My Suggestion for the New Leadership of FOP Lodge 7

Chicago, IL—FOP Lodge 7 has failed miserably in the past to properly represent the men and women of the Chicago police Department.  The leadership of the FOP has been bedding down with city politicians and a couple of really lame appointed police superintendents. We can only guess what the tradeoffs have been.

The department is rapidly shrinking and the position of police officer grows more dangerous by the hour.  Pension funds have been mismanaged, stolen or otherwise compromised.  Officer’s retirement funding is in grave danger as bankruptcy looms.

The only real source for news about the matters that affect police officers come from bloggers.  The Second City Cop Blog is the primary source of news cops need to know.  The downside is that the some of the blog content creator/s are anonymous.  Publishing the truth about mismanagement, waste and corruption is hazardous to any working officer. 

The FOP should take on a role of reporting news to its membership along with the local taxpayers in a very public way.  The FOP should bring transparency to issues such as hiring, promotions and discipline matters that are based almost solely on political clout.

That means hiring a full time investigative multi-media journalist along with a producer/video photographer.  FOP needs to cover all events that involve officer’s lives, safety and careers. There should be no less than five news multimedia stories produced per week.

The FOP reporter needs to call out malicious or deceptive mainstream media reports about police officers.   The reporter can lawfully expose the criminal history of accusers using available public court records.  The reporter can also find and interview anyone with information that will expose the truth.

I’d create a special FOP News website and call it, “Nightly Windy City Police Reports.”  It would contain text, pictures and hard-hitting video reports.

The bloggers need to continue and call out the FOP if they fail to do their jobs.  The FOP can have all the power of a major newspaper or TV news organization.  The two media positions are not one for amateurs or beginners.   

I’d hire former WMAQ reporter Amy Jacobson who’s always been very fair and well liked by cops.  I’d let her pick the producer/photographer.   I’d take the producer spot myself if it was offered.  In any event there are plenty of great investigative reporters that can fill this position.

The FOP needs a bare knuckles reporter that understands public records laws and information sources.  That reporter should be trustworthy in order to protect department and any city employee whistle blowers.  

The names of the whistle blowers should be given to FOP administration only on a need to know basis.  Actually they don’t have a need to know.

It’s time to bring serious sunshine on the Chicago Police Board. They have inequitably and shamelessly saved or destroyed careers based on clout rather than evidence.  The FOP needs to examine its contract power to force reforms on the Police Board. 

The men and women of the Chicago Police Department deserve something other than lip service from the union that claims to represent them.   

FOP Board Meeting: Stripping Disabled Cops of their Protection

Chicago, IL—Tuesday, December 7 at noon inside Plumber’s Hall located at 1412 W. Washington, St. Lodge 7 of the FOP will meet with the membership.

Up for consideration and suggestion at is the return of the right to keep and bear arms of disabled cops throughout the state of Illinois.

We can only guess how this happened. Perhaps it was a police boss that thought by disarming injured cops he’d cure potential malingering and get them back to work quicker.

The Illinois UUW statute is in serious conflict with the Second Amendment since both the Heller and McDonald decisions of the Supreme Court. The days of prosecutions of law-abiding people carrying guns on the streets for self-defense are numbered as various challenges wind their way through the court system.

In the meantime cops who are ambulatory, walking around the city where they worked and were forced to live, are running into violent criminals they’ve arrested in the past. Any one of these criminals could believe that some disabled cop he spots in some mall knows about an existing arrest warrant. The danger to the disabled cop and members of his family are unnecessarily put at risk by an uncaring bureaucracy.

Currently there is pending legislation to cure this wrong and the FOP needs to hear from its membership. Incredibly as it seems Lodge 7 has no plans to support this bill unless the membership demands it.

Every officer is only a gunshot, traffic accident or a slip and fall away from being stripped of their protection like officers suspected of crimes and serious misconduct. This is wrong and you have the ability to demand a reasonable correction to an unreasonable situation. Be heard!

At least One Masquerade is Finally Over in Chicago

Chicago, IL—The days of Jody P. Weis as police superintendent are rapidly coming to an unceremonious end. The former FBI agent had zero patrol experience on any large police department. Hired as a City Hall, “Yes Man” he was a square peg in a round hole. It appears he’s now become a sacrificial lamb offered for slaughter.

Upon arrival to the department Weis was quickly nicknamed J-Fed but that changed when he actually fled from an in progress shooting during a CBS2 television interview. His nickname was quickly changed to J-Fled as he was publicly humiliated for his cowardice.

One of the worst sins Weis committed during his tenure was wearing the uniform of a Chicago cop that he never earned. The only other civilian Chicago police superintendent in my life time at least was an Almeda County cop in California. That was before he became a criminologist and author. The late, Orlando W. Wilson never once wore the uniform, but he was both admired and well-respected by the rank and file officers.

The FOP, Lodge 7 is believed by many officers to be owned by the Daley/Burke Crime Syndicate. I can’t help but believe this planned protest to improve officer safety and bring the ouster of Weis is fully sanctioned on City Hall’s fifth floor. Daley will save face through giving some meaningless concessions, “for the good of Chicago.”

It will take a lot more changes to raise the morale of the rank and file officer than dumping Weis. The next superintendent must have independence from City Hall and the neighborhood reverends.

Blaming law-abiding Chicagoan’s gun rights for the carnage on the city streets must end as those rights are bolstered through solid support of a right to carry law. Police must enter into a partnership with the law-abiding public to keep the cowardly thugs under control or in prison. This can happen with the right leadership and citizen involvement.

The hiring and promotion based on anything other than real qualifications must end within the department.

For safety sake, officers must be immediately given wide latitude in obtaining and carrying proven police carbines and shotguns. Training should be an issue but officers get almost nothing in the way of in-service training for their handguns. This is an emergency that can’t wait for funding that will probably never arrive. Certainly every military veteran within the department has that training on the M-16/M-4 carbines already.

Manpower is a huge problem and police recruits just can’t fill the need for seasoned officers. Perhaps a temporary program to hire already retired cops would be cheaper than overtime to fill the manpower gap. Officers older than 63 can be hired as civilian investigators or be placed in other less active positions. Of course they can and should carry firearms.

I don’t expect much from the Daley/Burk team who just want the Weis problem to go away because it has been embarrassing. They have no intentions of giving up control over the police department’s day to day activities.

Chicago cops and their families need to participate in this effort:

Protest March

FOP Lodge 7 Needs to Rethink Their Loyalty to the Membership

Los Angeles, CA—In a move that cost taxpayers nothing LAPD cops have enjoyed working three 12 hour shifts per week for nearly a decade.

Cops in every California police agency have both a shotgun and M-4 carbine in their vehicles at all times. That includes school police and campus cops.

Cops in Los Angeles seem to be feared or respected by both the African-American and Hispanic street gangs. Could it be that being much better armed than their CPD counterparts and that has the attention of the cowardly thugs?

LAPD officers have not lost manpower, nor have there been layoffs, yet.

The LAPD has not dismantled civil service testing and the promotion of most officers does not create foul odors.

FOP Lodge 7 likes to brag that all CR’s are issued only on sworn affidavits now. I’m waiting for the first prosecution of some mutt caught committing perjury. If they don’t enforce the perjury laws how does that improve anything?

Disabled California police officers never lose their right to carry a gun for self-defense. This is also true in the vast majority of states if for no other reason, there are right to carry laws for the law-abiding.

Laid off cops or those suspended and even fired, that are not under indictment, don’t lose their right to carry firearms in all but very few jurisdictions in America. Again right to carry insures this protection.

Lodge 7 must roll out of the Daley and Burke’s beds and advocate for their members. Maybe changing police labor bargaining agents is long overdue in the Windy City.

Update!!!: Things are shaking in Chicago right now at the FOP. Can they be waking up? Perhaps that the case as they have announced plans for the membership to rally around the Copshop at 35^th & Michigan on 15 September at a later to be determined time. They will have something on their sight a www.chicagofop.org very soon. So far they claim is for officer safety issues. We will be watching.

Why Does Officer’s Safety Mean So Little to FOP Lodge 7 in Chicago?

Chicago, IL-While there is little in the way of union protection in Chicago, the cops have a bargaining agent of sorts. Currently cops pay dues for advocacy in labor matters to Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police. I have to question what the membership has gotten in return.

Years have gone by without a labor contract and when it was resolved somehow FOP has little to show in results. Chicago police officers are undermanned, outgunned, and demoralized as they’ve been reduced to whipping boys for the local African-American reverends and politicians.

Officers are endangered by firearm regulations that jeopardize their safety.

1. Incredible as it seems officers are only given 30 rounds of ammunition for practice per year. Aside from placing street cops at risk hostages and innocent bystanders are endangered over this intolerable policy.

2. Officers don’t have shotguns or carbines to deal with heavily armed street gangs. If the department won’t pay for the weapons at least they could let the cops buy and use their own.

3. If cops are injured on the job and placed on disability the department bars their right to carry a firearm for simple self-defense. Police officers arrest criminals and dismantle criminal organizations.

The criminals affected by law enforcement are entitled to bail, early release and other loopholes that allow them to roam the streets. It’s not uncommon for cops to be shopping, attending a movie or event and cross paths with the criminals they’ve arrested.

We know violent criminals carry guns despite all laws. We also know that cops by their very nature are slow to violate gun laws or department policy. The playing field here is not a level one.

Several officers have gotten behind Illinois legislation that would allow cops on Duty Disability or Workman’s Compensation status to continue carrying their guns so they can protect themselves and families.

FOP lodges, The Illinois Police Association and some other groups have endorsed this effort. Lodge 7 on the other hand apparently, feels little or no need to protect cops by supporting the bill.

Lodge 7 has a dismal track record in the last several years.

I’d advise Cops to discontinue paying dues to this poor excuse for a labor organization if they refuse protect the rank and file cops they claim to represent.

Perhaps it’s time to find or create a new labor advocate that does care about the safety and welfare of Chicago cops.

Cops are afraid to challenge anyone at Lodge 7 because they may arbitrarily deny representation for cops falsely accused of wrongdoing.

It’s Lodge 7 that Chicago cops must trust to protect their pensions that have been raided by the Daley/Burke rats.

I just can’t help but believe that Lodge 7 has shown more loyalty to the Daley/Burke rats than dues paying cops.

If the rank and file cops can’t obtain Lodge 7 leadership’s support on such a simple piece of officer safety legislation it’s time to submit that PAR (personnel action request) form to discontinue paying dues to this outfit.