Moderator's Note: This is a LONG post. It was submitted to us and we thought it should be posted. There are a few revisions. . .done to conserve space, not to alter content.
From "A Concerned P.O.":
No one signed up for this job thinking they would go their whole career without getting hurt. It is as much a part of the job as anything we do. There will always be the offender who refuses to go to jail and is willing to fight to avoid it.
There are countless ways we get can get hurt, and every day we hit the streets we have that in the back of our minds. We don’t and can’t obsess about it, because that is just our nature. We do what we do because it is who we are and most of the time we don’t think of the possible outcomes until the event is over.
How many times have you chased down a man with a gun and caught him without anyone getting shot? How many times have you fought with a domestic battery offender and got him into cuffs without injury yourself or your partner? Probably too many to count and it seems normal because your training sets in and you do what you have to do, it is part of the job.
But when it is over, after the adrenaline finally leaves the system, we re-live the experience while writing our paper, or telling the stories to friends or loved ones and sometimes we realize “wow that could have gone really bad.” Often times we won’t admit this to anyone, sometimes we won’t even admit it to ourselves, because the possible outcomes are too scary -- and thinking that way can get you hurt the next time.
However, when one of us is victimized, we can’t help but think of the “what ifs”, because at that point the realities of this job are staring us in the face.
There have been three officers attacked in the last month. Now that number does not seem like a lot considering the number of encounters officers have with violent offenders on a daily basis. However, this number IS a lot because in all three incidents the officers were off-duty.
A good cop is a cop ALL the time. Whether we like it or not and as much as we try to live “normally” our nature and training forbids us from normalcy. We see things most civilians don’t. We recognize danger and harm long before most regular people. And because it is in our nature we react and try to help.
On March 11, an officer was returning to his South Side home at about 12 a.m. when he noticed a group of males drinking alcohol near their cars in front of his home. He told them he was the police and asked them to move along. Even after knowing he was an officer, one of the men approached the 10-year-veteran and punched him! The officer, obviously, attempted to defend himself and this guy’s two buddies decided to join in the attack on the officer.
Luckily the officer only suffered abrasions and swelling to his head. He was treated and released from the hospital. We are not identifying him or the location for obvious safety reasons, but this officer was quick-thinking and tactically sound and therefore avoided serious injury, as he was being attacked by three men between the ages of 18 and 23.
Officers in the district where this occurred need to be commended as well, their quick response lead to the arrest and charging of these three thugs, who are affiliated with the Gangster Disciples, with aggravated battery to a police officer.
However, on March 4, another off-duty officer was not so lucky. While leaving a club in Lincoln Park he was confronted by several members of the Insane Deuce street gang.
Again after identifying himself as an officer and telling the group to back off, they jumped him, stabbed him and beat him while he was down. Thankfully, these five offenders were also found and charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery to a police officer. Great job to all those who worked on that case!! The officer is recovering from his injuries but we still should keep him in our thoughts.
What has been in our thoughts recently was the senseless murder of Police Officer Jose Vazquez. He was gunned down in the rear of his West Side condo building as he returned home from a side job.
PO Vazquez was a hardworking police officer who, as one could tell by the turn out at his services, was well liked and respected by all who knew and worked with him. I met him several times a few years ago when he worked in 025 and he always had a smile on his face.
The slaying of PO Vazquez attracted a lot of media attention, as it should. However, it’s been a month, the attention has died down and the murderer is still on the loose. A $26,000 reward, from a combination of people and organizations, has been offered in connection with this case and still no offender has been captured.
Has our city and it’s residents become immune to violence against those who are here to protect them??
The citizens rally and march when a child is killed, or when an innocent by-stander is shot in gang crossfire, or when smoke detectors don’t work properly and an entire family dies in a fire.
Where were the marchers speaking out against what happened to Jose??
Where were the outraged community leaders denouncing violence against police??
Where were the rallies calling for our citizens to put their guns DOWN when told to do so by police officers??
Maybe I missed them. If you know of any let me know, I will apologize for the above rant.
The fact that three different officers in three different areas of the city were all attacked so violently got me thinking: "Are the consequences for fighting with the police severe and certain enough to deter these criminals?"
My answer: No.
I don’t have a ton of time on this job. But I have been around cops my whole life. In my years on the job I have seen my share of agg batt to PO cases tossed, or taken down to misdemeanor levels and I have also seen the officers’ disappointment when that happens.
In some districts, if you are not hospitalized, don’t even bother trying to charge the felony, it won’t fly. That doesn’t make sense to me. What kind of message does that send to the bad guys when they get just a slap on the wrist for fighting with the police?
Even the small physical transgression, like spitting and pushing that are not often pursued properly need to be taken seriously by charging the offenders with FELONY Aggravated Battery to a Police Officer. It is as simple as the “broken windows theory” of crime in association with neighborhoods. The theory, which most of us are familiar with, states on a very basic level, if you "nip the small issues in the bud" then they are less likely to become bigger problems in the future. Fix the broken window in the car parked on the street and criminals are less apt to strip it, kids are less apt to vandalize it and so on. Therefore, if we go after the people when they start refusing to cooperate with police from the get go, maybe we would have less injured and killed officers.
It seems to me the message the bad guy is getting from the current state of affairs is, that it is ok to fight the police and in fact they seem to be getting more and more aggressive (hence three brutal attacks on three officers in less than two months).
As I said, I know violence is part of this job, however, curbing violence is also part of our job and if we can’t deter them from targeting us, that leaves the whole city in harm's way.
If these types of people aren’t afraid of taking on the police, who will they move on to next?
I shudder to think.
