It
really was just an effort to try to shut up those people who are complaining
that we don’t have recall elections in Chicago or Illinois to try to remove
Rahm Emanuel from office. Nothing more.
NOW
I’M NOT a McCarthy supporter. I just think it’s short-sighted to think his
removal really changes anything about the culture of our police.
The
department of the 21st Century is removed from their brethren who
beat up on protesters in Grant Park in connection with the 1968 Democratic
Convention, who are also removed from the Chicago cops who were willing to look
the other way back in the days when Al Capone and his gang exerted their
influence – particularly in the form of buying off then-Mayor William Hale
Thompson.
And
for the record, I have two uncles (one now retired, the other deceased) who
were rookie Chicago cops back in the late 1960s.
But
there still is something in the DNA of the type of person who gets into law enforcement
whose initial reaction to potential trouble is to close the ranks and support
their brethren.
HECK,
THAT’S ACTUALLY a part of human nature. Everybody, regardless of who they are
or what they do, is going to have a similar reaction.
But
it has the potential for risk and cover-up because of the nature of what we ask
law enforcement officers to do. We allow them to carry weapons, use physical
force and (on occasion) kill people legally.
When
they cover up, the secrets and their consequences are bigger.
 |
| McCARTHY: No more, but nothing's changed |
Now
I know some people are going to screech and scream that we need an outsider to
head the department. We may hear about the days of O.W. Wilson, an academic
with theories about law enforcement who became police superintendent in Chicago
following the Summerdale scandal (cops acting as robbers, stealing while in
uniform). He is credited with major reforms of the department.
YET
LET’S BE honest. We had an outsider in McCarthy – a veteran New York police
official who later headed the department in Newark, N.J., prior to coming to
Chicago.
Let’s
also remember the not-long-ago days of Jody Weiss, the former FBI agent who was
the subject of constant ridicule from the ranks who were convinced that no “G-man”
would really know what was going on in the rough-and-tumble streets of Chicago.
The
problem may be that law enforcement officials in general have a high opinion of
themselves and some think they’re entitled to look down upon us masses. I
recall one now-retired police chief who once said he honestly thought the type
of people who became police officers were the elite of our society.
Then
again, he came out of the ranks of the Illinois State Police – an entity that
has its own culture. But still gives its people the authority to carry a
firearm and use it.
I
DON’T KNOW what the solution is to our city’s current problems, other than that
anything that is tried is going to offend a segment of our society.
Activist-types will want to see incredibly punitive actions against the police,
while those “bungalow belt” types with ties to police officers will view
anything against them as punitive.
It
is reflected in the regulations that exist with regards to improper actions
that may be committed by police officers, which were the point of the joke
often told by reporter-types amongst themselves about how if someone really
wanted to kill another human being, the way to do it and get away with it is to
become a police officer.
 |
| Below fold in Manhattan; Page 5 in Murdoch-land |
Because then the Fraternal Order of Police has so many restrictions built into the city contract that it is virtually an illegal act for department officials to confirm that an officer is even under suspicion.
It
becomes a department secret, the cracking of which can be next-to-impossible.
Which may well be the significance of the Laquan McDonald saga – the code got
cracked, and we’re learning what really happened on that evening in 2014 when
he was shot to death repeatedly.
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