Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Poor Reporting

All people have to do is mention the words "police" and "lawsuit" and the media runs with whatever they can find. Cases in point - #1:
  • A man who claims he had his mouth and feet duct-taped and was beaten and kicked by three Chicago police officers earlier this year is suing the unknown officers for more than $2 million.
  • Marcelo Gonzalez claims in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that he was grabbed from his car and taken at gunpoint by the officers when he arrived at an apartment building at 1646 N. Bosworth Ave. on March 9.
  • Tamira Smyth, the resident of the apartment where the officers took Gonzalez, had already been held in the apartment by police for "several hours" when Gonzalez arrived, the suit said. The suit did not say why police may have been looking for Gonzalez, what was his relationship with Smyth or the purpose of his visit to the apartment building.
We recall this case from an earlier blog post (here's the original Channel 2 story from 23 March).

We posted at the time we weren't sure if the officers were unidentified due to legal reasons or because they didn't exist. We noticed that the accusations made in March involving cigarette burns don't seem to have made it to the lawsuit, and we're missing the accusations about the baseball bat, too. Now that the plaintiff is demanding $2 million from unknown officers, we're going to say the officers don't exist and this is a money grab.

Then we have example #2:
  • A man who died in police custody last year was strangled by police, a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court Monday claims.
  • Jaime Galvan was arrested about 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2006. About two hours after his arrest, Galvan was taken from the Austin Police District to a holding cell at Harrison Area headquarters at 3340 W. Fillmore St., according to the suit.
  • At approximately 11:59 p.m., Galvan was found "unresponsive and deceased in his holding cell, with his body handcuffed to the prisoner rail," the suit says. According to the suit, "autopsy reports reveal that Jaime Galvan's body contained injuries and marks consistent with having been strangled."
Another fishing expedition? Like the police have nothing better to do than plant dope and guns, strangle prisoners, and run around with duct tape kidnapping citizens?

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11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

...Jaime Galvan was arrested about 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2006. About two hours after his arrest, Galvan was taken from the Austin Police District to a holding cell at Harrison Area headquarters at 3340 W. Fillmore St., according to the suit...

He'd better check that location unless they moved Area 4.

9/18/2007 12:31:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The city under daley is a cash cow, we have a law dept full of do nothing pretend law students who settle everything! daley is giving away "OUR MONEY", because it is not his! our pension is way underfunded another reason we have no contract go ahead mayor delay keep giving it all away and blame the police for the "high cost" of your criminal enterprise!

9/18/2007 06:29:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anyone else notice the similarity between the NBA assholes getting duct taped and robbed and this fine upstanding young businessman ( some might call him a shitbag dope dealer ) getting duct taped and robbed? But of course, Loevey & Lovey were right there helping persuade the "victim" that the police did it. I'd love to see an actual breakdown of how much the city has paid out to Loevey in the last 2 years. Talk about getting robbed!

9/18/2007 06:34:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

3340 w fillmore is homan square

9/18/2007 08:31:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Galvan overdosed plain and simple.

9/18/2007 09:22:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hmmm---I think somebody has been watching too much of "The Shield"

9/18/2007 09:38:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The problem with Corp Counsel is that they are severely understaffed. It would be cheaper to hire more lawyers and fight it out. Instead, they settle the cases and give the mopes money they don't deserve.

9/18/2007 11:21:00 AM  
Blogger CJN said...

I've been told by people I've pulled over that the reason that they did not stop right away was because they didn't know I was the police. Flashing lights and siren. Someone get robbed at gun point, for 14 hours, and right away they think it's the police. I hope the officers at least put a slip in for working the six hours of overtime.

9/18/2007 02:54:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey SCC

Will your job be tougher now that the site address was given to the enemy over at Sun-Times?

I figure you will be jammed up on weeding thru many B.S. postings adding to the current ones.

Best of luck to hold up the site. I really feel I get more from crap on here then listening to the word of other guys out there on whats new and going on!

By the way "Don't quit your day job" all you coppers out there that want to shut it down, just focus on the homeland security! I encopurage all on this site to actively focus on your district of residence and maybe the ones close by.

Keep the Riff Raff out of 008(west end) 022(west end), 017(north end) , 025 (north end), 016.

Any yuppie district living coppers like downtown, 012, 013 or 014 or A/3 districts you guys should know the viable parameters for patrol to keep the DEMONS away and at bay!

Let em find the dogs in trunks dead, all shot up in cars DOA's on the streets and houses in 007 003 011 010 015 005 004 and 006.

No more glory there maybe never was any! Oh and if you live inany of those districts good luck and patrol well!

I know where I live and it ain't there.

Real Police? Those are everyone that is still here and figured out ways to beat the system and get out alive and secure for their retirement.

Best of luck wherever you want to work!

9/18/2007 03:54:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I got news for you, anonymous. Lots of cops live in those "throwaway" districts you mentioned (003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 010, 011, and 015). Not all of us want to live on the western edge of the City/eastern edge of the burbs. Lots of good schools outside of 008, 016, and 022. Lots of us, particularly those of us who are single/divorced, raise our children with the help of our extended families (sisters, brother, aunts, uncles and of course, grandparents). If you add up all the coppers who live outside of 008, 016 and 022, you'll find most live OUTSIDE those three districts. Don't write us all off as living in throwaway communities. Plenty of us are doing and living very well in other communities, even educating our kids well, without your inflated tax bills in the three Districts you mentioned.

9/18/2007 08:25:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

9/18/2007 03:54:00 PM

Amen! The 1st and 16th count, back each other up as far as anything else let the bosses do the job with their clout they can show us all how to do everything! YOU MAKE THE BIG MONEY NOW WORK! Come over by my beat car I have the coffee pot on, the tv plugged in, all the daily papers and found a nice tree for shade ahh life in chicago thanks to clout, maybe I will be a blue shirt forever but no stress wtf!

9/19/2007 08:19:00 AM  

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