Chicago has lots of problems, all contributing to the declining quality of life for residents, workers and tourists in the city. Among them, a shortage of police and a prosecutor that doesn’t prosecute. One resident, robbed at knifepoint by a thug recently released from prison early, waited an hour for Chicago police to arrive.
She gave up waiting for the cops and minutes later found the offender herself. In a miracle of miracles, she saw a CPD squad car, flagged them down, and after explaining what happened, officers were able to chase down the suspects to make an arrest.
A pregnant Chicago woman called 911 twice to report that she had been robbed at knifepoint outside a laundromat on Friday evening, but Chicago police never responded. While extended wait times for police responses are common in Chicago, this case is a little different from most.
The woman loaded her clean laundry into her car and prepared to drive away when two men approached her vehicle outside Sparkle Laundry, 6631 South Kedzie, around 10:30 p.m.
One of the men asked her for money and reached through her driver’s side window, and placed a pointed object into her stomach, prosecutors said. He then ripped a gold necklace from the woman’s neck and walked away.
Prosecutors said the woman called her husband, then called Chicago police. The husband showed up within three minutes. The police? Not so much.
CPD dispatch records confirm the woman’s account…
As she was driving home, the woman saw the robber and the man he was with walking in the 6300 block of South Kedzie.
She pulled a U-turn and flagged down a Chicago police squad car to tell them what happened. Dispatch records indicate that it occurred around midnight.
The cops caught the man, identified by prosecutors as Kevin Hall, 25, after a foot chase. Police also recovered a knife from some bushes nearby, prosecutors said.
Hall was released from prison on September 1 after serving half of two three-year sentences that he received for aggravated battery of police officers, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records.
Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered him to pay a $20,000 deposit toward bail to get out of jail. Separately, she held him without bail until IDOC reviews his parole status.
Ah, if the allegations are true in this instance, then how many other people has Mr. Hall robbed of their belongings without getting caught? That number could be kind of high as Chicago PD solve single-digit percentages of most crimes.
The woman’s experience with Chicago police is neither unique nor unusual. Local patrol districts frequently have more requests for help than they can handle. When calls start to stack up, dispatchers declare a backlog, also known as a RAP or “Radio Assignments Pending” status.
CPD districts entered backlogs 11,721 times last year, according to information Wirepoints obtained via a Freedom of Information request. That was nearly as many times as 2019 and 2020 combined, according to the data.
Last year, 52% of the city’s highest-priority 911 calls were received during backlogs, Wirepoints found.
If the police cannot respond to crimes, then street justice will become commonplace. And frankly, criminals would probably rather have the police take care of matters than angry husbands and fathers.
A stand your ground law for self defense would work but with the corruption in the Illinois state government
it would never pass.
And the perp will be back on the street in 3, 2, 1…..
Thanks JumBo Prickster!
Too bad she didn’t have a gun.
Too bad her hubby didn’t have a gun!