I just spotted an article about a women hit by a Chicago Police vehicle this morning. (This site often changes the text of their articles several times. Here’s how it reads as of 16:30 CDT):
A woman in her 60s was injured this morning after she was struck by a Chicago police vehicle in the Albany Park neighborhood, officials said.The accident happened about 6:17 a.m. at the intersection of Kedzie and Montrose Avenues, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety.The police vehicle was responding to a “high priority” call involving a sexual assault in progress, Baety said. Baety did not know if the vehicle’s emergency lights were activated.The woman sustained lacerations and bruises to her head and was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Baety said.The woman’s condition was not available.
Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety’s pants are on fire.
In Baety’s world, apparently, police officers never make mistakes or have accidents. So, how do you spin an accident to make it look like it was the victim’s fault? Just tell everyone that the officer was responding to a “high priority” call involving a sexual assault in progress. After all, who could blame the cop for accidentally hitting an elderly lady as long as he was rushing to protect a poor helpless women who, at that very moment, was being violently raped!
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened in the real world.
There was, in point of fact, a low priority call about a man exposing himself near a McDonald’s. Here’s a transcription of the call from the dispatcher to the officers who were to respond:
A sex offense 4546 Kedzie. 4546 Kedzie, at the McDonalds.Caller says the police were out earlier for a male Hispanic who was naked and, uh, exposing himself out in front of the McDonalds.The guy is back. He’s standing near the bushes on the side of the building, keeps coming back.The caller, [caller’s name], would like to speak with you; says she can point him out.
A minute or so later the officer involved in the accident called in to report it and request an ambulance “ASAP”.
Accidents happen. People will want to place blame. Others involved will want to divert blame. Eventually, if someone wants to know, they will get official transcriptions and collect statements from witnesses. I’m pretty sure you can get a clear picture, eventually, of just what happened.
By then, however, the story will have blown over and most of the public will not care. For now, what is important to the Police News Affairs Office, is making sure that the CPD looks good. The police don’t make mistakes, and they will spin any and every incident to demonstrate that.
Can anyone remind me why many people don’t trust the police anymore?
Where can one gain access to the call transcripts?
I transcribed that dispatch myself from a recording of a Chicago Zone 1 scanner feed. I provide the Zone 1 feed to Radio Reference and they maintain a little over two weeks worth of archives online:
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=archives&feedId=5594
(You either need to pay for a premium subscription or provide a feed, in which case they give you a premium subscription, to listen to the archives.)
All of the scanner feeds on the Radio Reference site seem to be archived in a similar fashion.
Sometimes being a nerd comes in handy…
I don’t trust them because they lie and they lie to protect their own. I applied for the CPD four years ago, was called two years ago, passed the written (a monkey can pass the written) exam, passed the physical exam, was on my way to take the psychological but the day before received a letter stating they couldn’t do a background check on me so I was disqualified. I was 39 years old at the time. I was born and raised in Chicago and lived in Mexico, which I told them truthfully, for six out of those freaking 39 years and THEY COULDN’T DO A BACKGROUND CHECK ON ME??? Other government agencies were able to, and I passed, but CPD couldn’t? They lie! I don’t trust them. I’m surprised the 911 dispatcher didn’t question the caller as to whether or not they “were sure the guy was naked on the street” or question why that warranted a police car in the area. As for the naked, obviously insane, hispanic, I wish someone would have bashed their privates with a baseball bat! Maybe that will teach them to keep it inside.
A culture of insiders (a good-old-boy network) is one of the problems that has been mentioned in independent reviews of the CPD over the years. That’s the reason Daley was forced to tap an outsider for the superintendent position, and why the existing network of cops fought Weis’ hiring even before his first day on the job.
Structurally changing this insider’s paradise will require years of work and reform with the good-old-boy network fighting every step of the way. Hopefully whoever our new mayor will be (since the cops seem to fear Rahm more than anyone, he probably would be the best mayor for this job) will be able to make some headway.