Colin Flaherty: More Disgruntled Nail Salon Customers + Poor Blacks Take the Bait

Colin Flaherty reviews and gives commentary on nail salon melee video and news with headlines "Video: “bait truck” filled with Nikes in black Chicago neighborhood was part of railroad sting"
[links and excerpts below]
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/7/17661240/video-chicago-police-bait-truck-nike-norfolk-southern-louboutins-englewood-black-neighborhood
By Nadra Nittle Updated Aug 9, 2018, 1:56pm EDT
A truck loaded with Nike Air Force 1 sneakers and Christian Louboutin shoes turned up in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago last week. It was a “bait truck” parked by Norfolk Southern Railway police, with assistance from Chicago Police, to lure thieves to their arrest. The truck traveled to more than one site in the predominantly black community on the city’s southwest side. Police arrested three people during the sting, which was intended to curb cargo theft in the area, according to Norfolk Southern.

A Chicago Police spokesperson said that the department only assisted with enforcement of the Norfolk Southern sting. He directed requests from comment to the railway company. The Chicago field office of the FBI told Vox it would not comment for this story. But over the past decade, law enforcement agencies in the US have increasingly turned to bait devices to reduce crime.

Bait devices, be they unattended vehicles or packages, are intended to be stolen. Police typically leave them in high-crime neighborhoods in spots where thieves are most likely to take them. A parked bait car, for instance, would be left in an area where car theft is a problem. Bait devices are rigged with surveillance equipment and tracking devices so that authorities, usually waiting nearby, can quickly catch offenders who make off with them.

But as the Black Lives Matter movement has drawn widespread attention to anti-black policing and the disproportionate number of African Americans in prison, reports of a bait truck in an impoverished community of color have predictably sparked an outcry. The Englewood residents seen in video footage regarded it as another hostile act by law enforcement instead of a bid to cut down on crime. Moreover, the alleged placement of the bait truck near a basketball court filled with kids signaled, to some, a ploy to ensnare vulnerable youth in the criminal justice system rather than career criminals.

“There were a lot of young guys playing basketball,” according to Mckenzie, who said he spotted the bait truck while driving nearby. “Why would they do that in the poorest communities to people who don’t have anything better?”