Word: crackings
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...dictated that Colbert be booked at the 39th-district police headquarters, about a mile away. But Colbert wasn't in the land of official procedure; he was in the hands of Blondie. So, instead, he was taken to 1518 Ontario Street, a run-down three-story home and sometime crack house that served as a sort of hidden adjunct to precinct headquarters...
...many of the residents were (and are) "nice," and they were the ones who screamed loudest for the police to crack down on the crime wave. "The bosses would come back from community meetings with a string of complaints, and we were told to get on it--just get it done," says Blondie. Police supervisors, he says, had other pressures too: "Above the rank of captain, you get promoted mostly by who you know on the force and in politics. And the politicians scream as loud as the residents. Can you tell me when you ever heard a politician...
...supposed to work is something like this," says Blondie. "You're supposed to go to a crack house and make a buy, or have someone make it for you via a 'controlled buy.' To do that, you've got to strip the guy beforehand to make sure there is no other money on him. Then you give him some money and he makes the buy, and you strip him afterward to make sure he has no more money." Do it like that, he says, and the buy and subsequent arrest are legal...
...pain for several reasons," he says. "First, you risk having your agent exposed. Second, who's gonna sell to a white guy standing in line at a crack house? So you get some piper [crack addict] or some whore to make the buy. Or you just pinch someone coming out of the house and find out who's in the place, whether they're armed, and where the dope is. Then you go in. It's illegal that way, but then you go and get a warrant later [and falsify the report], saying you made the buy yourself." Or, adds...
Most of the time, the squad's knowledge of crack-house operations was the product of tipster information. "And you have to protect those informants," says Blondie. "It's really your No. 1 obligation. You have defense attorneys demanding that you identify them. But if you give up an informant, chances are he's dead by nightfall...