Cops Acted "like...crossing guards"

If you beat a dog, a child or a police Department long enough, they learn "pain avoidance:"

• As Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) considers whether the annual Gay Pride Parade should be moved downtown, the manager of a Boystown bar said the real issue is a lack of cooperation from police officers after the parade is over.
  
  “There were quite a few people on the street smashing their beer bottles, sitting on steps of residences; and the police, basically – from my perception – stood there and just allowed it to happen,” said Brenden Chrisman, general manager of Roscoe’s Tavern, which is located along the parade route in Boystown.
  
  [...] Chrisman said police have been responsive in the past when his bar needed them during the parade, but officers were not doing nearly enough in the hours after the parade this year. He said, after the parade ended, police essentially left the neighborhood to fend for itself at night, when a different group of people descended on the area, even though they weren’t there for the parade in the first place.
  
  “They were acting more like crossing guards,” Chrisman said. “I feel, from a management standpoint, that our security staff was more engaged with the problems on the street than the police themselves.”

Well, we're kind of under orders not to make arrests in these situations. It was in the briefing that incidents should be avoided. If you send 2 coppers in with even a single head, they aren't on the street where they're needed immediately and you have to spread the thin line even thinner. The "mass arrest" protocols are designed to discourage arrests by the police if you must know the truth. Welcome to the Police Department the liberals always wanted.

We certainly used to be able to control the streets, or at least keep up with the mayhem to an extent. But 019 is gone and the new 019/023 is down a hundred cops or so from the combined strength that was promised. The Department itself is down some 1,500 from peak strength a few years ago. Just because Rahm cuts 1,200 positions doesn't mean we're suddenly at full strength - we're just smaller.

We just love how the Department is only touting eight arrests, including one guy who damaged a squad car. The pictures over at the CrimeinBoystown blog show at least 8 people on the destroyed police vehicle, so at least 7 got away. The eight arrests would have had more of an impact if it were 80 or more, but McCarthy got rid of the units that could have poured 100 or 150 coppers on short notice and locked shit down.