Posted on 08/18/2018 2:03:38 PM PDT by simpson96
Chicago Police are under fire after allegedly parking a 'bait truck' full of designer shoes in an impoverished neighborhood, two days in a row.
Activists allege on at least one occasion last week, police parked the partially open truck near a group of children playing basketball in Englewood, southwest Chicago, in an attempt to lure them into committing a crime.
'Instead of stopping crime, they're trying to create it,' Martin Johnson, who spent an hour filming the second truck on Friday, said.
He was joined by another local woman, Helen, who said police were forcing an already at-risk group of people behind bars.
'When you live in the conditions that we live in, communities that are starving, and you're hungry, your conditions and your situations make choices for you,' she said, referencing the policeman who just a day before had claimed those arrested had made a 'conscious choice'.
'Whoever acted and went to jail yesterday, they didn't make a conscious decision, their conditions made a decision for them.' On both occasions, police are seen surrounded by furious residents, with marked and undercover police cars parked nearby.
While locals argue to police the trucks are a 'dirty' tactic, and officers are 'setting up' the community, law enforcement was seen arguing back anyone who engaged with the trucks was making a conscious decision.
Fellow activist Charles McKenzie, who works with anti-violence and crime prevention group God's Gorillas, told Vox he believed tactics like bait trucks would damage trust between the community and its local police force.
McKenzie said the alleged bait truck projected the idea police were focused on hurting members of the community, not protecting them.
'How do we supposed to trust [police] if they setting us up like this?' Mckenzie said. 'How can we trust them?'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Some local tagger should have just spray-painted “bait truck” and “Five-0” on it.
Years ago there was an episode of the TV show, “Cops”, where a bait truck was used to catch people in the act of stealing from the truck.
From what I can recall this happened in New Jersey.
The trailer had the “Conrail” - rember them? - logo on it.
Kind of like the roach motel - they could get in but they could not get out -because the cops made a door that would not open out, trapping the suspect in the trailer for an easy arrest
Oh please. The USA has the fattest "poor" people in the world
First they tried trucks full of work boots, but had little success.
...and made it worse by putting only left-foot Nikes in the truck.
And during riots, all them food/clothing/electronics stores also unfairly bait them into committing crimes....
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