Ron Magers Denies

We are so insignificant that we received the following e-mail Monday from Ron Magers of ABC News:

• The Second City Cop web site ran a recent item about the allegedly insensitive behavior of Supt. Weis at the Gold Star Park event on September 18th.
  
  I was the emcee for the inside portion of the event which was done in Soldier Field's Cadillac Room. The room is in the shape of a concourse, long and narrow. I have emceed other events there and it is always difficult because many people are placed quite far from where the emcee stands at the microphone and it is difficult to gain and keep their attention.
  
  The program began with Emerald Society pipes and drums which we hoped would get everyone's attention. Right after they concluded playing I introduced a video about officers who have lost their lives or suffered catastrophic injuries. As the video started it was clear that some people at one end of the room were still talking amongst themselves. I walked to that end of the room. Along the way I passed Superintendent Weis but he was watching the video. Beyond him were some folks who had not heard the introduction of the video and were still engaged in cocktail hour chatter. I walked into the group, raised my hands, and loudy voiced a "Shhh" sound. They responded with immediate quiet and afterward one of them came up to me to say he was sorry but that he didn't know the video was playing.
  
  The people I quieted were beyond where Mr. Weis was standing and he had his back to them. I did not observe him being in any way inattentive and I did not ask him to be quiet.
  
  Your blog indicated that some of his fed friends were with him. I wouldn't know who that might be and I wouldn't recognize them. I did recognize some civilians in the noisy group and they are civilians I know have long supported Chicago Police. I do believe they did not hear the introduction and did not know the video was playing.
  
  I don't know Mr. Weis and we've never formally met. I do know that during his first year as Superintendent Carol Marin and I were not invited to emcee the police memorial luncheon which we have emceed for many years. It has long been one of the things I look forward to every year and I believe I've emceed the event for five superintendents. I don't know whether Weis had anything to do with that decision but I bring it up to point out that I have no reason to be personally supportive of him.
  
  However, as a matter of fairness, I would appreciate your posting my response to your item.
  
  Thanks very much,
  Ron Magers

Our friend Shaved also covers the incident. Ron Magers and Roe Conn spoke of the matter on Conn's radio show also. From the comments:

• At least Ron Magers and Roe Conn addressed it today, however, if they had just listened to their audience last Friday, they could have cut this crap off at the pass.
  
  They did not cut it off at the pass because they did not know what to say until getting their thoughts together. Today, four days later, Ron Magers said that the group he cautioned DID NOT include J-FED. He says that the rumor is FALSE.
  
  Magers did admit to nodding at Weis while walking past Weis, as Weis was watching the video presentation, on his way to shushing a group of people further away from the podium that were making noise and were apparently unaware of the ongoing video presentation.

We still think it's sad that Ron Magers had to shush people instead of the Superintendent who was closer and who is supposed to be the public face of the Department, but that's our personal opinion and as Ron Magers says, the venue isn't the most perfect place for events. And we'll save commentators the howls of outrage for posting what we posted with the following:

• How dare SCC question Ron Magers, friend of the police and trusted media voice. SCC should be ashamed, shut down the blog, and perform assorted acts upon various farm animals, even though we never questioned Ron Magers.
• How dare SCC refuse to apologize for the comments made about J-Fed, the attractiveness of his chosen life partner, the blinding intellect that led him to select the brilliant members of the current command staff, etc, even though it wasn't SCC making them.
• Everyone knows that every single problem on this Department is solely the fault of SCC and the blog and began on 31 May 2005 despite the years and years of underground publications, bathroom walls, rigged promotional exams, political shenanigans and bedroom exploits.

We will be deleting those without fail.