In What The Actual Fuck news, Vox is reporting that some unidentified law enforcement personnel set up a “bait truck” filled with Nike Air Force 1s and Christian Louboutins in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, in an apparent attempt to lure unsuspecting kids into stealing.
Originally spotted near a busy basketball court, the truck was taped traveling “to other sites in the predominantly black community on the city’s southwest side,” stopping at each site with the door partially open.
“There were a lot of young guys playing basketball [near the truck],” Charles Mckenzie of the crime prevention group God’s Gorillas told Vox. “Why would they do that in the poorest communities to people who don’t have anything better?”
No law enforcement organization has claimed responsibility for the scheme, but the article notes that “over the past decade, law enforcement agencies in the US have increasingly turned to bait devices to reduce crime.”
And though the story conceded that cargo theft has become a “growing problem” in recent years, it’s still just a $27 million one nationwide, which — and hear me out — doesn’t seem like the kind of volume required to justify rounding up kids at random. I mean, it’s shitty and lazy in any context, but targeting teens in underserved communities seems particularly cruel and unusual.
“How do we supposed to trust [police] if they setting us up like this?” Mckenzie asked. “How can we trust them?”
You can read more about it at Vox.
