There were lots of other people around, and a black tie event letting out at the Planetarium. That’s why the whole thing pissed me off.
I can understand about you being upset and the fact that you believed that you should be safe in a crowd but smash-and-grab or snatch-and-grab only takes a few seconds. It’s a well-known tourist area and tourists are known to carry cash, cameras, and other easy to sell items.
The thieves don’t usually work alone. One grabs the camera, necklace, binoculars, etc. and runs. One, or more others, will block (maybe injure) anyone who tries to pursue. You feel you were inconvenienced. I’m thinking the cop may have been trying to save you and your friend from possible injury. IMHO, of course.
I have lived here since I was 3 years old (I was showing around my friend, the out-of-town guest), and I’m a grownup, and I was driving a 12-year-old car. I think the black-tie folks were a much likelier target. Besides, that’s my decision to make. Or it should be, anyway.
So you don’t think that parks should have posted and enforceable hours of operation?
Unfortunately the way the world works for everyone like your friend who couldn’t get the picture he wanted there would be 100 yelling “Why didn’t they do something!” when crimes starts happening in an open park at night.
This was several years ago now, so I don’t remember exactly what time it was. But if the park did have posted hours of operation, and if we were in the park past those hours, wouldn’t it have been more productive for the cop to explain that in a rational manner rather than simply telling us to get the hell out (while not doing the same to all the other people in the park)? And shouldn’t those hours apply to EVERYONE in the park on an equal basis? And why are the parking meters supposed to be fed during hours that the park is closed? I’ve never seen that anywhere else in the United States.
I am generally a law-abiding person; I’ve never had so much as a speeding ticket, so I generally would appreciate being treated with respect unless I am clearly doing something worthy of arrest, and accompanying a friend who is trying to take a photo of the Chicago skyline is not that. A little politeness would have gone a long way in that circumstance.
It all comes down to the police having a general mandate to enforce “order and safety”. Unfortunately there’s a lot of subjectivity and judgment calls on the specifics. When in doubt, the police usually err on what they consider to be the side of caution: arrest first, let a judge sort it out. Being able to detain and hold people for 48 to 72 hours before they must either be charged or released is a quasi-legal way of discouraging certain public behaviors the authorities would rather you not do.
Around here, there are many playgrounds in public parks which have signs posted which state that adults unaccompanied by children are prohibited from entering (the playground, not the park as a whole).
From a purely professional point of view, “arrest first and ask later” is great for business (or would be, if they applied it to the rich, rather than just the poor). But it’s not constitutional; it’s not consistent with a free country; and it encourages fear and loathing from citizens, whose help police need if they want to solve real crimes.
And it’s the criminals decision. Someone unknowingly presents a criminal(s) with a target of opportunity. They grab it and run. Unless you’re dealing with kidnappers, the black-tie folks wouldn’t have been the targets. For thieves, it’s the cameras, watches, purses, phones, ipads, etc. that would be the targets and you and your friend would be considered obstacles that had to be dealt with.
The black-tie folks had all those same items and more - including fancy jewelry, etc. And I imagine many of them had been drinking, which we hadn’t. Besides, all that is totally irrelevant to the question of who is allowed to be at the parking meters next to the planetarium. That spot is not generally a tourist location when the Planetarium is closed.
Just because cops shouldn’t be dicks does not mean some can’t be. Just as cops should be smart and think, but not all do. Sometimes power goes to their heads.
I recall when I was in New York many years ago, there were a hundred police cars with lights flashing sitting on a street near Canal street, police everywhere. I asked one policeman what was going on, and he curtly said “nunya” so I said, “huh, what?” and he repeated himself. Or that’s what it sounded like. I figured out days later it must be short for “none of your business” Then his partner chimed in, politely, with “it’s a training exercise.” and off we went.
So politeness got rid of us pesky tourists in the middle of an emergency, something a brusque and rude cop failed to do. It turned out later that a pro baseball player and his instructor had crashed their light plane into an upper east side apartment and the city was on high alert, which we found out later when we got back to our room.
And they’re so out of control the feds are watching THEM.
Today is the first day in office of the new police chief; I don’t remember her name. She’s 60 years old and I wonder if this might be too much for her. On the other hand, this might really get her juices going and she might be just what we need to finally straighten out the mess of chaos that the Seattle PD is in right now. I wish her luck and wonder if she’ll still be on the job one year from now. She’s really got her work cut out for her.
Doorhinge, I’m not sure what your point is, unless it’s that nobody should be allowed on the street because they might be attacked by criminals (unless they’re wearing black ties…?)
Is your thesis here that cops should just make up silly reasons to keep law-abiding citizens indoors? I don’t see police as having a right to prevent me from doing any legal activity I damn well please, barring exceptional extenuating circumstances.
Or just that photographers are foolish?
I have no idea how you came to your conclusion.
The area in question is known to attract thieves and Eva Luna states that she is generally a law-abiding person who’s never had so much as a speeding ticket. I, on the other hand, have known several Chicago cops and criminals. I’ve spent many years fishing Chicago’s lake front for salmon, from dusk till dawn, including the area by the Planetarium. I had spent several years working midnight to 0800 in the Loop. I can usually spot a potential troublemaker before they strike. If Eva Luna was a personal friend, I would have offered to accompany her and her friend on their grand adventure. She’s not, so I offered her a bit of good advice instead.
(p.s. Is it OK if I misspell your nom de plume at some future date?)
My “thesis” is that bad things sometimes happen to good people. The moral of the story is that everyone else should keep their wits about them when visiting Chicago’s lake front.
Law-abiding doesn’t mean clueless, and I have lived in some fairly marginal neighborhoods in my life (and visited plenty of others). Frankly I am far more likely to become a crime victim in my current neighborhood, statistically speaking, than on the lakefront, especially with lots of other people around (and at least one cop car in the immediate vicinity). And I keep my wits about me, thanks.
And that’s why I keep the bag of candy in my coat pocket. So I can get the kids to accompany me into the playground.