Is there nobody who’s safe any longer?

If ever there were people who had a degree of safety implied by their occupation, I’d have thought a judge and a priest would be amongst them.
 

MILES: Won't be presiding in Ct any longer

Yet the news reports out of Chicago – when not being cluttered with that passenger being forcibly removed from a United Airlines-affiliated flight or the spills in Lake Michigan contaminating the Indiana portion of its shoreline – have given us a judge and a priest who were crime victims.

WHILE THE PRIEST seems to be alive and well and grateful he wasn’t more seriously hurt, the same can’t be said for the judge.

Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Miles is now dead at age 66, following an altercation with an armed man who apparently was harassing his girlfriend outside his Chatham neighborhood home.

Police now say they doubt the armed man was that interested in the criminal division judge and was more interested in getting the woman – who also got shot during the Monday morning incident.

In fact, some news reports are indicating that the woman was intended as a robbery target, and got shot in the leg when she didn’t want to give up her purse. Hearing a scuffle caused Miles to come rushing out of his house to her aid, which then resulted in his getting shot as well.

THIS MAY MEAN we can put aside our original paranoias that said someone tried to have a judge killed to try to influence a case, or retribution for a negative legal ruling. Or whatnot.

Although police said they suspect the armed man had actually been following the woman for a couple of weeks to learn about her and try to figure out the best time and place to rob her.

Which means he likely had an idea that the woman had a connection to a judge, or someone working in the courts in some capacity. Which would still make this a case where someone thought along the lines of Rhett Butler (remember “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!”).

 

MOLYNEUX (and McDuff)

And we now have a deceased officer of the court. All because a would-be thief became upset when the woman whom he had targeted for his robbery, it seems, turned out to not have any money in the purse he had just robbed.

AS IT TURNS out, the Cook County sheriff’s police says it investigates an average of 10 death threats per year against judges. But the number of incidents of violence against judges is just too minimal.

Judge Miles is someone who’s going to stand out in the memory of the Cook County judicial system.

As may Rev. John Molyneux, a pastor at the Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in the South Chicago neighborhood. It seems that on Tuesday morning, he was walking his dog, McDuff, in the neighborhood streets near the church when a young man approached him at 91^st Street and Baltimore Avenue and expressed interest in the dog.

The man then asked for a dollar, which the priest handed over. The man then produced an object the priest took to be a pistol and demanded more money.

THE PRIEST TURNED over his wallet and the man ran off.

Molyneux told the Chicago Tribune he’s not angry about the incident, and said he wants to show compassion. “I really think the opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love is fear and we cannot live in fear,” the priest said.

Although this may too be an incident where first impressions are misleading. There is some indication the priest was dressed casually, and the robber didn’t know he was targeting a priest.

Priest robbed w/in block of his church

But still, we have one man trying to defend his female companion, while another was walking his dog. Not exactly the images of people we’d presume ought to be targets for crime – particularly since the amounts gained by both robbers combined sounds like it was less than what I have in my wallet right now!

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