Friday Night Floods
From the "Crop Circles" post, a few old timers chiming in:
- When we had incidents like these we would open the hydrants and if that wasn’t enough we had an CFD engine come out and saturate the area.
- Did anyone ever think of opening up a fire hydrant.
- We used to open up the fire hydrants in 011 near where the new Academy is.
- ... they'd do that to stop the drag racers on Ohio over by Ferdinand and Tripp in the late night hours.
We're looking at the calendar and discovering that we're an old-timer all of the sudden. We had a sergeant who'd go to midnight Roll Call, then go to the Watch Commander's office to take out the hydrant key, and head right over to the District drag strip and open the pipes for an hour or so.
Voila! No calls for drag racers and a far more peaceful shift that what might have been. Nowadays, we'll bet lawyers would be lined up waiting for any excuse to sue the city and the officer opening the hydrant, not to mention the imagined environmental "impact" from keeping the streets quiet and clean.
Whatever happened to that "drag racing task force" we heard about? Was that order on the "stop sticks" part of that fantasy?
Labels: department issues
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
37 Comments:
Water is one of the elements of life.
This method of detering idiots being idiots would be also effective on those idiots engaging in mostly peaceful riots.
Why, were a quantity of yellow dye be added to the pumper truck streams, one could refer to this method as the Golden Shower deterent.
How about when Spider-Man Dan was climbing the John Hancock Building in 1981 and the Fire department turned the hose on him?
Good Times!
https://www.chicagotribune.com/visuals/vintage/ct-viz-spider-dan-goodwin-sears-tower-photos-20210514-ayqpblgkxbgtrcw6jn4rslx3sm-photogallery.html
Street Drag racing and Burn Out Exhibitions will stop when the city government wants them to stop. Unless and until BJ or the aldercreatures decide it is unacceptable and unleash the CPD, ISP, and the CFD on those idiots, nothing will change.
Well one thing will change, the Street Exhibitions will get larger, more frequent and more dangerous. Maybe what it will take is a bloody body count. How many dead? How many injured? One, Two, Five, Ten, a dozen? Maybe a few children too?
I still have my hydrant key trophy which I obtained from one of the pre-Tokyo Drift wannabes at Ferdinand & Tripp circa summer of ‘92. Came in handy countless times when family or friends needed a pool filled. What?? You wanna fill a pool on a metered account? I sure as hell don’t.
A few had keys of their own and would close the hydrants back off as soon as the coppers who opened them left. The gas pumps weren’t there at the time (they were at the garage at A/4) so police traffic in that area was nonexistent unless there was an alarm at a factory or coppers were heading to or from the hole to sleep.
Ahhhhh… the good ol’ days.
Now opening the hydrant is illegal. It’s also against policy. They don’t want us policing like the old timers. If someone was to get hurt because of an open hydrant that the police opened. That would be a lawsuit. I guess the city would rather be terrorized by reckless drivers.
Never happen now. Too much liability. I predict the questions at the deposition:
Why did you purposely flood the street with water?
A: To discourage drag racers
Well Officer, since you were the one responsible for flooding the street, you were responsible for any results of flooding the streets? Is that not true?
A: Well, not really
Officer, are you saying that only because someone was killed after a car drove through the water from a hydrant you opened, and spun out of control, crashing into a pedestrian?
A: No
Let me ask it this way, Officer…..if your opening up a hydrant and flooding the street would have resulted in drag racers not driving through the water and instead decided to leave the area, would you have believed flooding the street was a good idea?
A: Yes
Oh, and final question Officer….were fire hydrants invented to flood streets to prevent drag racers, or to be used by firemen to extinguish fires?
A: Extinguish fires
Hydrants have always been used for this purpose. We all had hydrant keys.
But drag racing is their right. Can’t have anyone denied their rights can we. Just ask BJ if you’re not sure. There problem solved just look away like you do on all the other crimes.
After the first time the task force used the spike strips the Hispanic Aldermen went nuts because they were used against Hispanic drag racers, the strips are racist ya know.
Fond memories of cruising Archer and the races set up on 42nd St off Pulaski
I used to work for cook county department of corrections. Im so sick of the drag racers trying to race me on my way home. I got one of those 2-4-6-8 engines that gives over 120 mpg so I dont even bother racing them since i would easily win.Now when Im riding my hog look out because I ride in a pack with our CUTS on. Im going on 23 years being a prospect but its ok one day they will let me park my bike with theirs.Anyway I feel like another bout of GOUT coming on.Weird always happens close to my rdos. Anyway cheers!
Still have an old hydrant key in my garage.
there's a drag racing task force?? are you kidding me??
Golly Gee. We can't offend them, can we?
Did you read the stop stick order? A sign has to be posted saying they are in use.
Elston Ave in old 14. water flows south...
Water and drag racing bad.Water and drifting good.
We used to open the hydrants up on Ogden Ave on the west side of 010 when the drag racers would show up. They would be pouring bleach on the street to do burn-outs and we'd open the floodgates. Of course after the first idiot crashed their car from the flooded streets we were told no more hydrants were to be opened.
I remember like it was yesterday. Mid 60's ( 65- 68 ) working in the old 005 Dist at 115th & Indiana, we had the drag racers on the west frontage road of the Calumet Expressway ( now the Bishop Ford ) at around 118th St. Most of the cars in the dist had hydrant keys in the trunk of the cars. Most weekend nights the drag racers use to gather and we would turn 2 or 3 of the hydrants on. The area was cleared in just a few minutes. 19 Paul . . . . .
Water trucks like they use for the movies/TV shows. Streets would just be wet with no flooding or high pressure stream.
Stop sticks are to be used on stationary non moving vehicles and by a supervisor or specially trained traffic guy. Also, you must when plausible give a warning you are to use the Stop sticks before deploying. Seriously read the directive, can't make it up.
Good times indeed.
I have closed and flooded many a streets against drag racing years ago. But it was determined that we could be civilly liable if someone crashed and got hurt and killed because of the wet pavement..are you willing to put your job and assets in jeopardy in civil court? I doubt it. Believe me, I think their cars should be confiscated and torched, but I wouldn’t want some gangbanger to get a portion of a cop’s assets over it…would you?
In Jacksonville Florida the police started towing the cars of the spectators. It took some of the fun out of it. It didn’t eliminate the problem but it reduced it greatly.
Empty fire extinguisher, hydrant key, and a beat box full of nothing but General Case Reports was standard equipment.
Dumb dumb and even dumber. Stay retired old timers, times have changed drastically. In 2023 this is aweful advice and people need to read this before they try doing it!!! Can’t do the fire hydrants anymore. We tried that in 009 about 6 years ago. The basements near archer and loomis all flooded due to shitty clogged sewers that backed up into the basements. Lots of city payouts eventually for that one. Then after that a lady driving down archer coming home from working at a downtown hotel not related to the drag racing hit deep water on 39th street andlost control and crashed leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. She sued the city and police department and won big. The supervisor took lots of time for ordering the hydrants open. In other words, don’t open the fire hydrants to stop the drag racers. LOTS of culpability and risk to the supervisor that authorizes it.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Dumb dumb and even dumber. Stay retired old timers, times have changed drastically. In 2023 this is aweful advice and people need to read this before they try doing it!!! Can’t do the fire hydrants anymore. We tried that in 009 about 6 years ago. The basements near archer and loomis all flooded due to shitty clogged sewers that backed up into the basements. Lots of city payouts eventually for that one. Then after that a lady driving down archer coming home from working at a downtown hotel not related to the drag racing hit deep water on 39th street andlost control and crashed leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. She sued the city and police department and won big. The supervisor took lots of time for ordering the hydrants open. In other words, don’t open the fire hydrants to stop the drag racers. LOTS of culpability and risk to the supervisor that authorizes it.
9/27/2023 01:45:00 PM
Many years ago after roll call in 008 captain called me into his office gave me a hydrant key told me to open hydrants on 42nd and keeler I said "Is that an order," he looked puzzled and I said please put in on paper. He refused took the key back and had another copper do even then we or many did not want to get someone killed as the captain would say "I did not tell him to do that!"
Water trucks like they use for the movies/TV shows. Streets would just be wet with no flooding or high pressure stream.
SO far this sounds like the best option.
Large change on those races at least there was on Doty Rd and Stoney in the 80’s and 90’s. Depending on where that cash is going now a days ain’t shit will be done. Worst crash I’ve ever dealt with corvette vs fire hydrant. Shovels and body bags
Between the post about the moron sgt chasing and this one I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one who’s sick of hearing about what coppers would’ve or did do 15-20 or more years ago. I’d wager that the majority of you would curl up in a ball in the footwell of the car If you had to ride around in a squad with gps and a camera strapped to your chest. You made it. You retired. Stop with the war stories of your “glory days” on an internet blog you sad sack. Today’s copper navigates water the likes of which you couldn’t fathom. The personal, professional, and financial liabilities these men face everyday would have you crying into whatever bottle you drowned your cares away. Perhaps some perspective. The coopers from the 60’s and 70’s thought the cooper’s from the 80’s and 90’s were pussies. Everyone thinks they were better than those who came after. Please stop and go play with your grandkids.
9/28/2023 12:32:00 AM
You are the reason todays coppers are pussys. Please STFU and have some respect for the older coppers who have been there and did it for 30 years while you still havent passed your 3rd year OTJ.
Also mentioned in the comments in the "crop circles" post:
"drag racers on Ohio over by Ferdinand and Tripp in the late night hours. 70's and 80's"
Among the street racers, this industrial area was commonly known as "The Incinerators" due its proximity to the city's garbage incineration plant. On race nights, it was largely deserted. And kike at many of the popular SW Side locations, these were serious racers who wagered big money to win.
That scene lasted until the early 1990's due to few factors. The serious racers were leaving due to an influx of west side gang funded cars & they wanted no part of the dope & guns they brought with them. They were also transitioning to legal racing at the track. The final nail was the city's redevelopment of the industrial park, including the closure & demolition of the incinerator in 1996.
During its heyday, it wasn't unusual to have 100 street racers there, with some cars trailered in. The local cops DID tolerate it until noise complaints started getting called in. Typically, a warning over the loudspeaker was given, then the hydrants were opened.
Old timers from the Harrison District feel free verify.
These young salty lads from today need to cool their jets! Getting so defensive, and negative towards us retirees. I have got news for you, when you start your argument saying we'd hide in the footwell of a car with a GPS and camera, what the hell are those?? Listen hard guy, we rode around with no computer, a hot sheet in our hands listing the latest steals, no GPS, maybe one radio between the two of us, and a stack of paper reports that we had to fill out by hand.
Every generation goes through their own trials and tribulations. Instead of being such a crabby patty about us, try to learn something from us, like we did from those before us.
Every generation goes through their own trials and tribulations. Instead of being such a crabby patty about us, try to learn something from us, like we did from those before us.
9/28/2023 03:39:00 PM
They know everything.
Their smartass phones tell them so.
The last century was the century of mechanicals, machines.
This century is the century of the technicals, technologies dependent entirely upon electricity.
The mechanicals can still function without electricity.
The technicals cannot.
The mechanicals generate electricity without needing electricity.
The technicals go poof without electricity.
Listen hard guy, we rode around with no computer, a hot sheet in our hands listing the latest steals, no GPS, maybe one radio between the two of us, and a stack of paper reports that we had to fill out by hand.
I remember those days, walk out of roll call and to the desk to pick up a Daily Bulletin, zone 6 was banging you already saying get out you crayon and take down these 5 jobs, so you’d pull out a missle X card and start writing. Drive over “the Mason Dixon line”and get something to drink at a clean 7-11 or White Hen in 008.
Well that was either a troll or a slick sleeve with attitude. Big money cars and big money bets. At least out south most were pretty decent. We and they knew everything was illegal. So after US 30 where the great ones run shut down where was there to go? Fucking 79th & Stony to 87th was as populated at 0300 as the Vegas strip
9/28/2023 12:32:00 AM
So true, I have over 22 years and am tired of hearing, “back in my day”…frankly I don’t give a fuck. The “back in my day” shit is why everything is so fucked up for us now. The people actually working, not the humps that think it should be done like this, and done like that. Find a hobby other than a blog talking about a job you left.
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