Those of you in Chicago probably saw this cover on the Red Eye last week, or this story in the Chicago Tribune. If this news reporting is to be believed, Chicago is facing a growing problem of robbery on public transit. John Hilkevitch of the Tribune claimed this increase is due to “young thugs stealing smartphones from passengers.” When I saw this cover walking to the el, my immediate reaction was shock. Shock that on a system that has millions of riders every month, a meager total of 59 robberies somehow has become a crisis that needs to be dealt with. I was also haunted by the knowledge that this kind of exaggeration of the dangerousness of public spaces (such as recent unfounded panics in Boystown) often leads to increased policing, harassment, and incarceration of young people of color.
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