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A Fine Line
Chicago Police Officers have bonded together like never before to endure the toughest times of their lives
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
The blue line running through the Chicago Police Department thickens exponentially on days like Aug. 15 when the central bike unit responded to a planned protest downtown. By 9 a.m., the bikes had rolled to the scene. At 7 p.m., no officer had yet sat down, and, as unit leader Lieutenant Tom Cronin described, “No- body had gone to the bathroom the proper way.” And they were the last ones to leave the site of a BLM rally that began at 3 p.m.
No unit has faced protests as much as central bikes
the past three-plus months and counting. With relent-
less weekend tours like working 11 hours on a Satur-
day only to wake up to an email Sunday morning or-
dering a response to a district targeted with a rally, the
bikes have lived on the front lines since the last week-
end in May. Admiration echoing through the districts
extols central bikes as a fortifying force on the Department’s front lines.
Runs like the one they made working seven consecutive 16-hour days leading into the Fourth of July long weekend of cancelled days off exemplify the unprecedented and unwav- ering density of the thin blue line Chicago Police Officers have formed. The endless 12s and 16s have produced a bonding among officers that makes them realize they might be alone in this endeavor, but that they have become their sisters’ and brothers’ keepers unlike at any other moment.
“We have realized we are all in the same boat together, so ev- erybody might as well pick up an oar and row,” Cronin declares. This is not only the mission from his unit, but the response of every officer on the front lines that is elevating the common de- nominator of perseverance along the line.
“They are going through more adversity than the city has ever seen,” Cronin continues. “But because they are a family, be-
38 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ SEPTEMBER 2020
CPD bike patrol has been on the front lines for all rallies and protests in the city since the end of May.
cause they are sticking together, they are growing together and getting through it.”
Officer Peter Lesny, who has eight years on and works for the Community Safety West Unit, recalls the tipping point for draw- ing the line. He had just worked a 17-hour day on May 31 when the protests following the George Floyd incident began burn- ing hottest in the City. The next day, he was working downtown and felt the sting of the devastation, of the broken windows and of the graffiti protestors left everywhere verbally assaulting the police.
“It brought tears to your eyes,” Lesny reveals. “It still hurts.”
He shared news of a partner who left the City to work for a suburban department in the wake of the protests. Nobody would be surprised by a mass exodus. But there hasn’t been, and it’s because Chicago Police Officers on the streets have fig- ured out how to handle that hard line.
“You’re in Chicago, and it’s the pride of the City,” Lesny em-