Unmentioned Scandal

We're in favor of good police work. Long term investigations lead to long prison sentences in most cases. But at some point, you have to wonder about the damage done to many others at the cost of imprisoning a few:

• A Chinese-speaking Chicago cop posed for more than two years as a crooked officer in a sting that busted a Chinatown prostitution ring and exposed a scheme to obtain thousands of Illinois driver’s licenses illegally, prosecutors said today.

  Brothel operator Sheng Quan Dong bribed the officer to keep police away from his business, prosecutors said. Dong is accused of making $18,000 in payoffs over two years.

Long term investigation, extensive history of bribes, connection to larger organized crime groups, this has all the hallmarks of a good bit of police work. Final tally of arrests?

• Dong, 37, faces felony bribery and money laundering charges, as well as felony prostitution charges. Also facing prostitution charges are four other people, including Dong’s wife; two alleged prostitutes; a customer; and a doorman for the brothel, prosecutors said.

  [...] Police said they’ve seized more than $30,000 from Dong and are investigating another $100,000 he’s suspected of sending overseas.

  [...] The prostitution sting led investigators to an identity-fraud scheme in which 19 people were charged in federal court in 2009, Alvarez said.

So 23 arrests, $30,000 seized and $100,000 still at large. Small results, but notable in that the chances of actually conducting a fruitful investigation of a Chinese organized crime ring are infinitesimal at best.

But here's what really amazed us:

• Using fake passports, more than 15,000 Illinois driver’s licenses and state identification cards were obtained, prosecutors say. Customers — often undocumented immigrants from Asia — were charged thousands of dollars for forged documents, including a phony Chinese social security card and passport, prosecutors said. They also allegedly received alphanumeric codes to pass the written driver’s test without having to read the questions in English.

Whoa whoa whoa. How many Illinois driver's licenses? FIFTEEN THOUSAND?? 15,000 thousand fake pieces now out there, floating around, being used to create who knows what type of mayhem. We may be mistaken, but weren't the 9/11 hijackers in possession of a few hundred types of fake ID's, a sizable number of which were fake Illinois driver licenses? We're sure the state will send out a number of harshly worded letters telling these people that their DL's and ID's are invalid - they may even revokes them on the computer. But until an Illinois law enforcement officer stops them and takes the actual DL, it's still out there. And the computer systems aren't compatible over many state lines, so a determined lawbreaker might be able to BS their way out of trouble with an apparently legit ID.

It just seems like a lot of effort for little return. And it seems a lot of Illinois citizens, not to mention Americans, are needlessly put in potential danger for small potatoes.

And yes, we saw the brothel owner was named "Dong." Unless your comment is really really funny, we'll be removing the more juvenile ones.