Round up on 8th Street

[uptowngirl]

This is excellent news! I saw them yesterday morning lined up (dogs too) on 10th and 8th. I think the fact that even the police need to wear masks to arrest these guys-tells you that a little store onwer/manager should NOT be approaching these people on their own.

I have to disagree with you on this, the reason they wear those outfits is to keep their identity concealed, as many work plain clothes and to show their faces would counteract their efforts. It's not a sign of fear of the perp, it's to allow them to remain unknown to the public.

That is one reason yes- but not all of it

[urbanlibertarian]

Well, then.  What is...the rest of the story?

[samiam]

Paul harvy rocks

[thekillingwax]

Was this over where Sam's Liquor's or whatever it's called now is? Between Ionia and Market, 8th has been a bit of a wild area lately with dealers. That 24hr BP has become a big hub for them, I head out to the gym around 3am a lot of the times and that area is lit and swarming with street traffic and during the day there's a regular old crack train running between the day labor shitpools on Ionia and 8th running through the Speedway lot and down to the other store. If it's these guys that got hit, I hope they rot in jail.

[ChriswUfGator]

Was this over where Sam's Liquor's or whatever it's called now is? Between Ionia and Market, 8th has been a bit of a wild area lately with dealers. That 24hr BP has become a big hub for them, I head out to the gym around 3am a lot of the times and that area is lit and swarming with street traffic and during the day there's a regular old crack train running between the day labor shitpools on Ionia and 8th running through the Speedway lot and down to the other store. If it's these guys that got hit, I hope they rot in jail.

Hey just remember...SPAR's worried about a freaking CARWASH while all this is going on a few blocks away. LMFAO!

[uptowngirl]

Well, based on the number of officers involved, it was not just vice, so the theory of using masks to protect your identity for future undercover operations does not apply to all the officers here. I kinda have an issue with the masks in any case. I mean you do not just join the force as a vice officer, at some point you were most likely running around the streets doing your job without a mask..... then there is also the fact that when you are buying drugs or a hooker they usually won't sell to you if you are wearing a mask, and with only seven officers you do not have a good rotation, so what the hell? BUT I hate porstitution and drug dealing so if they wanna wear the cool scary masks I don't really care.

[Springfielder]

The point of wearing the masks is for concealing their identity during the raid. They wouldn't wear them during their usual jobs, such as working plain clothes doing vice/drugs....so the hookers and drug dealers, etc wouldn't recognize them during the actual raids that you see when they're in those masks. As for the number of officers, it was most likely a drug related operation. I've seen up to 15+ officers involved in drug busts.

[uptowngirl]

The point of wearing the masks is for concealing their identity during the raid. They wouldn't wear them during their usual jobs, such as working plain clothes doing vice/drugs....so the hookers and drug dealers, etc wouldn't recognize them during the actual raids that you see when they're in those masks. As for the number of officers, it was most likely a drug related operation. I've seen up to 15+ officers involved in drug busts.

Which means they all did not need to protect their identity because they are not all JSO vice officers. The point I am tryign to make is some drug dealers are nasty characters and some are part of bigger gangs, and it is a dangerous job that JSO tells us all the time to leave to them, so why would a store owner or worker be any different....

[strider]

I remember once when I pulled down an alley coming from a job and ran into the "ninja" JSO folks arresting a few and one of them looked up at me.  Actually sort of stared at me and I wondered what was up?  Then I looked at the eyes, they were laughing...it was then that I realized I knew him. He lived in the 'hood.

SPringfielder and Uptowngirl, you are both right. They wear the hoods to protect their identities so they can continue to work vice, etc as well as a level of protection against future retribution.

There is no doubt that dealing with some of these dealers can be dangerous work.  While some on this forum who may be police like to say; it isn’t like the movies, I fear sometimes it comes pretty close and you never know when that will be.