overheard chicago police radio dispatch . . .

My late father was, among other things, a police-scanner fanatic. When he passed away I inherited his scanner, but left it packed away. On a weekend requiring no yard/garden-work, and meals all set, I unearthed it, figured it out, and got the frequency for the CPD in my neighborhood (District 17; Albany Park). Interesting . . .

. . . and hilarious. From a few minutes ago, verbatim:

"[Car] 1722, 4000 W. Addison, report of illegal cheese sales -- without a license."

Has the war on unpasteurized "bathtub" cheese in Southern California's Mexican-American neighborhoods, as reported a few weeks ago on "The Daily Show," spread to Chicago?

Cheers,
Wade

P.S. Now, if I could only find the Chicago Health Department's frequency . . . .

waderoberts wrote:"[Car] 1722, 4000 W. Addison, report of illegal cheese sales -- without a license."

Has the war on unpasteurized "bathtub" cheese in Southern California's Mexican-American neighborhoods, as reported a few weeks ago on "The Daily Show," spread to Chicago?

I don't know, but the city has had a pretty antagonistic relationship with food vendors for a long time. I was able to find online this archived Reader story:

Neal Pollack wrote:On the morning of March 8, 1997, two people Maria Espinoza had never seen before drove up to her elote stand at the corner of 25th and Kedzie. They were from the Health Department, and they told her this was a surprise inspection. The inspectors dumped bleach over all the mangoes, pineapples, and cucumbers Espinoza was planning to sell that day. They poured bleach on her elotes, too, and in the condiments for those ears of corn. They unloaded still more bleach into several vats of fruit juice. Then they handed her a ticket. It said they "found Maria Espinoza on the street corner selling cut fruit, cooked corn, juice. The product, 50 ears corn, 25 gallons of juice, 50 pounds cut fruit, was denatured with bleach, and disposed of. All unwrapped and cooked."

Read the rest at VIVA ELOTE!

Something along the same lines...

Men charged in trying to sell expired salad dressing.

I definitely think there needs to be some balance here. There is no excuse for being horrible to individuals who are struggling to get by. However, there there must be rules, too. There is a reason why the United States is one of only a handful of countries in the world where you don't need to get shots when you visit.

And there is a big difference, too, between someone selling fruit from a cart, in good faith and with the belief it's wholesome, and a couple of guys selling thousands upon thousands of bottles of product they know is bad and potentially dangerous. The latter should be prosecuted, the former should be guided and aided.

Fighting disease is admirable, but we need to remind these bureaucrats that disease is the enemy, not the little lady with the fruit cart. Offer classes. Help the vendors how to make it safe. Get guidelines translated into however many languages are needed. Don't just dump bleach.