Page 9 - January 2020 FOP Magazine

SecondVice President’s Report
Chicago’s looming crime epidemic
A crime wave worse than the one that swept through American urban centers in the 1960s is taking shape throughout the country, none more so than Chicago.
Consider the sobering statistics of violent crime of that era:
After a three-decade free fall that spanned the Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War, Americans multiplied their homicide rate by more than two and a half, from a low of 4.0 in 1957 to a
high of 10.2 in 1980. The upsurge comprised every other category of major crime as well, including rape, assault, robbery and theft. Cities grew particularly dangerous, especially New York, which became a symbol of the new criminality.
Now, the dark days of rampant crime are in danger of returning to American cities, while the ability to confront it is diminishing. Why? The political systems of cities like Chicago and states like Illinois have been taken over by anti-police crusaders whose phi- losophy and policies stonewall the necessary remedies.
The war on the police in urban areas began under the Obama administration. His attorney generals, Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder, handcuffed police departments throughout the country with the imposition of consent decrees based upon laughable investigations by Obama’s weaponized Department of Justice (DOJ).
These ginned-up DOJ investigations claimed that police de- partments in major urban centers, including Chicago, were engaged in racist policing. Devoid of any real methodology or meaningful statistics, the consent decrees that emerged from these investigations mired cities and police departments in a slew of silly, unnecessary policies that only put the handcuffs on cops and drove morale downward, while the special monitors and their law firms imposed by the decrees raked in millions from taxpayers on bogus claims of police reform.
The urgency to wage war on the police in American cities was intensified by the unforeseen election of President Trump. Losing its progressive grip on federal institutions like the DOJ that began under President Obama, the radical left retreated to large cities as staging areas for its war on Trump and the police. The intent and method become clearer every day: Create chaos in the streets, and then use the imagery of this chaos to attack police on the trumped-up rant of racism and corruption.
Consider how investigation after investigation concluded that in the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, shooting of Michael Brown, Offi- cer Darren Wilson was completely justified. This central fact did little to alleviate the mobilization of the radicals and the destruc- tion and violence that ensued in Ferguson and elsewhere. De- spite the justified shooting, Obama’s attorney general still placed the Ferguson Police Department in a consent decree, claiming — one guess — racial inequities.
A police officer’s takedown in Chicago of a man who spit in his mouth and eyes after licking the officer twice was caught on several recordings last week. The left mobilized. The Rev. Jesse Jackson went before the media with his entourage, one of whom alleged that the police were engaged in “racial cleansing” and an- other who said that the police were “blue-eyed” devils, despite the fact that the police department is one of the most diverse in-
stitutions in the city.
But these are not the only ominous developments.
The threat to the well-being of American cities like Chicago is
the coordinated imposition of prosecutors who are declaring war on the police and adopting policies to keep criminals out of jail. Chicago’s top prosecutor, Kimberly Foxx, is a prime example. She is letting hardcore criminals out on lowered bonds and waging a steady attack on police officers and detectives, who experience firsthand her administration’s unwillingness to pursue even the most airtight cases against an offender.
Foxx has signaled to the radical left that she will even open up the prison gates for convicted killers and rapists on behalf of at- torneys who support her radical agenda, approving the release of criminals who say they were falsely convicted of their crimes on the most ridiculous claims of police coercion.
Foxx, who held a press conference at Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition where the police were also called the “Blue Klux Klan” and “enemy of black people,” has even released offenders represented by attorneys who supported her election campaign. Never before has a criminal justice system been so transformed into the instrument of a political agenda.
Another sign of Chicago’s approaching crime catastrophe is the City’s affinity for kangaroo courts. By creating agencies, com- missions and boards that claim to investigate police misconduct, the City has institutionalized the anti-police movement by mov- ing cases out of the courts, where the rules of evidence and fair play still somewhat exist. These various agencies — the Chicago Police Board, Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), Illi- noisTortureInquiryandReliefCommission(TIRC)—comprised of unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats, are filled with anti-po- lice crusaders and ideologues. They hold the power to transform honest, hardworking cops into criminals by generating cases against the officers and have done so time and time again.
Now, rather than hold these agencies accountable for the large body of evidence of their own corruption, the City is considering the greatest kangaroo court of them all: the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), an institutionalized mob ac- tion of police-hating activists with almost unfettered authority to wage war on the cops. If passed, it will be difficult for the city to survive.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the fact that this an- ti-police movement, largely taking shape within city institutions, is bolstered by the radical transformation of the media since the 1960s.
Trump’s railing against the corruption of the media is, in fact, an understatement in Chicago. Here, reporters, particularly in print media, have proven themselves willing to cover up any scandal against their anti-police allies and generate false stories against cops. Despite their chronic echoing of the radical mantra about police accountability and reform, it is perhaps the breakdown of the free press in Chicago that portends the greatest threat to the city’s safety and well-being.
Fighting the approaching crime catastrophe headed to Amer- ican cities may very well be one of Trump’s greatest challenges. That reform should focus on the anti-police movement in cities like Chicago — before it’s too late.
MARTIN PREIB
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2020 9