "Sonny." He wasn't charged with the assault until the following month, when he was arrested on an unrelated domestic violence charge. Shortly after she finally identified her attacker at the police station, Shaver said the detective in charge of her case told her, "Now I don't want to hear any more bitching from you."[/quote] [url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html]Source[/url]. Stay classy, America.
Fucking disgusting.
[quote]Shortly after she finally identified her attacker at the police station, Shaver said the detective in charge of her case told her, "Now I don't want to hear any more bitching from you."[/quote] who the fuck puts these people in charge of anything?
She probably should have just told them about how he's a cocaine dealer. "Officer, these men beat and robbed me in the parking lot!" "Yeah whatever." "Other people were assaulted too!" "Don't care." "[I]I know who they are![/I]" "Shut up, bitch." "... I think they're cocaine dealers, too." "Jesus fucking christ why didn't you say so!? I'm getting the SWAT team ready, you've done a wonderful deed reporting this to the police. Thank god it wasn't marijuana, or we would have needed to get the national guard." Legalize.
A failure of the system, plain and simple [quote]Shortly after she finally identified her attacker at the police station, Shaver said the detective in charge of her case told her, "Now I don't want to hear any more bitching from you."[/quote] awful.
I live in the area. Sounds like chicago police. There's nothing you can do about it.
Trust me I've seen this first hand. We were all at my friends apartment and we hear yelling so we look out the window, his neighbor had just football tackled his girlfriend on the sidewalk and got up and punched her friend in the face, we all go out there surround him and manage to push him in his house. We call the cops and it takes them an hour to get there. Once they get there they don't take it seriously at all and just say "Nothing we can do" then leave after half assing writing down a "statement" which they probably just drew all over the paper and not even words. My friends went to court to testify against this guy and since the guy who did all this was drunk they just threw out the case and didn't do anything about it.
[QUOTE=brianosaur;33468373]I live in the area. Sounds like chicago police. There's nothing you can do about it.[/QUOTE] I live in the area too, and yes there is.
If she'd said he was a cocaine dealer they probably would've arrested him.
[QUOTE=brianosaur;33468373]I live in the area. Sounds like chicago police. There's nothing you can do about it.[/QUOTE] Fuck that shit, there's nothing you want to do about it
All police are thugs and rapists.
[QUOTE=The Decoy;33470645]All police are thugs and rapists.[/QUOTE] Ha... ha?
Well, yeah, it makes sense. Assault charges don't result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for the police department from seizing and auctioning houses, cars, or bank accounts.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;33471589]Well, yeah, it makes sense. Assault charges don't result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for the police department from seizing and auctioning houses, cars, or bank accounts.[/QUOTE] It's not what's right, though. People with such power should have a sense of nobility; do what's best for the people. oshit there i go again rambling on about fairytales Cops should do whatever it takes to fatten their pockets. [sp] I know not all cops are bad, but shit like this can not be ignored [/sp]
hi Mac
So because NYC has some corrupt cops and departments the rest of Americas police force looks bad? really... people, this isn't something that is common place. It mostly talks about NYPD and a bit of Chicago. Can't help to think of the article being very basis. There are so many thinks I could pick and and explain in the article but I'm not going to bother..
[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;33470357]I live in the area too, and yes there is.[/QUOTE] Like what?
Doing drugs =/= supporting cartels.
[QUOTE=The Decoy;33470645]All police are thugs and rapists.[/QUOTE] I have cop friends you dumbass, just because there's some bad apples doesn't mean the entire force is corrupt. Plus i smoked pot with them before but this is europe, so.
[QUOTE=DrBreen;33473354]I have cop friends you dumbass, just because there's some bad apples doesn't mean the entire force is corrupt.[/QUOTE]Did you have to use the phrase "Bad apples"? You know what rotten apples are known to do to all the healthy apples packed up with them, right?
Kinda glad the UK police force do have their priorities, i've even been let off by police for having weed because they've had a more urgent call at the time. Plus the punishment is actually fair
Something tells me these are the kind of cops in Chicago only.
[QUOTE=Gareth;33473450]Kinda glad the UK police force do have their priorities, i've even been let off by police for having weed because they've had a more urgent call at the time. Plus the punishment is actually fair[/QUOTE] I don't know if I'd rather be arrested by a British policeman or an American one... though it probably doesn't matter because treatment varies from person to person, I suppose.
[QUOTE=Pennywise;33473447]Did you have to use the phrase "Bad apples"? You know what rotten apples are known to do to all the healthy apples packed up with them, right?[/QUOTE] The analogy is only as literal as its limits
[QUOTE=MR-X;33471863]So because NYC has some corrupt cops and departments the rest of Americas police force looks bad? really... people, this isn't something that is common place. It mostly talks about NYPD and a bit of Chicago. Can't help to think of the article being very basis. There are so many thinks I could pick and and explain in the article but I'm not going to bother..[/QUOTE] The justice system is broken. It's not all the cops doing it, but it's far [I]far[/I] too many.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;33474351]The justice system is broken. It's not all the cops doing it, but it's far [I]far[/I] too many.[/QUOTE] It's also a matter of the good cops being pushed out for not playing by the rules made by the bad cops. I've met lots and lots of retired cops, some who had been on the force for 20+ years, some as short as a few months. The one who had been there the longest will tell you how disappointed they were with the way the departments are being run, the way the police force has become increasingly militarized. Some will tell you about how they were bullied for having a sense of empathy for the people they have authority over, something looked upon as weakness. It's true of course, not all cops are bad, but to get to the top of anything in this world you have to be the worst sack of shit imaginable, good guys do finish last. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and we still haven't bred out our biggest flaw, and I doubt we ever will.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;33471589]Well, yeah, it makes sense. Assault charges don't result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for the police department from seizing and auctioning houses, cars, or bank accounts.[/QUOTE] Doesn't the money actually go to the city|town the cops work for as opposed to the department itself. Even so, this would result in a potentially even bigger push at the cops to focus more on drug war stuff as opposed to things like assault. There's also the point of drugs being more visible on the street than violence, which again probably leads to stronger pressure at the PD.
This is sort of like how in Singapore you can get executed for just [B]possession[/B] while murderers get less than 20 years. Check it. [URL="http://asiancorrespondent.com/27608/the-uneven-nature-of-singapores-justice-system/"]http://asiancorrespondent.com/27608/the-uneven-nature-of-singapores-justice-system/[/URL]
[QUOTE=lolo;33473972]Something tells me these are the kind of cops in Chicago only.[/QUOTE] they are in every city.
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