^^^^No gun the above scenario. But in late July of this year, an interesting story about a gun broke from a federal lawsuit arising from a 2012 fatal police shooting. The dead guy was a convicted gang member shot by a Cicero officer, just outside Chicago's city limits. The gun was found next the the dead guy's body. Apparently, the gangbanger was riding a bicycle, and an officer got out of his car and chased him down on foot, when apparently the gangbanger took aim at a second officer who was driving by in an unmarked car. The pursuing officer shot and killed the gangbanger. The second officer - the son of a former police chief that was convicted for corruption - corroborated the story. Sounds like a real hero.
What's that got to do with Chicago? Well sheep starting complaining, predictably spinning another story of a troubled angel who of course would never have been carrying a gun. The story we hear so often that we tune it out in this city. Under two years of relentless pressure by these stubborn sheep, the State Police finally asked the Feds to trace the gun, which ultimately was traced back to a well respected Chicago judge. It turns out that 8 years prior to the shooting, the Judge had turned the gun into the Chicago Police Department in one of Chicago's gun buyback programs. He was setting a community example. But these silly stubborn sheep still weren't satisfied. They kept asking dumb questions, like how did a gun that was turned into the Chicago Police Department by a respected Chicago judge and marked for destruction by the Police Department end up lying next to a dead gangbanger on a Cicero street. Somehow, this story was pretty much kept under wraps until these annoying sheep filed a lawsuit alleging the gun was planted at the scene to justify the shooting.
Oh, and the officer that shot the gangbanger . . . the lawsuit revealed that in a previous police job the officer had been investigated for using a high powered rifle during a routine traffic stop, which while weird, didn't get him canned. Later, however, he was leaving a bar at 3am and was clocked doing 90mph in a 30 mph zone. He refused to stop for the first patrol car, so two other cars joined the chase. When arrested at gunpoint, he threatened the arresting officers if they gave him a ticket. The next day he tried to coerce the police chief into voiding the ticket. He ultimately resigned. He lied about all that in his Cicero job application, and when lies were unearthed he resigned before he could be fired. Then he made a disability claim, which was approved, due to PTSD resulting from the shooting.
Are Chicago Police actually selling guns marked for destruction to local gangbangers? Or are they handing them out to area police to keep as throwaways? Whatever's going on, I'm glad some sheep are complaining.Personally, I'd really like to know. Seriously.
I have a lot of respect for Chicago Police officers and the job they do. I don't particularly like discussing the department's problems, and what I discuss above doesn't even scratch the surface. I know the 4 officers that regularly patrol my neighborhood (they run in pairs in Chicago and I'm active in community event where I also run into them). I'm amazed at how professional they are when responding to some seriously bad and provocative attitudes. But there are some bad officers around, and like gang members, they absolutely will not rat on one their own. If somehow I was accidentally shot, I seriously doubt that any officer, even these guys I know, would tell my father or my children what truly happened. And the City doesn't want them to. They want crime under control, and they don't want lawsuits. And not necessarily in that order. It undermines public trust and leaves some residents afraid of both gangbangers and police, which only benefits the bad guys.
IMO, the City spent twenty years relocating gang and drug problems to less visible communities where they could be ignored, but it never properly addressed the underlying crime and it turned a blind eye to some serious abuses of police power. Crime, whatever its source, should be a problem government and the police are responsible for addressing, and it requires both public trust and accountability. This notion that "black on black" crime is somehow a problem for the "black community" is, IMO, part of what's made the problem unmanageable. And I really don't think the "black community" can solve it by taking a good hard look in the mirror. I think that's a damaging way to address it. Crime and abuses of governmental power are not your side vs my side problem. Its a "We the People" problem.
Again, I truly loathe talking politics with anonymous people on the internet, especially when I'd rather be discussing football. I'm only doing it now to distract myself from introducing my 45 year old banker neighbor to some white-on-white crime over his presently raging late night electronic house music marathon. Neighborhood's going to hell.
