Page 30 - JULY 2016 Newsletter

Angelo takes center stage during City Club address
n BY NICK SWEDBERG
n PHOTOS BY JAMES PINTO
Chicago will probably see 700 murders this year and officers on the streets addressing the violence aren’t get- ting the public support they need, FOP President Dean Angelo proclaimed in a June 28 speech at the City Club of Chicago.
The head of the nation’s largest FOP told the audience that violence is rampant in certain Chicago neighbor- hoods and isn’t getting any better, despite dedicated of- ficers patrolling districts plagued by systemic social and economic issues.
Chicago police are perceived as “second-class citizens” who are on the receiving end of an “anti-police correct- ness program,” Angelo said. An average of 151 police offi- cers die every year in the U.S., he added, citing a nation- al report that stated attacks on police officers are on the rise, but noted the focus of attention remains on a grow- ing “anti-police movement that has taken hold.”
“For more than a year now, Chicago police officers have been facing another level of disrespect, the likes of which I have not seen in my 36 years,” Angelo told the large crowd in attendance. “In some areas of our city, nearly every contact with the public is met with a level of con- frontation, an array of cell phones videotaping the event, hoping for a payday.
“Officers are regularly baited and literally called every name in the book,” he continued.
Selective editing of videos shot by citizens has played
a large part in the misrepresentation of police incidents in the media, Angelo explained. He hoped that unedit-
Angelo cautioned against politicians who “legislate from on high” instead of talking to police officers about best practices. Several current and former Chicago alder- men attended the speech, as well as U.S. Representative Robin Kelly (D-2nd district). He also blamed burdensome paperwork as the reason street stops are down this year.
“Sometimes, it appears that the FOP is the only one speaking out for the policemen, and that’s got to change,” Angelo declared. “But the curative for crime and its un- derlying causes won’t solely come from the city’s police department.”
“We cannot get people jobs,” he elaborated. “We can- not fix marriages. We cannot raise children. We cannot cure your psychoses, your drug addiction. And we cer- tainly can’t arrest our way out of this.”
Chicago police officers continue to take more guns off the streets annually than Los Angeles and New York com- bined. Meanwhile, the number of homicides in the city has climbed and already exceeded 320 for the year. Ange- lo claimed further breakdown in the communities could see a return to the era of 900 murders annually.
“We have an Orlando every month in Chicago and no one seems to raise an eyebrow,” Angelo quipped. “But catch a policemen hitting someone on a video – oh, my God!” d
ed footage from police cameras, which he has testified about in Springfield, will be regularly released once the devices are in widespread use by the department.
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30 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2016