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.
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