Bait Trucks Full Of Nike Shoes Spotted In Englewood: Activist

CHICAGO, IL — Residents of Englewood and surrounding communities are expressing anger at what they claim is a law enforcement practice of placing "bait trucks" in their community. At least one activist has said it creates problems in an area where there are many and pulls police resources from more necessary tasks like solving murders and finding missing people.

"Instead of chasing crime, they are trying to create crime," said Martin Johnson, an Englewood resident whose known in the neighborhood as the "Crime Chaser." "They (law enforcement) come in to black and poor communities and create crime so they can make arrests."

Johnson shared a Facebook Live video on his YouTube channel that shows what appears to be a bait truck parked in two different parts of the Englewood neighborhood last Friday. The video shows Johnson following the truck from the area of 59th and Carpenter to 56th and Ashland, where a verbal confrontation between police and neighborhood residents takes shape.

"This goes to show you the lack of trust there is from the community with law enforcement," Johnson told Patch on Wednesday.

"They are not going to do this in Beverly or Hyde Park," Johnson said during the 53-minute video he shared of the truck that was placed in Englewood on Friday. "They aren't going into Mount Greenwood to do this. They are coming in to the black communities."

The Chicago Police Department referred questions on the matter to the Norfolk Southern Railroad Police Department,who could not immediately be reached.

When Johnson's video showed the "bait truck" stopping at 56th and Ashland, exactly what he had predicted in the video happened. An unmarked police car "pulled over" the truck and apparently staged an arrest of the driver.

Johnson, who was equipped with a police scanner, pointed out that nothing like that came across the scanner traffic at the time. Then the unmarked car pulled away, leaving the truck parked at the corner without a rear lock.

"This is staged," Johnson said during the video. "This is how they do it."

The truck went untouched for more than a half hour as Johnson continued to film it. When other neighborhood residents showed up, so did police officers.

In response to a request from one resident to "get this truck out of here," one Chicago police officer said "we got more time to kill than you," as another quipped "I'm getting paid to be here."

In a crime-filled city like Chicago, Johnson says "creating crime" like this is just about the least helpful thing the police could do in a neighborhood already struggling with gun violence and poverty.

"I live in Englewood, an under resourced and under funded neighborhood where there's a medium income of less than $30,000," Johnson said. "Putting something like a pair of Nike shoes in an unlocked truck, that's like if you see a hungry person and throwing a steak at them. If they are hungry enough they are going to eat the steak."

Johnson, who typically films live from the scene of shootings, fires and other emergency situations, said he's new to following the "bait truck" issue and was first alerted to it the day before his video when another activist filmed a similar version of events in another part of the neighborhood.

He was in the middle of lunch at 61st and Halsted when a woman informed him of the truck parked at 59th and Carpenter.

"I knew right away they were trying to give our little children felonies," he said. "Because if you touch that truck, it's a felony."

Another activist in the video shot a day before Johnson's said there was a pair of Nike shoes in the window of the truck he filmed.

"The police know our black youth like Nike shoes so they were trying to entrap them," Johnson said. "I felt that was a form of disrespect to our community, and that that energy should be put toward solving murders."

"In fact, instead of investing $90 million into a new police academy, they should invest $90 million into solving the 80 percent of murders in Chicago that go unsolved."

Photo via YouTube screenshot