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Hate crimes bill
Good news from Washington: Chuck Can- terberry, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, welcomed news that Kenneth Buck, who is the representative for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, introduced legis- lation that would expand the existing feder- al hate crimes law to include protections for law enforcement officers. The bill, dubbed the Blue Lives Matter Act of 2016, would ex-
our local and state officials to ensure the safety of our of- ficers. A big thanks goes out to Tim Richardson and Jim Pasco of the Steve Young Law Enforcement Legislative Advocacy Center, whose tireless lobbying of this issue has made this a reality.
That is not “FAIR”
As good news always seems to accompany bad, there has been an extremely ignorant movement afoot to get a Chicago Alderman to sponsor an ordinance by the Community Renewal Society called Free- dom through Accountability, Investigation and Reform (FAIR) for Community Oversight of Polic- ing Services Ordinance. This was the ordinance be- ing pushed by the misfits who you probably stepped over on your way to work on Palm Sunday during their ill-conceived protest along with the usual police-hating reverends. This ordinance provides for the establishment of a police auditor office. Among the roles of this new- ly-created entity are: the reviewing of data on contact cards collected after stops; searches and detentions to verify that all required data is reported; review of tactical response reports, arrest reports, and any other police re- ports deemed necessary for review; and auditing of video footage from body-worn cameras and dashboard cam- eras to ensure that all city ordinances and state laws are followed and all violations evidenced in video footage are
properly investigated.
This is just a sample of the drivel this group has come up with in this six-page document. Besides this ordi- nance being out of touch with reality, the group that is championing this, the Community Renewal Society, is a bunch of zealots who have compared the Chicago Police Department to the Romans and themselves to Jesus. I am hopeful our elected officials will see through this ordi- nance as nothing more than the work of religious fanatics without any grounding of reality and whose demise will not be as a result of police brutality but by the contents of a glass of Kool-Aid. d
no longer walk among us. Romans 13:4 “For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”d
FOP is here to serve and protect you, so that you can better serve and protect the citizens of Chicago.
God Bless!
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pand the federal hate crime statute to include law enforcement officers who are targeted for acts of violence because of their jobs. Many recent inci- dents have demonstrated a need for this type of legislation. Among those are:
FINANCIAL
Secretary
• A gunman opened fire near the Dallas Police Department headquarters with an intent to kill law enforcement officers.
• Officer Thomas W. Cottrell of the Danville Police Department in Ohio was killed in an ambush at- tack by a man who stated he intended to kill a law enforcement officer.
• Officer Jason Moszer of the Fargo, North Dakota Police Department responded to a domestic vio- lence disturbance call. A man shot and killed Of- ficer Moszer after barricading himself inside of his home and said he was going to shoot at officers.
The last two-and-a-half months of 2015 saw 46 officers shot in the line of duty, and 16 of those lost their lives. This year, 61 law enforcement officers have been shot, 13 of which were killed. Four Chicago police officers were shot during the third week of March alone.
The passage of this legislation is imperative to protect our officers during one of the most dangerous times to wear the badge. As many of our local politicians have decided to ignore the plea of law enforcement and some have even used their hatred for law enforcement to fur- ther their political agenda or ensure election to office, this federal legislation would bypass the shenanigans of
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narcotic activity in the 11th District, officers encountered an armed offender that was not going down without a bang. Although these officers received a blast of lead in their direction, and three of the four officers were shot, none of them wavered in the face of danger. Instead they returned fire resulting in the death of the offender. Due to the heroic actions of these officers, the citizens of Chicago can rest peacefully knowing that a very bad criminal will