They still haven’t identified themselves and like to play coy with the press, but I’ve almost stopped reading every other political blog/column in favor of this. For anyone looking for a crash course in Chicago politics, this is probably your best bet.
And if you ever wondered why the crime rate is going up in Chicago, one major reason could be that the police are afraid to do their jobs when their own superintendent might just throw a case to the federales and get you a 40-month sentence even after it has run its course on the local level:
He did wrong. He got whacked administratively. He took a two year suspension and was reinstated by the Police Board. A board appointed by the mayor. There was no cover up. There was no “blue wall of silence.” A court upheld the Police Board decision to reinstate.
Cozzi also faced a judge for his conduct. He pleaded guilty. He got probation just like hundreds and thousands of other people with clean criminal records get every single year in Cook County. He attended anger management classes, did community service and fulfilled all the conditions of his probation (which is more than you can say for the killer of Officer Valadez who violated his probation at least three times and never spent a day behind bars for it.) He apologized in open court to the drunk he struck and the city settled the civil suit. In other words, he was already punished.
And then he got fucked. Truly screwed by a fed looking to make a name for himself. And in Cozzi getting the shortest end of the shittiest stick around, an entire Department was lost. Instead of worrying about the problems in front of us (crime), everyone started worrying about what was behind us (J-Fed). And not just the street coppers. The brass started looking over their shoulders, too. And with everyone looking behind for the knife, leadership became nonexistent and now what have we got?
De-policing. Ticket slowdowns. Arrests down tremendously. Useless videos where the brass claims “we’ve got your back” but no one believes it. The attitude of “no public contact = no problems.” Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Meaningless number shuffling. Bullshit missions and bullshit “strike forces” that do nothing to address crime but merely push it from one corner to another. Or from one neighborhood to another quieter neighborhood that used to be quiet and crime free, but now is police-free and open to pillaging.
A million questions and no answers. We are at a loss.
