Whether you liked him or not, former Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was a very visible person. The current police commander is an absolute joke. I swear the man cannot say his own name without reading it from a piece of paper. And I will never forgive or forget David Brown for referring to deceased officer Ella French as Ella Fitzgerald. If it had been part of a movie script, it might have been funny. But in real life, it is a sad reflection on who we have leading our police department. It also says a lot about why the criminals feel free to do what they do. If the superintendent is a joke, why should the thugs take him seriously?
A lot of horrific crimes have been caught on camera. Especially the one where the little girl was shot in the car on her birthday. How did three young people get such sophisticated automatic weapons? I don’t want to hear anything about the criminals breaking into train cars. One hundred train cars in the railyard, and they always seem to find the one with the guns? Not buying that scenario for a second!
What about the CTA employee who was arguing with a man this past week? The man pushed the heavy-set CTA employee down during an argument, and the employee reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and shot down the stairs at the man? It’s hard to solely blame young people for their ignorant behavior when people old as dirt are acting the same way!
My news feed for almost a week has featured the photos of those young people out in Oak Lawn. They were pretending to sell candy. When the old woman opened her door, they forced their way in. I hope someone recognizes them and drops the dime. And I hope they spend a significant portion of their young life in jail.
Sometimes losing a young life can be extremely tragic. I watched the nearly 5-minute-long video of the people on that ride in Florida. The young boy had been turned down several times for other rides because of his size. And yes, the employees are ultimately the ones who should have double-checked his safety harness. He was a kid who just wanted to have fun at the park like anyone else. But we must also teach our kids to be mindful of keeping themselves safe. This is not victim blaming. This is just a cautionary warning that keeping oneself safe supersedes everything else.
