Never Satisfied

People think cops bitch and moan a lot. We might, but no more than average and we usually have good reasons. Guess who complains more? People (and folks) judging cops:

• Chicago police were given a lot of credit for how they handled the protests during the Democratic National Convention and kept the city safe. But a police watchdog group is saying the real test for police is still ahead.

Imagine that.

• During the DNC protests, Chicago police said, officers made 74 arrests and noted there were only eight or nine complaints about police conduct.

  On Friday, CPD Supt. Larry Snelling praised his officers for their restraint. "So as a result of it, you didn't see the activity that people expected to see," Snelling said.

Under one hundred arrests and under ten complaints. That is a victory right there....unless you're a professional complainer:

• One of the leaders of the March on the DNC on Tuesday said that police should not be taking a victory lap.

  "A lot of people from the from the different organizations, different contingents, the protesters themselves said they felt extremely intimidated by those cops being right on top of the protesters the way they were," said Coalition to March on the DNC Spokesperson Hatem Abudayyeh.

  Abudayyeh pointed to the police bicycle lines and the riot gear in particular.

If you and your group had proven yourselves trustworthy over the past few protests, perhaps the show of force wouldn't have been necessary. But given what we all know, better to be prepared than not.

These assholes in the "All Criminals Love Us" group:

• The American Civil Liberties Union noted that police should be credited for showing a lot of de-escalation and restraint when all the supervisors and cameras were around.

  "How does that work the next time there's a traffic stop? How does that work the next time there's a foot pursuit or a stop and frisk, or there's an interaction in the community?" said ACLU of Illinois Communications Director Ed Yohnka.

We don't know under what table Ed's been hiding, but pretty much 99%-plus of recorded incidents since cameras were introduced doesn't show the police acting like assholes - it shows exactly the opposite. 

• Demonstrators were also frustrated by how police and the city sought for months to restrict where and how they could march and rally. The ACLU, which is part of the consent decree coalition, would like to see Chicago police act every day as they did during the DNC.

  "There shouldn't be a difference because the whole world's watching. It ought to look the same on the South, or the West, or the North Side, or downtown, simply because that's the way policing should work," Yohnka said.

Too bad Ed can't say that South, West and North side behaviors should look the same, because that's how a civil society should operate....but then he'd be labeled as a racist instead of just an ignorant communist. It's just easier to blame the police for human failings in stressful situations.

Finally Channel 7's progressive staff had to get their last dig in:

• While the police response during the convention may have helped erase the ghosts of 1968, the department's long-term reputation in the neighborhoods may depend on how well the DNC lessons become part of CPD's DNA.

Why don't you go into the neighborhoods (instead of "reporting" from behind a computer desk) and ask around about "ghosts of 1968." Few remember, fewer care, and those that do tend to agree with old Mayor Daley - the hippies had it coming. Read "Boss" by Royko. He went out into the neighborhoods, usually drunk, and the people there backed Daley and the cops. If we remember correctly, Illinois pols won by their biggest margins in history with city voters. Daley certainly did. 

The only ones hung up on 1968 are the ones who supported the losing side. And they lost their shot at "revenge" in 1996 when that one went off relatively smoothly.

But this all proves that trying to win the approval of leftist, progressive, communist, democrat assholes is always a sucker's bet.