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Our New Model of Policing and Government?
So, the Chicago Park District closed up pretty much everything over the past year. The “pretty much” is significant because there were some park district programs that ran drying the various lockdowns, and some parks themselves were open. But were they busy enough for officials to earn a 6 percent raise?
Also, while we’re at it, this is significant that the lakefront in Chicago is now officially open. (For those who don’t know, the Lakefront park is used by millions, literally, not figuratively, and offers the best break from the city you can find. It stretches for more the 20 miles and is just amazing.) As the headline of the article states, it’s now fully open, but that’s not the important thing
What’s significant is that the parks along the lakefront have been open since, oh, May of last year. Folks just started to ignore the closures and the police didn’t enforce it … except when they wanted to. And that’s the part that worries me: Someone like me, on the North Side, just going for a run … maybe reading a book can get away with things. But others are not so lucky. The selective enforcement really bothers me. Sort of like how the police broke up a rally to protest the lockdown, but let the summer protests over George Floyd continue.
(Oh, and the picture is from my last walk along the lakefront on the day I packed up the rest of my stuff and left Chicago for good after 20+ years there.)
Published in General
The entire Trump Russia collusion debacle is still another glaring example which highlights how the politicization and corruption of “selective enforcement” has come to make me wince and spit on the ground when I hear (D) pols start talking about enforcing the “law”.
Just wait until the Biden DOJ really gets rollin’. Merrick Garland appears to be very selective on how to enforce particular laws.
Yeah … and that’s just it: If your of the “right group” it’s OK for you to break down snow fencing, plop down and have a picnic (as happened on the first sustained warm weekend in Chicago) … but if you’re not, well … then the lakefront isn’t for you. I know life isn’t fair, but this takes it too far.
And, also, I forgot to put in my post: Despite numerous city services *not* being available during the pandemic, not a single city worker was laid off or even furloughed. Many seasonal workers weren’t hired, but the rest of the bloated, ineffective government class skated through all of last year, collecting a full paycheck for not doing their full job.
Yeah … that’s going to be a huge mess. At this point, I’m most concerned about the city and state officials. Not to say that eventually the Federal government won’t be a problem for me, but for now, it’s all more problematic at the local level.
This is true in most of the country, especially blue states and cities. My pet peeve (other than the public schools) are the libraries in my area. They’ve been closed for nearly a year now, with holds and pickup service only, during very limited hours. If chain stores and other retailers can be open, there’s absolutely no reason the libraries can’t be open, especially since the SCIENCE shows that the virus doesn’t spread by touching contaminated objects. They could have limited the number of patrons in the building at one time, required face masks, etc. But no. I’m paying taxes to support practically no service. No one at the library system has been laid off or furloughed. And they push more and more leftist and woke nonsense on their website.
Cities do a bad job of policing and they are not blamed for the bad policies and practices they create.
The City of Chicago has three big problems, a corrupt city government that runs the police department, a George Soros State Attorney, and an incompetent Cook County Sheriff.
In the big Blue cities mayors see police departments as a private army to enforce their edicts. There are two ways to destroy a city. One is the establishment of a one party city government, the other is to politicize law enforcement.
It may be too soon to tell, but a third might be effective control by eco-socialists. However, this might be a special case of “one-party” rule. Chicago is a case study in persistent corruption. Seattle and Austin are examples of cities ruined by eco-socialists.
You left out Portland, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. I’m sure there are more cities out there. It’s a long list.
Substantial progress toward eliminating selective enforcement probably requires eliminating a substantial number (most likely a majority) of the laws on the books. There are too many laws in force to be able as a practical matter to enforce them evenly.
Keeping it in Chicago, the Jesse Smollet/Kim Foxx non-enforcement of a faked “hate crime” is another case politicized WTF-ery where the rational mind wonders why even have laws when the law is bastardized to fit into the Lefty political narrative de jour.
Yep, exactly. What’s funny is I was working an emergency response role at my job at the time and I thought “That’s terrible … that someone needed a Subway sandwich so bad to go out in this crap to get one.”
But, yes, as I’ve put it to my liberal friends (before they canceled me) “The difference between liberals and conservatives is this: Liberals want a million laws, but with a million exceptions and carve-outs such that the law has no teeth. Conservatives want very few laws, but they want them to MATTTER”
That was the tell that the Smollett case was all BS from the get go.
Most humans, even white racists, tend to avoid the outdoors in sub zero temperatures.
In addition, upscale Streeterville, much less anywhere in the City of Chicago just does not get marauding bands of white racists physically attacking anyone ever. Yes, Chicago has an inordinate amount of criminal violence, but most all of it is drug/gang related and the criminal violence seldom occurs near the wealthier downtown neighborhoods like Streeterville.
From what I can tell selective enforcement of the law is now the name of the game. Also add selective interpretation of the law. We now live in a time that the government can just find a law, twist its meaning a bit and apply to whoever it wants. Basically just execution of raw power with a window dressing of law to justify themselves.
Hope you get some rain in Chicagoland soon. Meanwhile, are there any editors left at Ricochet or does stuff just get slapped on the main feed without proofreading?
That is the classic misspell where the misspell is also a real word, so it doesn’t get the red highlight warning you have made a misspell.
My favorite misspell is form instead of from, where my right ring finger outpaces my left index finger by a fraction of a second.
Yup, that’s one reason human editors exist. Or not.
Just wait until the new Obama Obelisk goes up. The black people in the neighborhood fought it hard, but the white city government overruled them. Do I hear the sound of boots being licked?
About policing in Seattle. The city government sees their police as “pigs”, white racists, and thugs. They de-funded the department by 20%, and crime is skyrocketing everywhere. And today, the State Government is working on a law that requires a police officer who sees another law-enforcement officer “using excessive force” to turn them in. They will require police to worry about what their fellows are doing, rather than responding to what the criminals are doing. This will not end well.
@billjackson, where did you end up? It’s a great picture. I’m just north of Milwaukee and am close to lake as well. There haven’t been any restrictions like that near lake.
Thanks! I moved to Lake County, IL, so I’m pretty close to Wisconsin as it happens. And, yeah, Chicago’s decision to close the lakefront … and keep it closed all summer .. was a major factor for my move.
Oh, man, that’s embarrassing. I think I typed that without my glasses. A thousand apologies.
I agree. ACAB let them shut down the police force entirely and let’s see how that works.
Just to clarify, my comment was not a criticism directed at you. Everyone makes typos. No biggie.
Ha! No worries. I didn’t take it as a criticism. I was laughing when I was typing. It’s why I like this site: Smart people, fun conversations … it’s all fun.