Ideas for calming down? (cops and citizens)

homeowner

djuoh wrote: I can't agree with the idea that calling 311/911 doesn't cause a stir in the neighborhood. The majority of frequent posters answer problems with 311/911. The more people cry wolf (as I have said before) The more agitated the local community is going to be. If everyone wants the the local community agitated through the brutality of the police, then we are going to have more problems. There are serious crimes and then there are minor issues like kids smoking weed. What does weed do to people? Smoking marijuana can relax a person and elevate their mood. What a threating idea?

I think that maybe the problem we are having here is making some of these broad assertions. I do agree that the majority of people that post here have called 311 or 911 before. I don't think that people call 311 or 911 on a regular basis, every time they are confronted with something they don't like. Also don't believe (although there are some people that have advocated it on this board) that the majority of people here call 311 or 911 to make false reports of either crimes or problems.

djuoh wrote: Circumstance has to be at the root of this.

This is the one thing you said I absolutly agree with. There are certain circumstances where calling 311 and or 911 are appropriate. There are other circumstances where 911 may be inappropriate. I'm not sure I can identify when it would be inappropriate to call 311 as it is designed to respond to a much broader spectrum of issues/concerns/questions than "I have a problem". But it is up to each individual to make that call as to where that line is. It may not bother you to have a bunch of teenagers hanging out in front of your house playing music loudly at 4pm. Your response might be different at 11pm or 2am or 5am. Or, it may be different if you had an infant or small child you were trying to put to sleep, or if you had worked a double shift and had to get up and go back to work in five hours. All of those might be legitimate reasons for you to pick up the phone and make a call.

I believe that we've discussed here many times that the best response might be to just go ask folks to keep it down or move away, but not everyone gets a good response or is comfortable doing that. For them 311 is definitely an option.

I don't have a problem with people smoking weed. If that's your thing, fine. My problem occurs when your right to smoke weed colides with my right to not be affected by your smoking. If you are going to sit on your stoop and blow smoke in my windows thats a problem. Or if you are going to get hungry and go get something to eat and drop your trash in front of my door for me to clean up, thats a problem.

So generally, my problem with some of these inconveniences is that you are asking me to think of the greater impact my calling 311/911 has on the neighborhood and my neighbors, but they are not being asked to think about the impact their behavior has on me. Its a two way street. And to hold everyone here to one standard, while the very small minority that creates these problems is held to a different one is unfair.

rockhound

I have lived here since Jan. 1977. Do any of you recall the absolutely hellish street environment created by the crack wars of the 80s? I used to be the only working person in my building. I had to step over the comatose bodies of crack addicts waiting for the supplier to open up shop on my way to work. By comparison, the relatively sedate night life on present day Lincoln Place seems heavenly.

That said, I don't like seeing roving gangs of teenage thugs threatening each other with sticks and who knows what other weapons. I don't like kids licking out car windows with baseball bats. I don't like excessive noise (that which disturbs me despite the use of earplugs). I have called cops or made complaints on all of the above issues a number of times over the past year. I don't tend to advertise the fact, no.

Last week a police car stopped in front of the "haunted mansion" and ticketed a kid for drinking hard liquor from a bag. While walking my dog I had seen the kid with his bottle in front of my building, but I did not call the cops. Did somebody else see them and call the cops on the kids? Or did a rash of ongoing complaints justify a patrol at that hour, resulting in the bust? Such police "harassment" does discourage teen loitering.

In my experience, loitering teens tend to get into trouble, fights etc. I don't like nonresident loiterers in front of my building because they tend to leave a big mess behind them. Eviscerated blunts, drink spills, etc. which attract flies and stink. Since my son knows all of these kids, even the car window smasher mentioned in the car window thread, they don't bother me but I can understand how they could be intimidating to newcomers to the hood.

As an interesting footnote, my son is black and I am white, so we definitely have a different experience with the cops. For example: He has been randomly searched several times while standing on the corner in our hood. I never have been randomly searched by the cops anywhere outside of an airport. Yes my son tends to be more sympathetic to the knuckleheads on the block too. He was lucky enough to be able to study and have the opportunity to train for a professional computer job, thereby escaping the tedium of poverty on the block. He has a friend who is still mired in the day to day drug dealin hustle. So he understands them, while I am quicker to condemn.

alex

You all pay taxes, feel free to call 311 whenever you want or 911 if it's an emergency.

breuckelen

Alex wrote: You all pay taxes, feel free to call 311 whenever you want or 911 if it's an emergency.

And here we have someone that doesn't get it. Thanks Alex, but that doesn't help the discussion.

sterling2000

homeowner wrote: I do agree that the majority of people that post here have called 311 or 911 before. I don't think that people call 311 or 911 on a regular basis, every time they are confronted with something they don't like.

True that. We need to give people enough credit to make a smart judgement call on reporting things. If I called on every car alarm or noisy person walking by, then I would have a full time job speeding-dialling 311/911. The only things I have over reported are street fights (several), gunshots (once), noisy groups hanging around for a long time (several), incessant car alarms (a couple running for an hour+), an abondoned vehicle (once) and cars parked blaring loud music for hours (twice).

I give a by to the drug dealer on my block, as the police seem to pretty much ignore the guy for whatever reason and long-time block residents (including one or two lawyers) say there is really nothing to be done with it. Aside from his chosen vocation, the guy seems nice enough.

I think a lot of the pro-311/911 crowd here get nailed for being worry warts, but I think if you really dug into it, most of what is being called on is pretty legit.

doctorj

homeowner wrote: I do agree that the majority of people that post here have called 311 or 911 before.

I have never dialled 311 or 911 before. However I would not hesitate to do so in the event of a severe annoyance or emergency/crime respectively. The fact that I have not needed to says either I'm extremely lucky or we live in a comparatively peaceful neighborhood.

whyfi

LeeHo wrote: Why-Fi,

My man, the king of distractions! I love that you are trying to call me on your own game. C'mon? Self-Preservation for tackling a kid? Shooting a man 41 times becasue he looked like a rapist. Are you out of your mind? Maybe you should move to some fucking 3rd world country where regimes think the same way you do! What if some Asian kid was accused of robbing someone in the hood and the cops rolled up on you and beat you simply because "you look like an Asian robber." Does that hit home? Shit, according to your fucked up logic if you look like someone or are near something that just happened than the cops can do whatever they want to you in the name of justice?! That makes me so sick that I could just vomit!

JJB has already said it as well as it can be said, so...

JJB wrote: ...I don't think anybody here is denying that racial profiling and police brutality exist and are serious problems. And certainly, nobody, including Why Fi, is suggesting that the murder of Amadou Diallo was justified! What people are pointing out is that there is little-to-no causal relationship between reporting a problem to 311/911 (or discussing it here on these boards) and somebody getting beat up/shot by out-of-control cops.

LeeHo wrote: You suck at trying to make lame duck points

Thanks!

marden

oh my goodness so much activity on this post - gonna admit i scanned a lot of it and didn't read it all. but just had to say that if i hear a gun shot near my house and i think it hit something, i have every right to call the police.

as far as them jumping an innocent bystander to a potential violent crime, i'm sorry for those innocent bystanders. but that's the police's responsibility to not be jerks and to treat citizens with respect.

what strange logic.

besides, it sounds like the guy antagonized a cop, which has me thinking he might not have been in his right head . . .

djuoh

marden wrote: oh my goodness so much activity on this post - gonna admit i scanned a lot of it and didn't read it all. but just had to say that if i hear a gun shot near my house and i think it hit something, i have every right to call the police.

as far as them jumping an innocent bystander to a potential violent crime, i'm sorry for those innocent bystanders. but that's the police's responsibility to not be jerks and to treat citizens with respect.

what strange logic.

besides, it sounds like the guy antagonized a cop, which has me thinking he might not have been in his right head . . .

Try being the oppressed kid on the streets with the cops on your case for no reason because you have not done anything. Did you read the post by rockhound? That posting should give you a good perspective on the situation. It isn't about 311 and 911