7/24/11
Today’s (i.e., Sunday, 7/24, page 4A) Chicago Sun-Times reports that shootings by police in Chicago are on the rise this year. Forty suspects have been shot by the Chicago police so far in 2011 and 16 of those were killed, compared with 13 fatalities in cop shootings in all 2010.
Especially interesting, and curious, in this article is the statement
Even though such shootings are on the rise, overall violent crime in Chicago is falling this year, police say.
Why the “even though”? Could it be that Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden, quoted in the article, is wrong when he says “There’s no fear of the police”? Perhaps there is indeed fear of the police and that overall violent crime is down in Chicago precisely because the police are shooting and that, as the article reports
…the Independent Police Review Authority rarely deems a police involved shooting to be “out of policy,” and no Chicago police officers have been charged with criminal wrongdoing involving shootings in recent memory.
the department is backing them up. It stands to reason that a potential criminal might think twice if he knows his chances of being fatally shot by law enforcement officers are increasing.
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