J-Fed Warms Up the Bus

Allegations are starting to fly around that there was a squad car at or around the corner from the recent Fenger beating and officers took no action. Here's the relevant portion of the Sun Times article:

• Weis said that his department also plans to investigate a complaint that the first police officers arriving at the scene of the beating didn't intervene in the brawl.

  "But keep in mind, you had large-scale civil unrest," Weis said. "You had many fights breaking out in many locations."

  Weis said those first arriving officers called for back-up within "seconds" of arriving.

Maybe those first two paragraphs should be reversed? It was for all intents and purposes a riot. And a single 10-99 unit isn't going to stop a riot, or many "mini-melees" which is what we see on the tape. All you can do is call for back up and wait for the cavalry to fly in. And therein lies J-Fed's problem.

He's never had to deal with what is all too commonplace on that video - a highly volatile situation involving dozens of combatants in different states of armed and unarmed conflict. Officers have one single obligation and that is to go home safe at the end of their shift with the same number of limbs and unbroken bones that they started the shift with. It's unfortunate that it doesn't happen all the time, but the law doesn't say we have to needlessly disregard our own safety and throw away our well being to no purpose.

Do we on occasion do just that? Yes. Most of us came on this job with a sense of a higher purpose and in being of that caliber, we do sometimes disregard our own personal safety for the well being of others, even for an ungrateful public. That's who we are. The State even gives us the awesome responsibility to occasionally take a life within certain narrow parameters. But we aren't obligated to exercise any of those powers.

An officer arriving on the scene of that video, and we highly doubt that there was since this all took place a few blocks from Fenger, but if there was an officer on that block, he or she did exactly the correct thing in staying out of it until such time as the number of officers arriving made it appropriate and safe to take police action.

These kids were ready and able to kill, and did in fact kill a fellow combatant. With a board. Now what if a 10-99 unit arrived and got jumped from behind or blindsided by this mob? We saw what happened to Officer Cole following a traffic accident. We'd be looking at an officer losing their wallet, star and gun at the minimum, their health or life at the worst. And to what end?

Now imagine if that same 10-99 unit came upon that scene and lawfully and justifiably shot and killed one or more of the board wielding assailants? The news reports tell us a board is a deadly weapon. The evidence of such is lying on a slab at the morgue. And Illinois State Law and General Order says we can kill in defense of life. So the arriving officer shoots from the vantage point of the camera into the backs of people chasing and beating other people with boards. The backs of juvenile offenders who just killed one person. Would you want to be Monday morning quarterbacked by the community, the reverends, our own J-Fed who has shown no compunction when it comes to throwing officers under the bus.

Sorry. Ain't going to happen. Not in these times. Maybe years ago, but not now. Maybe never again either. Wait for backup. Observe and report. Welcome to the new age of policing. Hope you enjoy your stay.