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| Mayor Emanuel's top cop says just pretend there's no crime on the CTA |
The Tribune had to laboriously compile the stats themselves since the Chicago Police Department doesn't collect CTA specific crime stats. That, you see, might make people think taking Chicago public transportation might be a bit on the perilous side.
According the the Tribune report, they'd be quite right.
According to the report, between 2009 and 2011 there were 10,759 crimes against passengers on CTA trains or platforms reported and 5,457 on CTA buses or at bus stops.
Over the period studied, forceful robberies of CTA riders increased 69% to more than 800 a year. Your run-of-the-mill, just plain theft was up 42%, to almost 2,000 a year and batteries on the CTA rose 15%.
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| Security videos of the black gang that attacked a young white family on the EL June 13th |
With the Libune, racial identities of perp and victim are reserved for the odd "hate crime" when, for instance, a white suburban woman said something nasty to a Moslem female and tugged on her facial scarf.
The question, however, is a fair one when you consider the June 14th report of the incident where a young white family was terrorized on a CTA train by a gang of black youths who took the wife's cell phone and beat the man senseless.
But the funniest part of the Tribune's CTA crime report was the response of Capt. Thomas Lemmer, chief of the Chicago Police's mass transit crime unit.
This jamoke actually said that it was good that more CTA riders were taking their expensive electronic devices onto trains and buses and openly using them there.
These, of course, are the items that are the targets of most CTA highwaymen and thieves.
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| Never a dull moment aboard the EL trains |
"That (openly using your expensive device on the CTA) is a huge part of driving down the numbers of crimes," he said. "You want the community to be both safe in reality and to believe they are safe, because both feed off each other."
HUH?
Now I studied Aristotelian logic in Prep School and symbolic logic at the university level and this is a new one on me.
It seems to be something like: "I pretend I am safe, therefore I am safe."
That, of course, is sheer idiocy.
Reminds one of the famous malapropism of the late Chicago Mayor, Richard J. Daley, when he uttered: "The Chicago Police aren't here to create disorder. They're here to preserve disorder."
the CTA IS safe and the police point that people being confident about the system is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteGreat!! Good to hear that. Now meet me at the Morse Ave El platform at 11:30 tonight and we can discuss it some more.
ReplyDeleteAnd bring your laptop and I-phone
Actually, Broken Windows Theory of crime prevention is built on this point exactly. When good citizens are afraid, then tend to abandon the public space and leave the remaining citizens who can't leave that space there alone with the criminal element, who sensing the area is a lawless one, begin to roam unchecked. More lawful behavior in an area, reduces fear of crime, and provides a basis for the reduction in crime
ReplyDeleteYou don't understand NY Mayor Giuliani's "broken windows" theory. He posited that if you force slumlords to fix broken windows and clamp down on petty crimes, like public urination and panhandling, you would arrest and possible reverse the deterioration of a neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThat is a far cry from advocating that a Jeweller's Row merchant openly walk thru the Loop or board the CTA with his sample case of diamond rings. Or that hot young white chicks should feel at ease walking down East 64th St. at night.
Or that CTA riders should feel at ease about openly using their I-phones aboard the EL or at bus stops.
That is just plain idiocy.
And that desk jockey cop, Capt. Thomas Lemmer, should be tossed out on his can for making such a patently stupid recommendation which only serves to put gullible members of the public in danger.