Heh, the elected officials are exactly the problem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_history_of_Chicago#C...

I grew up in Chicago, my family is still there, and most of my colleagues are based there. There is weird pseudo-Stockholm syndrome phenomenon where people just accept that the corruption is widespread and unavoidable.

Basically, it's all Gotham and no Batman.

Any chance this contributed to the Dark Knight being filmed there? Choosing Chicago for the cityscape makes sense by itself but the film focused heavily on corruption.

I found a nice breakdown of scene / real locations while looking into this: http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/d/DarkKnight.html

when i visited Chicago, it was felt like it is a matter of local pride when journalist on radio was telling something about corruption in the school district. Like "look how big! how brazen it is! we can do corruption like the best out there!"... pretty much like Jon Stewart in that bit about New Jersey corruption.

> then what you have is not a police force, but a criminal organization.

This is the only reasonable conclusion, and it's neither new nor particularly controversial. The real question is: what to do about it?

Leave. Frictionless and painless. (I left Chicago after living there for ~2 decades)

I left after only 2.5 years. I didn't even have any watershed experiences. I just eventually heeded the voice in my head that whispered "get out of here" on a regular basis.

So I left, and I didn't exactly stop hearing that voice, but at least it said "this is pathetic" instead.

It didn't shut up entirely until I moved again.

I can barely even stand to drive around Chicago on the tristate tollway now.

> Frictionless and painless.

I can't imagine this is true.

What if you are flat broke? What if you have an elderly dependent in a nearby nursing home? A relative in a nearby prison? A child in the local schools?

It might be easy for some, but not for all.

bend

to all the downvoters - you prefer being shot?

Perhaps they'll rather stand up to bullies, criminals and injustice, rather than say, "how low", when asked to "bend" by a bully.

"bullies, criminals and injustice" are the police. this whole rather depressing discussion is dedicated to the consequences of standing up to police. again, your choice is simple - bend or be shot.

here is another "self-defense" by Toronto police:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx2iQnYMQfM

first 3 bullets in the chest, then 6 in already dead body, then taser the corpse. policemen successfully argued self-defense and was charged with attempted (???) murder. the only reason why this made to trial, was because video was released to public. otherwise he would have walked.

I thought they were supposed to use a taser first and live fire as a last resort? What in the world were they thinking? The guy is clearly not conscious/possibly already dead and then they taser him?

This is going to look bad. I'd better tase the corpse so I can claim I tried non-lethal means first, but the guy was unstoppable and I had to kill him.

Chicago is notorious for organized crime.