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| Soon to be seen all over non-touristy Chicago |
Yet
the idea that special patrols in the city’s most street gang-infested
neighborhoods will be put on bicycles just creates an image that might work
against any such police efforts.
MAYOR
RAHM EMANUEL made the announcement last week, saying that about one-third of
the 360 officers assigned to units that patrol the heavy-gang areas have
already been issued bicycles and trained how to handle themselves in
potentially-hazardous situations.
But
what happens the first time that a gang situation, which is all about
intimidation, occurs and a police officer arrives at the scene while wearing
his bicycle helmet and those short pants that bike riders would wear?
It’s
about as unintimidating a sight as we could be asked to see. I don’t know if we’d
have gang members laughing their tushes off, or what.
But
we’d definitely be seeing a situation where an officer would be at a
disadvantage – primarily because the whole idea of a cop on a bike is that he’s
not bogged down with all the gear that might come in necessary in a
potentially-violent situation.
THE
WHOLE IDEA of police on bicycles can work at public events or in certain
situations because they create the illusion that police are on hand, without
creating an image that is too intimidating.
You
don’t want to turn something like “Taste of Chicago” into a “police state”
atmosphere! And Chicago definitely didn’t want to have an overbearing police
impression (although it wanted the force of one) back when the whole NATO
gathering in Chicago took place.
While
I’m not convinced that creating a “police state” atmosphere in the Englewood
neighborhood is the solution either (you’ll just create more resentment amongst
the people who live there), it definitely takes more of a sense of intimidation
to grab attention in certain neighborhoods.
I
just don’t buy into the line of logic that Emanuel is offering up to justify
this change.
WHICH
IS THAT having more officers on foot in the neighborhoods will let people
living there get to know the police better. And will make them more trustful of
the police to the degree that they may have faith in law enforcement to protect
them from the gang members.
Who
get most of their power these days from the perception that they’re more
powerful than the police! It certainly isn’t that they’re more well-liked than
the police. People know who it is that is ripping them off and holding back
their neighborhoods from ever amounting to much.
A
cop on a bike would have greater maneuverability than officers in a squad car,
particularly when chasing a person on foot who may try to dart and dodge into
obscure corners of a given neighborhood.
Perhaps.
But somehow, I think a gang member would be more intimidated by the sight of
the squad car.
NOW
I DOUBT that da mare is about to be influenced by this commentary. We probably
will get more cops on bikes in the future.
I’m
just curious to know what happens if a police officer is caught in public
riding his bicycle without wearing his helmet. Will he get some sort of
discipline? Because it is an offense that leads to unsafe conditions.
And
what happens if the same gangbangers whom a police officer on bike is trying to
catch wind up snatching his bicycle? Will being able to ride around on a
city-owned bicycle become some sort of perverse status symbol for these people?
Or
are we going to get our court system loaded up in the future with a backlog of
cases of Grand Theft, Bicycle?
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