Page 53 - February 2017

A special delivery in the 15th
n BY DAN CAMPANA
The homeless man appeared a bit uncertain as he walked toward Officer Pete White’s car.
Perhaps the man thought he was in some sort of trouble — after all, White and his partner did give him a ticket just a few weeks earlier. But White allayed his fears quickly.
“I brought you that coat I promised you,” White said be- fore reaching into the back seat of his car.
He pulled out a puffer-style coat and held it out for the man to put his arms in.
“Thank you, man. That’s a nice one, too,” the man said as White zipped it up.
And, just like that, this moment of generosity by a Chi- cago police officer was over. But it didn’t go unnoticed, thanks to White’s partner, Bob Osborne, who posted video of the meeting on Facebook. Within two days, it had been viewed nearly 300,000 times and received many compli- mentary comments about White’s good deed.
“It was a nice moment. I think he was surprised we re- membered,” Osborne said at a press conference at the 15th District after the video gained popularity.
Osborne and White described the earlier meeting near Central Avenue and the Eisenhower Expressway when, while issuing a ticket, White noticed the man had a very
thin coat on, one too light for a Chicago winter. The man explained he missed out on a coat giveaway, and White said he had an old coat to give him the next time they crossed paths.
It took three weeks before they spotted the man again, but they had the coat at the ready.
“We showed we kept our word,” White said, adding he was surprised by the attention. “It felt like an everyday thing to us.”
Both men emphasized such acts of kindness happen regularly in their district and throughout the city. Al- though the video was initially just shared between family and friends, they were happy to see it gain traction amid the seemingly steady stream of negative publicity police officers face.
They also want to turn the moment into something of a movement in their district.
“We would like to start a clothing drive, a coat drive, in the 15th,” White said.
He encouraged people to drop off whatever they can to create a small inventory that would be available for offi- cers to give to someone they encounter in need.
“These guys, they did this from the kindness of their hearts,” Commander Dwayne Betts said, adding he sup- ported the clothing drive idea. d
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