Cop-related killings become common? As are the accompanying racial rants!

We have yet to learn what kind of prison sentence will be imposed against the Chicago police officer who fired those 16 shots into a teenaged boy who may have been acting erratically enough to make the officer fear for his life.

The incident in suburban Robbins occurred … 

There also is the upcoming trials of three more police officers whom prosecutors say tried to spin the initial investigation so as to make it a clear-cut case of self-defense by law enforcement.

AND NOW, WE have the incident in suburban Robbins where a police officer responding to a call of shots fired at a tavern wound up killing the security guard who was on duty and was trying to subdue the man who had provoked the whole incident.

It’s becoming far too common that we’re having to question the motivations of our law enforcement officers – who theoretically are there to protect the public, but are behaving in ways that arouse racially-motivated suspicions.

As though the only “crime” that was committed in Robbins was that a tavern willing to stay open until 4 a.m. serving intoxicating beverages would have so little sense as to hire an African-American male to provide security.

Some activist types anxious to turn the “ROBBINS, Ill.” dateline into a focal point for their efforts are openly saying that white cop from nearby suburban Midlothian who was assisting would have been more understanding of the situation if it had been a white security guard trying to break up the incident.

THE SAD THING is that there may well be some truth to that line of logic. Although I also don’t doubt there will be other people who won’t want to have to listen to such arguments.

Heck, when the Washington Post earlier this week got into covering the incident that took place Sunday at Manny’s Blue Room lounge and led their story with the fact that a “white” cop killed a “black” security guard, there were ample examples of people who responded by accusing the post of irresponsibly bringing up race.

In this “Age of Trump” in which we now live, there may well be some people who don’t want to hear these types of stories. While others are going to demand they be told!

… on the heels of a trial over a police shooting in Chicago

Now in the interest of disclosure, I should point out I do some work for Tribune Publishing, and in fact was a reporter-type person on call Sunday morning when the incident broke out.

I WAS AT the tavern and at the police station in Robbins, and the conclusion I quickly came to was that the local police weren’t really sure what happened. There was confusion about who shot whom, or how many were shot or what provoked the incident in the first place. It took time before Cook County sheriff’s police (for the incident itself) and Illinois State Police (for the cop shooting a security guard portion) brought out details that made apparent just how absurd this incident was – and I have read follow-up news accounts written by others with great interest.

Even now, there are conflicting stories about how clearly the security guard was identified, and could it be possible for a police officer to seriously confuse him for just another guy with a gun at a scene that had seriously lapsed out of control.

There also are people who want to think the Illinois State Police are rushing their investigation so as to try to absolve the cop of criminal liability.

Which may be an after-effect over the officers who soon will be on trial for allegedly trying to reduce the chance that Jason Van Dyke would ever have to see the inside of a courtroom for the 2014 shooting death of a teenager.

ARE WE GOING to get the same kind of “conspiracy” suspicions against the state police? Is that attitude going to impede the ability of police to seriously get to the bottom of what happened?

Which municipality will find its police tainted next?

That would actually be the casualty for society as a whole if our investigators can’t be trusted to figure out what happened, and if the ideological suspicions of individuals were somehow allowed to predominate in determining how our judicial system will respond.

I’m sure on the date that Van Dyke is sentenced for his second-degree murder conviction, along with all those criminal accounts for each shot fired, we’re going to hear people screeching and screaming on all sides for how unfair the verdict will be.

Just as I’m sure there also are people who will be demanding that the as-of-yet unidentified Midlothian cop should someday become Van Dyke’s cellmate, and others who will be grossly offended if such a moment ever comes close to becoming reality.

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