The Steampunk World
Leaving the city this weekend had me on the lookout for cops once again. I didn't get pulled over, but I sure saw a lot of them- at the catering hall where the rehersal dinner was, at the bar, at the nunnery where the wedding was held, etc etc. Until I moved to the city, I never knew what a police state the burbs were.
Even the goody-goodiest of people has a love-hate relationship with the cops. You love them if you're the victim of a crime, and you hate them if you're the perpetuator of a crime. My mother, who has never so much as drinked a drink or smoked a smoke, hates the cops in our small town because they're so polite when they pull her over for speeding on a weekly basis, and she would find it so much easier to blame them if they were mean about it. Instead, they know her by name.
Now, I've never gotten harrassed by the cops in Chicago, not once in two years. I've talked to a lot of them, since they tend to be pretty friendly when they're relaxed. In general, though, they serve but don't observe- I've passed a cop while going the wrong way down a one-way street, and he didn't even look at me. Crit Mass has plugged an intersection, had some lady screaming that she was calling the cops on her cell phone, and all the while a five-oh was sitting there in the interesection, looking for french fries dropped between his cruiser's seats. I have no doubt that my skin color has something to do with the fact that I haven't had at least one interaction, but even so, talking to my black and hispanic friends, it seems that the cops are more likely to harrass you if you're not white, but the overwhelming numbers means that you're less likely to be the one they pick that day. Piloto calls it "doing the Macarena"- picture yourself putting your hands on the car, and then behind your head for the pat-down, and then behind your back for the cuffs... HEEEEYYY, MACARENA!
The one time I did get pulled over was when I left the city and went to a suburb. Not 15 minutes after crossing the border, I was pulled over. My crime? Turning around in a parking lot. Never know what kinda crooks might be turning around in a parking lot.
Or consider this incident from my home town:
Some friends and I went out drinking. We had a designated driver, of course. The cops were waiting outside of the bar to pull over anybody who left the bar and got into a car. Our DD was perfectly sober, of course, but we still got searched, the car got searched, and we got harrassed for two reasons: One, somebody there was carrying some prescription allergy medicine that a friend had asked them to hold earlier that day (it was confiscated), and two, the car our DD was driving had a typo on its registration, CHR instead of CHY. Good thing there were two cruisers and four cops on hand to handle these incidents. :|
Not that there's anything particularly traumatizing about that incident, but the fact is, it was pretty much expected when you went to a bar. The cops bird-dogged. They had nothing better to do. It was a $75 ticket for jaywalking.
In contrast, Chicago is a war zone. We have military-trained snipers holing up in abandoned projects, taking out members of a gang coup. Heck, one time the Latin Kings knocked over a national guard armory and made off with, among other things, an M-60! So I'm sure you get harrassed by the cops, lots, if you live in one of these war zones. But they just don't have time to bust people for speeding, moments of stupidity in traffic, jaywalking, or drinking on your stoop.
Of course, there's more to the story. Da Mare tells the cops who to bust and who not to bust. He likes bikes, so CM is off limits except to the occasional loser-cop who doesn't think through the logistics of trying to single-handedly stop 400 people from riding their bikes on the street, where the law says they should ride. Da Mare makes sure the cops crack down hard on graffiti artists. I'm sure there are a thousand other little things that determine if the po-po are going to harrass you or not, but overall, having cops ignore the little things makes me feel more free. How odd is that? I feel freer in the nitty-gritty city than I did on the manicured streets of my one-stoplight hometown.
I guess it's a small example of the bigger world situation, as our personal freedoms are taken away in the name of safety. It's definitely not a black and white issue. On the one hand, there's less risk in your life. But on the other hand, is that life worth living?
Even the goody-goodiest of people has a love-hate relationship with the cops. You love them if you're the victim of a crime, and you hate them if you're the perpetuator of a crime. My mother, who has never so much as drinked a drink or smoked a smoke, hates the cops in our small town because they're so polite when they pull her over for speeding on a weekly basis, and she would find it so much easier to blame them if they were mean about it. Instead, they know her by name.
Now, I've never gotten harrassed by the cops in Chicago, not once in two years. I've talked to a lot of them, since they tend to be pretty friendly when they're relaxed. In general, though, they serve but don't observe- I've passed a cop while going the wrong way down a one-way street, and he didn't even look at me. Crit Mass has plugged an intersection, had some lady screaming that she was calling the cops on her cell phone, and all the while a five-oh was sitting there in the interesection, looking for french fries dropped between his cruiser's seats. I have no doubt that my skin color has something to do with the fact that I haven't had at least one interaction, but even so, talking to my black and hispanic friends, it seems that the cops are more likely to harrass you if you're not white, but the overwhelming numbers means that you're less likely to be the one they pick that day. Piloto calls it "doing the Macarena"- picture yourself putting your hands on the car, and then behind your head for the pat-down, and then behind your back for the cuffs... HEEEEYYY, MACARENA!
The one time I did get pulled over was when I left the city and went to a suburb. Not 15 minutes after crossing the border, I was pulled over. My crime? Turning around in a parking lot. Never know what kinda crooks might be turning around in a parking lot.
Or consider this incident from my home town:
Some friends and I went out drinking. We had a designated driver, of course. The cops were waiting outside of the bar to pull over anybody who left the bar and got into a car. Our DD was perfectly sober, of course, but we still got searched, the car got searched, and we got harrassed for two reasons: One, somebody there was carrying some prescription allergy medicine that a friend had asked them to hold earlier that day (it was confiscated), and two, the car our DD was driving had a typo on its registration, CHR instead of CHY. Good thing there were two cruisers and four cops on hand to handle these incidents. :|
Not that there's anything particularly traumatizing about that incident, but the fact is, it was pretty much expected when you went to a bar. The cops bird-dogged. They had nothing better to do. It was a $75 ticket for jaywalking.
In contrast, Chicago is a war zone. We have military-trained snipers holing up in abandoned projects, taking out members of a gang coup. Heck, one time the Latin Kings knocked over a national guard armory and made off with, among other things, an M-60! So I'm sure you get harrassed by the cops, lots, if you live in one of these war zones. But they just don't have time to bust people for speeding, moments of stupidity in traffic, jaywalking, or drinking on your stoop.
Of course, there's more to the story. Da Mare tells the cops who to bust and who not to bust. He likes bikes, so CM is off limits except to the occasional loser-cop who doesn't think through the logistics of trying to single-handedly stop 400 people from riding their bikes on the street, where the law says they should ride. Da Mare makes sure the cops crack down hard on graffiti artists. I'm sure there are a thousand other little things that determine if the po-po are going to harrass you or not, but overall, having cops ignore the little things makes me feel more free. How odd is that? I feel freer in the nitty-gritty city than I did on the manicured streets of my one-stoplight hometown.
I guess it's a small example of the bigger world situation, as our personal freedoms are taken away in the name of safety. It's definitely not a black and white issue. On the one hand, there's less risk in your life. But on the other hand, is that life worth living?
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