Page 12 - August 2016 Newsletter

Blended accounts
I regrettably had some time on my hands and decided to peruse the Chicago Tribune on July 25. In the Commentary section there was an article entitled, “White privilege exists: The time a cop let me go because I was white.” It was written by a freelance writer named Judy Marcus, whose previous journalistic master- pieces include, “7 tips for using an immersion blender fearlessly“ and the even more rivet-
ing “Seven ways an immersion blender can help you
eat healthier and lose weight.” I decided to read
her article to find out what great injustice motivat-
ing so brazen as to think he could speak publicly in this manner?”
Did she file a complaint? Did she tell her alderman? No. She decided to wait 20 years, conveniently during a time when it’s en vogue to blame the police for all of so- ciety’s ills, and write a letter to the editor. Since the Tri- bune agreed in the relevance of this not-so-timely event, I am also motivated to write, and hopefully get published,
KEVIN
KEVIN
KILMER
KILMER
ed her to cross over from her familiar journalistic R
background in unnecessary kitchen appliances to social justice and governmental reform.
Her story talked about her encounter with a police officer on Howard Street in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. The main point of her story was that while she was parked illegally in a high crime area, a white police of- ficer let her go because she was white and allegedly used a racial slur to describe the criminals in the area whom he thought she should be aware of. After rereading her dia- tribe, I realized this event occurred in the late 1990s. So this “author” felt she was treated in an unfair manner 20 years ago and waited until now to declare, “My personal experience leads me to suspect there were probably more ‘bad apples’ back then. What else could explain a cop be-
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one alderman advocates for changing the investigators or the way they conduct investigations. The solution is just to put in a new department head and change the agen- cy name. Alderman Austin chastised Dean for suggesting that they hire new investigators. She said, “What, should we just throw these educated investigators out?” Call it what you will but the same investigators who brought down OPS and IPRA will bring down the new agency that is created. It is sad that the public and the officers cannot expect anything to change when this new agency is cre- ated. Not one alderman called for the FOP to sit down at the table to help find a solution to this problem and that is a shame because we have a vested interest in a solution.
The bottom line is that criminals are not accountable for their actions. The protestors are not accountable for their actions. The elected officials are not account- able for the crime in their wards. The aldermen are not accountable for allowing the delayed investigations at IPRA to drag on. IPRA is not accountable for creat- ing this mistrust with the public because of its incom- petence. After all of this, just who is accountable? We are the cops who the public relies on for protection.
12 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2016
a similar experience I had with a Rogers Park police of- ficer when I was 16 years old. He too let me go, but since he caught my four friends and me drinking at the park underage for the umpteenth time, he made us do wind sprints to the point of nausea. I’m not sure if it was because I was white but I am quite sure we didn’t drink at that park any more. On a side note, one of those officers was still assigned to District 24 when I worked there, and I thanked him for the
lesson I learned due to the lunch I lost.
Since I don’t see Ms. Marcus having the same type of
humility, I would ask her to head over to 6464 North Clark St. and have the District 24 desk officer issue her a park- ing ticket for the day in question on Howard Street. The downfall of that will be when she pays her fine, she will write another blog entry about Chicago police officers being overzealous to bloggers, and we will never find out what new and amazing things an immersion blender can do.d
Underwood case
Judge Neil Cohen issued his ruling in the Underwood case. He rejected all but one of our motions. Clint Krislov stated, “We are pleased the Judge recognizes their right to constitutional protection and it begs the question of what the terms that are being protected are but we are certainly concerned for those people hired after Aug. 23, 1989.”
We have to go back to court on Aug. 11 and hopefully we can get clarification from Cohen’s ruling. Krislov will take the case up to the Appellate Court and hopefully to the Supreme Court. He will request a preliminary injunction to roll back the rates to 2013 and enjoin the city and the pension funds from terminating coverage until the case is decided.
The city had no comment on the Judge’s decision.
In the meantime, the Lodge has been working with Jack Byrnes, Aetna and Amwins to get a health insurance plan in place for our affected retirees in case we lose the in- junction. We will be sending out a mailing in August with information concerning the insurance plan to all affected retirees. This case does not affect anyone who has retired with the 55 to Medicare benefit. As always there is a lot of work that has to be done and to contribute by credit card go to www.secure.lawpay.com/pages/krislov-and-associ- ates-ltd/operating. d
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