I had an interesting conversation with one of Champaign's finest today ( a Sargent to be exact), and he had some pretty interesting things to say about the current state of affairs in Champaign IL...
The gist of it was this: The police have no control over anything that happens on Campus.
Why is this you ask? Well that question cannot be answered without a brief history lesson on police activity in Champaign over the last 20 years. You see back in the day it was extremely easy for police officers to tell who was a student in the University and who was not. And if you saw someone who was clearly not a student all you had to do was watch them for, oh say 10 minutes or so and 9 times out 10 they could soon be found breaking into someplace hanging halfway out a window, crow bar in hand. It was that easy. Nowadays however the story is different.
According to this rogue Sargent, now there is no way to tell who belongs anywhere. In the past there was a clear separation of students and locals. Mostly because no locals would live in the apartments the students did because they were simply too expensive for the amount of space you got. There was also a fair amount of low income housing available in the area which kept most of the locals at bay. However over the years the campus has grown, the housing projects have been torn down, and straight up thugs have moved into where students live for the sole purpose of stealing their shit. Which means that there is no way to tell if someone "belongs" somewhere or not. Even if they look like they're about to shoot up the block there is a good chance they live around the corner and have a legitimate reason to be there. This creates a tricky situation for the Champaign Police as they don't want to infringe on anyone's civil liberties but at the same time have to babysit a bunch of drunken college kids. Which is a whole other issue in itself. As this Sargent was telling me (in great, almost disturbing detail) this Campus is regionally known for being an opportunist's paradise and that people come to Champaign from Danville, Rantoul, Chicago and St.Louis for the sole purpose of crime, because they know we're all such easy targets. All you have to do is follow someone home from a bar, wait four or five blocks, hit them over the head, steal their wallet and you're done for the night. Or better yet just fucking walk into one of the many unlocked doors on Campus, if someone's there just pretend you drunk and walk out, if not steal the shit out of them. This sort of thing happens all the time on Campus and no one ever gets caught.
I also found out that between filing reports, shift changes, follow up investigations, and the absurd amount of new calls, no police officer has any idea what's going on around Campus. "Your bike got stolen...it was yellow...ok thats great" Ten minutes later a new guy is on with 5 five other stolen bikes plus an assault. So at the end of the day your bike is just as stolen, but now its under a stack of newer calls that will never get solved either. It's a giant shit show over there and I don't really see it getting any better any time soon.
I don't know I could go on but I think I made my point. So instead of applying for that great insurance salesman job just stick around here and assault some drunk sig when he's blacked out. You probably won't get caught and I'm guessing you'll make about the same.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Leave the Bums be?
As I was walking past the laundromat on the way home from class today I noticed something strange. It was a man sprawled out on the floor wedged between a laundry machine and the benches that line the laundromat. At first I didn't really know what to do, I mean I have never been in a rescue/chance to be a hero situation before so my first thought was to check to see if this guy was alive. So I walk in and start yelling normal rescue things like "Hey man you ok?", no response. So I take it a step further and start banging on the laundry machine and start making a racket, still nothing. Then I kicked him, and finally he moves his head, but still no real response. It should be noted at this point that this guy is obviously a transient of some sort, but I didn't know if he was just passed out or had a stroke or something. I mean he was on the floor in a very unnatural position, and if he was just passed out he would have just been sitting on the bench right? So then I decided to call Verg and he tells me to call 911.
I call and get some woman who doesn't seem at all interested in what I have to say. I love how these 911 attendants act as if you yourself are a trained medical professional too. Like "Is he injured or just passed out?"..."Is he unconscious?"..."How's his blood pressure?" First of all lady I don't want to touch this man who knows what sort of jig-jaggedy objects hes got on him. All I want is for you to send some people here to help him or get him out of here or something! So she tells me to wait and she is sending someone over.
So now that I am emotionally invested in this bum's well being I wait like a good, upright citizen would (real Stack like). And I wait...........and wait.............and a full 30 min later 2 police officers come strolling up slow as Millz. Now what if this had been a real emergency!?! 30 Minutes is absurd to wait for any sort of emergency response time. So the police get there and start doing the exact same thing I did. They yell and make noise and eventually kick him and he wakes up. Thank God. He's alive. Turns out he was just a wasted bum. Then as the bum was being kicked out of the laundromat he yells "Fuck the cops anyway man!!"
Now at first my reaction to this was "Fuck you Bum. I was just trying to make sure you weren't dead." But then I realized that he IS A BUM. He doesn't want to be woken up. None of them do. Sleep is their only escape they have aside from death. Booze, crack, sleep, death they're all great when you're a bum. That's all a bum has. So I say leave the bums be, let them sleep, die whatever as long as they are not bothering you. Albeit he was in my building's laundromat, which I suppose warrants my calling the police but other than that, I say let them be.
Although one has to wonder about the disturbing number of homeless in Champaign (and I would argue it is growing). However that is a whole other social issue involving development and the displacement of the poor. From a planning perspective it's great to have an upscale walkable neighborhood (ie Green Street, Downtown, and the Burnham Development) and cater to that "creative class" but not when you have 22% of your population below the poverty line. Seems like a pretty big elephant to sweep under the rug.
I call and get some woman who doesn't seem at all interested in what I have to say. I love how these 911 attendants act as if you yourself are a trained medical professional too. Like "Is he injured or just passed out?"..."Is he unconscious?"..."How's his blood pressure?" First of all lady I don't want to touch this man who knows what sort of jig-jaggedy objects hes got on him. All I want is for you to send some people here to help him or get him out of here or something! So she tells me to wait and she is sending someone over.
So now that I am emotionally invested in this bum's well being I wait like a good, upright citizen would (real Stack like). And I wait...........and wait.............and a full 30 min later 2 police officers come strolling up slow as Millz. Now what if this had been a real emergency!?! 30 Minutes is absurd to wait for any sort of emergency response time. So the police get there and start doing the exact same thing I did. They yell and make noise and eventually kick him and he wakes up. Thank God. He's alive. Turns out he was just a wasted bum. Then as the bum was being kicked out of the laundromat he yells "Fuck the cops anyway man!!"
Now at first my reaction to this was "Fuck you Bum. I was just trying to make sure you weren't dead." But then I realized that he IS A BUM. He doesn't want to be woken up. None of them do. Sleep is their only escape they have aside from death. Booze, crack, sleep, death they're all great when you're a bum. That's all a bum has. So I say leave the bums be, let them sleep, die whatever as long as they are not bothering you. Albeit he was in my building's laundromat, which I suppose warrants my calling the police but other than that, I say let them be.
Although one has to wonder about the disturbing number of homeless in Champaign (and I would argue it is growing). However that is a whole other social issue involving development and the displacement of the poor. From a planning perspective it's great to have an upscale walkable neighborhood (ie Green Street, Downtown, and the Burnham Development) and cater to that "creative class" but not when you have 22% of your population below the poverty line. Seems like a pretty big elephant to sweep under the rug.
I am not an animal!
Let it be known that this blog, though inspired by Brittany's blog, is NOT meant to compete in any way for comments, attention or cheap laughs with Brittany's blog. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, I don't have an army of Urbanians who hang off my every word so I doubt this blog will get half the attention hers does (or will). Second I am not addicted to the internet, celebrities, gossip, STD's, Craig's list, fashion, myself or DJ's so I doubt I will have enough content to keep up with her. Third, I enjoy capitalization. And finally my brain just doesn't work like that. I don't think I would have ever thought to write an alluring craigs list post about wanting to meet a sad hipster boy who loves Animal Collective and then post all of the responses using their real names. Genius.
So what can 'The Peddler Lives' offer?? You'll have to wait and see.
So what can 'The Peddler Lives' offer?? You'll have to wait and see.
The Peddler Lives.
As I was trying to set up an RSS feed for some gaming blogs I stumbled upon Google's blog link, which through a series of events led me to start my own blog. I feel the title is appropriate and gives credit to my unsuccessful online endeavor that was JoyPeddler.com. I don't know if this blog will be at all successful, interesting or last more than a week, but it will be nice to have something to express my thoughts on. And hopefully with the arrival of my iphone/tilt I can finally start mobile blogging like so many of those hip theater directors on the TV.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)