Life imitates art
I was talking with a civilian friend the other day and I was telling a war story about finding $10k hidden in a shoebox at a house we were raiding. I was the only person in the room when I found it and the other guys in my unit were cracking jokes about how I needed to be searched before I left the premises.
Let me tell you, it's quite the integrity check to be alone in a room with $10k in drug money and no one else knows about it just yet.
My friend asked me if I was really tempted to take any of it. I just laughed and said that $10k isn't worth losing my job or going to prison over. You start doing things like that and there is no going back. The friend then asked me if I thought there were really dirty cops out there like on The Shield. I replied that while it may make good TV, I've never known any cops remotely like that. We ended the discussion with me assuring him that American police are professional and that kind of corruption is a thing of the past.
Then I read this story and this story. Looks like old Johnny Law is a bit naive.
Are you freaking kidding me? 17 arrests from this thing? Are we in Mexico?
That's not a few bad apples. That is a force in bad need of a consent decree from the federal government. For the record, I have never ever seen anything like this in my department and am deeply ashamed of it. All I can say is that while those offenders may have wore uniforms, I don't consider them to be police officers. To even call them cops would be an insult to all the folks out there that do the job honestly.
12 bits of radio chatter:
Ouch.
Cook County, Illinois, is very different from other places. They've got crooked cops going to prison from Harvey, Cicero, and of course Chicago. They've got Governor Blagojevich and Mayor Daley. They've got an FBI Field Office with *three* public corruption squads, all of them presumably busier than so many one-legged men at an ass-kicking contest.
One of the best parts of moving out of there is that I was able to retain my respect for law enforcement as a profession.
I know a bunch of Chicago cops, and without exception the ones that I know are credits to their uniforms. They work in a department that's badly broken, with inconceivably awful leadership, massive manpower shortages, and equipment that would make you weep. But they do it anyway. I'm frankly in awe of the Chicago police officers that I know for being able to get up in the morning and go to work.
On the other hand, anybody who works for the Harvey PD and isn't actively looking for a new job somewhere else is out of his mind.
JLC:"The friend then asked me if I thought there were really dirty cops out there like on The Shield. I replied that while it may make good TV, I've never known any cops remotely like that"
Come to Chicago,yes you are very naive.
CPD,CCSD/CCSPD,Harvey,Ford heights,Robbins,Blue island,melrose park,Stone park,Cicero,Rosemont,Hoffman Estates,North Chicago.............................................................................................................................etc.
Unfortunately, you only need to spend a couple days or a week of reading Second City Cop's blog to know that Illinois is corrupt all the way from the top to, unfortunately, the bottom, without too terribly many exceptions.
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com
Reminds me of the bad old days of the Knapp Commission investigations in NYC.
Wasn't just a few bad apples there, either.
B.G.
Hey johnny dont feel to bad, thats just the way we do bizness here in Crook County. The late great Mike Rokyo once stated that the County moto should be Wheres Mine?
JLC,come to Crook County and see the canarge for yourself.We have folks that weigh 400lbs+ on the job.We have folks that are so dumb they shouldnt even be able to work at McDonalds.
Its not what you know but who you know here.LEO jobs are pure patronage out here.The whole system is a joke and FEDS do nothing.
Cook County is probably the most thoroughly corrupt County in the United States, however, Cook County is not representative of the whole of the State of Illinois. In fact, the rest of the State of Illinois in large measure wishes Cook County could be removed from the state, either by falling off into Lake Michigan or by becoming an independent entity like Washington DC. Due to the large population of Chicago they consistently hog resources from the rest of the state and consistently elect democratic slimeballs like Blagojevic, Obama, Jesse Jackson Jr. and the Daleys. The only reason Illinois has no concealed carry for private citizens is because of the level of control the Chicago political machine has on state government.
I work in Illinois but not in Cook County. I know some Chicago Officers that are great guys and the times I have interacted with them in the course of my work they were proffesional and good guys with which to work. It is no secret that the department as a whole has had a lot of corruption issues for a very long time.
I said all that to say this. In my years of law enforcement I have never encoutered one officer who ever exhibited any type of criminal conduct or even would entertain the idea of commiting the offenses listed in the above articles. I'm sure they exist but they are rare. I can also tell you that I believe without a doubt that myself or any officer I work with would place another officer under arrest on the spot ourselves if we found them dealing dope. It is absolutely disgraceful.
It is a disgrace to the good guys when crap like this happens. We arrested one of our own for armed robbery about 8 or 9 years ago. Taints the reputation of all of us everywhere.
I have worked on different departments in Cook County for 21 years and it is amazing that the police officers still get up every day and go serve and protect in spite of the overwhelming corruption they face every day. The police get a bad rap but the majority of the blame needs to be placed on the politicians, lawyers and judges. In 2 recent events an offender had his bond set at $100,000 after shooting a CPD officer but an offender who broke into a judges car and battered the judge after a foot chase had his bond set at $500,000. This is justice? It is in Cook County.
Husband's department is not like several of the ones witnessed personally in the east. I was horrified and finally said something during a ridealong and the officer responded "oh, your husband's department does the same thing. Don't fool yourself". Um, No. I doesn't. I'm glad we didn't move out east.
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