Re: Chicago Wins Again! - Literal Highway Robbery

On Apr 9, 2025 at 3:57:15 PM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com>
wrote:

On 2025-04-09 6:00 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

 BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
 

 In Chicago, men of a certain unsurprising demographic dressed as parking
 attendants are surrounding cars before they even exit the freeway and
 demanding money to park at Comiskey Park.

 

 In a (not-so) shocking twist, if you don’t give them the $40 they’re
 demanding, they become violent.

 

 
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1908162578641027072/vid/avc1/650x480/wAy_4va6RimmcLHu.mp4?tag=16

 

 Well done, Chicago. Even in L.A. you don't get held up on the freeway by
 masked bandits like it's an 1820s stagecoach robbery or something.

 
 Absolutely outrageous. I hadn't heard about that.
 
 An alderman is working on an ordinamce that would allow vehicle owners
 to sue unlicensed predatory towing companies, that just show up at
 accidents and try to get cash from motorists. I have no idea where they
 take vehicles.

 
Probably somewhere that they charge hundreds of dollars a day to "store"
the vehicle but that is out of the way and/or hard to find so that the
owner takes a while to locate them....
 
Shady tow operators are common up here too. But it's gotten to a point
where they will exchange gunfire with their competitors to get a tow at
an accident scene. That's obviously REALLY bad but I don't know of
anything that the police are actually doing about that beyond their
standard declarations that this is unacceptable.
 
Given how much stricter gun control is here than there, you'd think the
police would have plenty of leverage over anyone discharging - or even
displaying - a firearm. Then again, with just about everyone getting
bail for every offence, even if they are already out on bail, they may
not think it's worth the risk of confronting the tow truck operators.

Back when I lived in Houston, they trolled the freeways and if they found you
broken down or with a flat tire, they'd pull up, hook your car up, and tow it
away whether you wanted them to or not. They'd say it's for your "safety",
since changing a tire on the side of the freeway is dangerous. They didn't
really seem to care that they'd left you on the side of a freeway with no
vehicle. That part of being "safe" didn't  concern them.

Happened to me once in my issued government SUV-- got a flat from a sharp
piece of concrete on the road-- and a tow truck guy arrived and pretended I
wasn't even there when I told  him I didn't want a tow. When he started
pulling the chains out, I flipped on my red-and-blue flashers, stepped in
front of him with my badge in one hand and my handcuffs in the other, and
asked him how far he wanted to play this game. He stared daggers at me, then
packed his chains back up and drove off. Never said a word the entire time.

Sometimes I miss having that badge...