Page 13 - October 2018 FOP Magazine

Field Representative’s Report
Lodge 7 fed up with Cook County state’s attorney’s office
It’s obvious to any police officer, as well as the fam- ilies of police officers, why the City’s crime is out of control. The situation is similar to parents who let their child dictate the rules and punishments, then wonder why they can’t control their child.
We have a City that has done just that by letting the ACLU and BLM dictate what the policy of the Chicago Police Department should be. This culminated in the DOJ creating a report in which it cherry-picked anec- dotal examples as evidence of the ACLU and BLM’s claims.
We have a police department that goes out of its way to appease pastors who violate laws, allowing protestors to essentially do what- ever they like while our City shuts down and officers are assaulted and battered by these groups.
We now have the state’s attorney’s office joining in to rub salt in the wound.
One of our City’s many protests is SlutWalk, which is supposed to bring attention to sexual assault survivors. Our members are called to control protestors at this event, despite our City and police de- partment making it abundantly clear that there often are no reper- cussions for their unlawful actions.
It was during this event that one of our members was violently bitten by a protestor, causing the officer to remain off work for six weeks while being prescribed a concoction of drugs to prevent the possibility of contracting the AIDS virus. One can only imagine the
anxiety the officer and his family endured, in addition to him hav- ing to deal with the side effects of these medications.
The offender, Lee Dewey, was charged with a felony — aggravat- ed battery of a police officer — and the officer expected the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to move forward with prosecution.
So it’s easy to understand the outrage of the officer, who appeared at court proceedings and made himself available by phone to the ASA, after he received a letter from the ASA informing him that they had pled the case down to a municipal code violation for unlawful assembly.
This was a clear failure by the prosecutor to address any plea agreement without informing the officer. The prosecutor failed to afford him the same rights as any other victim under the Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act.
The Lodge shares the officer’s outrage in the blatant disregard for his rights. Since this has increasingly become a complaint from our members — this case being the most egregious — the Lodge has directed our attorneys to send a letter to Joseph Magats, the first assistant state’s attorney, expressing the outrage of both the officer and the Lodge over this matter.
The Lodge and I intend to continue to pressure the state’s attor- ney’s office on this issue, including cases in which other officers have been in similar circumstances. The Lodge would like any member who is unhappy with their representation as a victim by the ASA to contact us so that we can ensure that your lack of representation is addressed with the state’s attorney’s office. d
ROBERT BARTLETT
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ OCTOBER 2018 13