Video Review (UPDATE)

We've been seeing a bit of criticism in the comment sections, ripping coppers for "Monday morning quarterbacking" and "you weren't there..." and everything in between. This isn't 1970 any more. This isn't the 80's or the 90's. This isn't even the 00's when personal cell phone cameras were just coming into widespread usage. This is 2016, and in-car cameras along with body-worn cameras are fast becoming the norm along with every single person on the street with a digital photo studio at their fingertips.

Policing is under a harsh spotlight and police work, especial hands-on police work, isn't pretty. But a even-handed, unemotional critique of the actions captured on video can be a benefit. It can educate the public, media and our critics. If the only voice being heard is the voice of the assholes shutting down reasoned discourse, then we are going to be backed into a corner that there is no coming out from. Some here feel we're already at that point. Reasonable men and women can disagree as to how far gone it is. And sometimes that involves taking a look inward.

That being said, we have a series of posts to address the videos over the next few days. And the first one is to rebut some of the more outrageous "sanctification" promulgated by the media and the protestors. We want to take you back in time to 03 August, to the Naperville Sun newspaper:

• Naperville and Bolingbrook police are investigating a possible link between two incidents of multiple vehicle thefts that occurred within two days of one another, and in which one suspect was later shot to death by Chicago police.
  
  Five vehicles were stolen during the early-morning hours of July 26 in Naperville, while four were taken around 3 a.m. July 28 in Bolingbrook, authorities in both communities confirmed. Additionally, more than 30 vehicles were burglarized that same morning in Naperville.
  
  A suspect in the Bolingbrook thefts, 18-year-old Paul O'Neal, of Chicago, was fatally shot by police around 7:30 p.m. July 28 behind a house in the 7300 block of South Merrill Avenue in Chicago.
  
  Bolingbrook police Lt. Carter Larry on Wednesday said O'Neal was "clearly seen on video" at a service station where six suspects regrouped following the thefts in that village.

This is the "hero" of the media and "community" narrative - a car thief and a credit card thief. Does anyone know what his record looks like? And why is it all of these "heroes" seem to have social media pages with them holding guns?

And the early onset arthritis - we forgot about that.

Then there's the family, weeping, saying "He had goals." Um, what goals? Stealing a Bugatti maybe? Ferrari? How about a Lamborghini? Unfortunately, he'll always be remembered as only achieving a Jaguar. How sad.

Here's the thing - all of this, every single bit of it, could have been avoided if he didn't take something that didn't belong to him. Blame is on the parent(s), family, whomever - someone didn't install a moral compass on this thief and in the process, set him on the road to destruction, taking who knows how many others with him.

And there were plenty of opportunities to stop him - his first arrest, his second, the judge(s) who gave him how many additional chances, the parent who didn't better monitor his associations, maybe a clergy person, a social worker, the list is endless. But the cops are going to take the final hit because all of these other misses led to:

• Theft of Auto
• PSMV
• Aggravated Assault (with the auto)
• Aggravated Battery (with the same auto)

If he had survived, how many felonies is that right there? All committed in the span of sixteen hours? Let's not lose sight of that, even though the media and story-tellers already have. He began, continued and ended with bad decisions he made, all on his own.

More tomorrow.

UPDATE: More today actually - we're finally hearing reports that this wasn't the first time 004 saw and called out this vehicle. In fact, 004 had stopped and approached the vehicle on other occasions during the day and the car thief waited, and then accelerated away from them each time. He was playing a stupid ghetto game because (we assume) he knew CPD wouldn't chase for more than a block or two before being called off. And he returned to the general area where he was spotted, knowing that the police were looking for the specific car he was driving to do it again. And again.

Guess what? Every time you do something stupid, the odds shorten. Ask any insurance company. Ask an actuary. Ask any gambler. Eventually, the odds approach 1-to-1....and you are going to hit something, hit someone, get caught.

And this just reinforces everything we posted above - the person initially and solely responsible for everything that followed, is the car thief.