Chicago—I spent nearly a week in my birthplace learning about the ticking metropolitan time bomb.
During my Chicago travel I drove around 018, 019 and 023 the most. I rarely saw any marked police vehicles in the affluent or yuppie neighborhoods.
I interviewed a dozen cops in 001,012,018, 019,023 and at O’Hare. The neighborhoods of these police districts included Downtown, Old Town, New Town, Lakeview, Wriglyville and the near West side.
In order to insure candid interviews I promised the officers that I would not identify them as sources for this article. The answers came as if I had only interviewed only one cop rather than a dozen.
The officers said they were in a mess. They fear for their jobs, pensions and families. They are all riding 99 (the radio designation for one man cars) even during peak hours for violent criminal activity.
These days the officers I talked with will no longer make stops on cars with multiple suspicious occupants. The officers are also reluctant to make any contact with large groups of gang types in rough neighborhoods for the same reason. The dangers are twofold, physical danger and the very real danger of unwarranted race based complaints.
The officers view their duties as that of report takers and crime scene clean-up crews always responding after the fact.
None of the officers I talked to believe they have the support of the administration. The officers feel they are expendable because they see so many fellow officers humiliated and striped of their stars and police powers after bogus complaints.
The department is substantially undermanned because of retirements and a large portion of officers on medical leave or light duty. The officers told me many, if not most the officers are abusing medical excuses because the morale is at an all time low. One officer said, “Why go to a job you have grown to hate when you can be paid to stay home?”
Some officers complained about being out gunned and don’t really believe they will ever see the M-4 carbines J-Fed said were being issued to the officers. Some cited the lack of in-service firearm training and 30 rounds per year ammunition allotment as a sick joke.
Others revealed that promotions within the department these days have little to do with qualifications, ability or fairness. The civil service system has been scrapped to accommodate sexual paramours, political hacks and race based shenanigans.
Many officers feel they’ve become the whipping boys for the media. They say reporters hate officers and the mission of the police. The officers feel that most of Chicago’s reporters are simply programmed products of politically, Far Left Liberal college professors.
I asked the officers each about Chicago’s gun control laws and for their opinion. The officers all told me that the city’s gun ban worked against them. Some told me that small business owners can’t fight robbery or extortion and the thugs take full advantage of the situation.
When I asked about concealed weapon permits for law abiding citizens every officer I interviewed said it would be a good idea.