There is an interesting case out of Chicago where a gang member has reached a settlement with the Chicago Police Department after filing a tort action for intentional infliction of emotional distress and false arrest. The $33,000 settlement followed a controversy over two Chicago police officers — Susana La Casa and Luis Contreras — taking gang member Miguel “Mikey” Castillo into a rival gangs territory and allowing the rival Latin King members to taunt and threaten him. The Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy is now seeking the dismissal of the officers.
It is common to hear complaints from gang members that officers will drop them off in areas controlled by rival gangs. However, on this occasion, the incident was captured on video. Notably, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has been condemned nationally for her determined efforts to prosecute citizens who film police in public, including films of abusive police tactics like this incident. Alvarez declined to charge the officers.
The video posted by WBEZ showed the officers standing by with the doors of the SUV open as gang members yelled at Castillo and flashed gang symbols. Worse yet, the officers “made a false oral statement” about the incident to an Internal Affairs detective.
In my view, Castillo was clearly under arrest as being in custody in the vehicle and not free to leave even though he is not cuffed.
I was surprised last week to go walking along the lake on the Northside after my niece’s funeral and seeing new Latin Kings gang signs in the area. Growing up, my friends and I had to avoid gangs including the TJOs, Latin Eagles, and Latin Kings. That declined but Chicago is again struggling with resurgent gangs. WBEZ has compiled an actual map of gang turf: here.
Source: WBEZ
Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley, San Bernadino, or the NYPD, where’s the difference?
I live in Arizona, Maricopa County, so Arpaio is easy for many of you. Illinois, Michigan, California, or the Boroughs, it’s the same old same old. Blue or red it plays out the same. The former and the latter have being doing this so much longer than Arizona. The 1968 Police Riot anyone? The earliest recognition of Police as brutally fallible, while still meting out no real punishment. I have police in my family, and getting that pension justifies almost anything for anyone in their profession. False imprisonment, by their word, of people they consider non-human does not justify losing that pension. They have the strongest Unions in the USA to buttress that perverse opinion.
Darren…. We are in agreement..,
mfitch 1 wrote:
… almost always nothing at all has been done to change the social dynamics of the person’s situation, and even if those dynamics don’t completely cause the nehavior, they sure do exert a significant influence.
Years ago (decades actually) I worked in a psych hospital. For young patients with problems of addiction part of the therapy was a commitment to move out of the area where they were living so the influence of the friends and environment were no longer available. If they were going back to the same thing that helped them become addicted the chances for recovery were greatly reduced.
shano, Amen to that! However, as we’ve discussed here, too may public and private industries oppose it. Hopefully you support the Ron Paul’s and Gary Johnsons. I voted for Johnson.
End the War on Drugs ™
mattcarmody, Garry McCarthy is like all big city police commissioners, a politician. It’s early so I’ll show some patience. However, when there was a Nato summit in Chicago last summer we got a glimpse into his thinking. Watch what people do, not what they say. And that applies to pols even more. Well, w/ Nato in town there were vittually no problems. You couldn’t walk 3 steps w/o bumping into a cop on the Mag Mile or Loop. During that time, dozens of poor black folk were killed on the streets of the south and west side. He talks a good game but he showed that week he knows who butters his bread.
“The protection part may also be motivated by harsh police activities that are used in poor areas.” What am I missing? And we’ve gone over this “more experience” previously on rape and maybe another topic. MikeS, you may well have, but how do you know? Gangs NOW have absolutely NO redeeming value. And to even intimate they do, is ludicrous. You did just that by saying they may serve a function of protection. Current gangs are about drugs and money, that’s all. They hardly even deal w/ prostitution or gambling anymore. The lottery pretty much killed the numbers rackets and you can just go online to get a hooker directly. Chicago has become a transit point because of logistics and the sophistication of their gangs. The geography makes Chicago a perfect location for nationwide distribution of drugs just like it does for legit commodities. MikeS, Chicago has been in free fall for about the last 6-8 years. It’s worse than any other US city.
Lets end on a point that wwe can agree. Although it is a DemocratIC city, Chicago is not the least bit “progressive.” The past year or so there have been some young gangsters mugging people for their iPhones and iPads in the trendy Mag Mile area. They also did some wilding @ the Oak Street and North St. beach, where white folk sunbathe. Well, that was nipped RIGHT IN THE BUD! I went to the annual Air and Water Show a couple months ago. We sat @ the Oak St. Beach[in the shadows of the Drake Hotel] and there were more cops than I have ever seen, and I’ve been to that show @ least 5-6 times. We are sympatico on this, MikeS.
The peosple of New York City should be as lucky as those in Chicago are having Garry as the police commissioner.
ya good luck with that the pigs can murder people in cold blood and get away scott free.
The police should be charged with harassment and unlawful imprisonment.
Jude, I lived on the 2100 block of Waveland. It was gang free but walking just a few blocks north to Irving Park or a few blocks south there were gangs. The immediate area where I lived were many old Germans who had their extended families living in 2 flats. Solid families are the best deterrent to crime.
MikeS, A voice from the 60’s! The myth that gangs protect their poor neighborhoods comes from the myth of the Black Hand, the precursor to La Costra Nostra. Now, the Black Hand did in the early 1900’s help people who were the victims of crime ignored by the police, mostly Irish. However, they primarily preyed upon their own people, making them pay protection. These gangs now prey upon their own people and the good people of these neighborhoods beg for police help. It’s in the papers and on the news daily in Chicago. The gangs don’t abide the most restrictive gun laws in Chicago, making unarmed citizens easy prey. I get nostalgic about 60’s music, garb, tv, culture. But not your pablum about gangs.
“MikeS, A voice from the 60′s! The myth that gangs protect their poor neighborhoods comes from the myth of the Black Hand, the precursor to La Costra Nostra.”
“I get nostalgic about 60′s music, garb, tv, culture. But not your pablum about gangs.”
Nick,
The main problem with your reading comprehension is that your read into writing and project onto people that which is not there. Neither of your quotes from above is responsive to what I wrote, nor are your surmises about my thinking derivative from what I wrote. I did not address a paean to gangs and truth be told I have had much more experience with them than you, from both the inside and out.
You would really come off as a more interesting person if you actually responded to what people wrote, without adding your own projections to it and in doings so trying to prove your wisdom.
I remember seeing LK stuff all around Irving Park when I lived there.
Dismiss and prosecute. When the police act like criminals they should be treated as criminals because they are. Frustration is no excuse for this type of behavior.
The officers should be ex-officers and Alvarez can go with them.
Fire the bastids then punish them.
Dismissal is too light a punishment.
Didn’t press charges….why should he have to? If the evidence is there they should be prosecuted anyway. (They do others!)
And as officers they should have higher standards….
I sort of get it. I can see how police officers must get very frustrated feeling that they are not really changing anything or making anything better. The officers in this case probably thought they were employing a “scared straight” tactic that would make the young man think about his (likely) future. The problem, apart from the illegality of their stunt, is that empirical evidence strongly suggests that scared straight tactics don’t really work. They make for great TV: some arrogant annoying teen is changed into a penitent blubbering child. The TV audience nods approvingly, thinks, “that’s more like it”, and assumes the attitudinal shift persists after the rolling of the credits. Except it generally doesn’t because almost always nothing at all has been done to change the social dynamics of the person’s situation, and even if those dynamics don’t completely cause the nehavior, they sure do exert a significant influence.
Let’s face it one of the reasons that Gangs prosper in low income areas is for mutual protection and financial benefit. The protection part may also be motivated by harsh police activities that are used in poor areas, as opposed to those of the more affluent. Such treatment may well be an incentive towards increased gang activity. In this instance the officers should be fired for illegally unprofessional conduct.