It’s just a bill
Tuesday, Aug 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Center Square…
As cities across the state see less revenue in the aftermath of the months-long COVID-19 shutdown orders, some are looking at pushing local pension payments out by a decade to get some “breathing room.”
Illinois Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole said they’ll be opposing any additional unfunded mandates. One mandate he said they want to be changed is moving the pension ramp out 10 years to 2050.
“There’s no way they’re going to be able to make those heightened payments, so we need a little bit of breathing room and we’ve asked the general assembly to provide that through a re-amortization of the public safety pension funds,” Cole said. “We hope that is something they’ll consider during the veto session” […]
“We can either kick the can down the road and make the payments or stop kicking the can, declare bankruptcy and start defaulting on the obligations that are due to the pension recipients,” Cole said. “We’re not kicking the can down the road. We’re refinancing so we can continue to make payments.”
* Chicago Reader…
Republicans in Springfield have introduced two bills that would put members of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police on the commission that reviews torture allegations against former police commander Jon Burge and other cops accused of torture.
The bills have flown under the radar and have struggled to gain momentum since they were introduced earlier this year in the Illinois House and Senate. They are unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled legislature, especially at a time when police are facing so much scrutiny.
But the push to reshape the torture commission, even if it is unsuccessful, is another example of the police union and its political allies fighting efforts to expose police abuse and trying to control the narrative around police violence. […]
The House bill, HB4283, would add two sworn officers from the Fraternal Order of Police to the panel and would require a seven-vote supermajority for the commission to refer a torture claim to the courts. The Senate bill, SB3557, would replace all three of the commission’s public-at-large members with members of the FOP. […]
Already, two of the three commission spots reserved for the public are held by people who used to work for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office: Tim Touhy, a former spokesperson, and Marilyn Baldwin, a former victim-witness advocate.
While House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s bill specifically reserves two seats for Chicago FOP members, the Senate bill would apply to people who are “members of a law enforcement organization representing law enforcement officers in a county of more than 3,000,000 inhabitants.” Neither bill has an advanced even a click.
- revvedup - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 2:46 pm:
The FOP does not “oppose police reform”; they oppose police offficers being falsely accused, judged, sued, and disciplined. This is a major difference. Cities like Chicago have attempted to override legal protections given to officers by allowing unsworn citizen complaints (violated State law), and put officers under review of citizen review agencies like COPA staffed by known police haters, acting outside their legal authority on investigations. There is nothing wrong, and many things right, about police having a seat on any body that reviews their work. Civilians simply lack the knowledge and training of the profession, and often laws or court rulings directly impacting how officers work.
- 1st Ward - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 2:46 pm:
“or stop kicking the can, declare bankruptcy and start defaulting on the obligations that are due to the pension recipients”
The state has plenty of options before “default”. He knows states can’t declare BK and that Rauner is gone and GOP is irrelevant?
Great timing for the GOP to introduce a bill like that. The police policing the police has worked out so great before. Do they not believe in checks and balances?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 2:51 pm:
=== “We can either kick the can down the road and make the payments or stop kicking the can, declare bankruptcy and start defaulting on the obligations that are due to the pension recipients,” Cole said.===
Sounds like Cole’s two brain cells are on the fritz again.
Anyone who is ridiculous enough to use “bankruptcy” as their answer, maybe Cole’s not smart enough about Illinois to head that “league”
Who knows, Cole might think the Illinois Municipal League is a fantasy baseball thingy, and bankruptcy is how you reset your team.
I’m glad Cole reminds me how he thinks.
- dan l - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 2:55 pm:
//The FOP does not “oppose police reform”//
Really? what police reforms have they not fought tooth and nail against?
They can’t even be convinced to agree that shooting some poor dude 17 times for walking away is wrong.
- Powdered Whig - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 3:03 pm:
=== They can’t even be convinced to agree that shooting some poor dude 17 times for walking away is wrong. ===
He was shot 16 times and was not walking away he was walking in the middle of Pulaski Road with a large knife while high on PCP. The cop was convicted of 2nd degree murder.
Let me be clear, I am not making excuses for the cop - but we need to make sure we are speaking accurately. All too often we are seeing misleading statements from those both on the right and the left
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 3:03 pm:
Strange that if FOP doesn’t oppose reform or good policing that they’d help run a harassment campaign against two cops who spoke out against corruption and misconduct
https://theintercept.com/series/code-of-silence/
- Arvid - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 3:03 pm:
“Civilians simply lack the knowledge and training of the profession, and often laws or court rulings directly impacting how officers work.”
To be fair, most police officers also lack the knowledge and training about the laws and court rulings directly impacting how they work. Otherwise, they wouldn’t continually keep doing dumb/illegal things.
- dan l - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 3:10 pm:
//He was shot 16 times and was not walking away he was walking in the middle of Pulaski Road with a large knife while high on PCP. The cop was convicted of 2nd degree murder.
Let me be clear, I am not making excuses for the cop - but we need to make sure we are speaking accurately. All too often we are seeing misleading statements from those both on the right and the left
//
Oh yah you’re right sorry. Only 16 times. Not 17. 17 would be totally excessive. And only 9 of them were in the back, which is super impressive considering his wasn’t at all walking away like we saw in the video. All fake news, back the blue!!!!!
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 3:33 pm:
Having Chicago cops review other Chicago cops for torture is worse than stupid. If they wanted to have professional input, make the head of the State Police Internal Affairs an ex officio member for cases not involving the State Police.
- Help - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:04 pm:
It’s good to see the GOP and brave Dems standing up for the police.
- Fiduciiary - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:07 pm:
Cole is a trustee of both the newly combined fire and police Pension boards….that he and the IML pushed through last session. Based on this advocacy which is detrimental to both funds he should be booted from both.
- Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:15 pm:
I don’t think this is a very effective strategy in the long run for the Chicago FOP. Pushing for bi-partisan legislation, sure — but after electing a full on Trump nutter to be their leader they go and have the GOP super minority caucuses push their legislation which lacks any subtly or nuance in exactly what they’re trying to do.
=== they oppose police offficers being falsely accused, judged, sued, and disciplined.===
We don’t put the defendant’s attorney on the Grand Jury. We don’t put the defendant’s attorney on the jury at the trial.
Due process is a different from obstructing due process. These officers have committed literal crimes against humanity. When examining those crimes it is very important to create the utmost appearance of a fair and judicious process.
Throwing a couple of representatives of the union that has done everything in their power to prevent the punishment and prosecution of it’s members for crimes against humanity is not in the best interest of the public, and it’s not even in the best interest of the FOP who frankly could use a example here or there of “[Expletive] those bad apples. See? The process works. Those bad apples have been punished.” The duty to represent under federal and state labor law doesn’t translate into a duty to destroy due process.
And in general, the rank and file of the Chicago police department should probably be concerned about the expense their union is under taking to avoid holding people accountable for literally torturing people into confessing for crimes they didn’t commit.
This isn’t an effective long term strategy and this kind of thing creates even more pressure to support reforms without regard for what the lawless pack of King Leopold wannabees thinks about the legislation.
This move is dumb.
- Homebody - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:16 pm:
== To be fair, most police officers also lack the knowledge and training about the laws and court rulings directly impacting how they work. Otherwise, they wouldn’t continually keep doing dumb/illegal things. ==
Seriously.
And frankly, most policing issues are ultimately not that complicated. Things like “don’t turn off your body cameras” and “don’t falsify reports” and “double check the address of the house you’re about to no-knock” and “don’t show up and start blasting” and “don’t try to erase the local Burger King’s video cameras” seem like pretty understandable things to non-cops.
If anything, the cops are LESS capable at understanding these things.
- Froganon - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:24 pm:
Police have had ample opportunity and decades to reform themselves by changing training, recruitment and their internal culture. They have failed to hold their own to account for the murders and abuse of the Burges and Chauvins embedded in their ranks and culture. The lack of policing background is precisely what is required of all oversight board members. They have shown us who they are and thay\t they cannot be trusted to oversee themselves.
- dan l - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:27 pm:
//I don’t think this is a very effective strategy in the long run for the Chicago FOP.//
Have you seen their union president? Between stalking his ex girlfriend, threatening little kids at a high school, and showing up kinda smashed to the Columbus statue protest in his classy ‘Italia’ windbreaker, I’m not real sure he’s the ‘long term strategy’ kind of guy.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:48 pm:
==so we need a little bit of breathing room and we’ve asked the general assembly to provide that through a re-amortization==
If there’s not enough money for pension payments, there’s not enough money for raises either.
- Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 4:56 pm:
===I’m not real sure he’s the ‘long term strategy’ kind of guy.===
We’re making a lot of value judgements here, but he also doesn’t seem like the type of person to approach legislative leaders about introducing some very specific niche legislation so I am willing to presume this legislation occurred with the specific actions of the state lodge or the national Grand Lodge which means that there were some other people who could have looked at this situation and taken pause to consider what it looks like to try to interfere with a commission to study the founded allegations of torture by your members.
- Chicago 20 - Tuesday, Aug 18, 20 @ 6:27 pm:
Exactly how does an ultra right wing propaganda machine named Center Square, a rebranded mask for the Koch funded Franklin Center become relevant and quotable in the mainstream press?
https://www.prwatch.org/news/2019/05/13475/franklins-right-wing-watchdogorg-rebrands-center-square
It seems Center Square’s only function is to postulate, in endless press releases, new ways of resurrecting failed unusable defunding proposals in a slightly new context.
All of these “proposals” have only one purpose. All to seemingly reduce the tax burdens on the ultrawealthy and their corporate entities that have plenty of money to fund Center Square but nothing for their fair share of the public services from which they receive and benefit.
Why not just change the name of Center Square to “What Charles Koch wants now”, at least it the title would be more truthful than anything Center Square has ever written.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Aug 19, 20 @ 12:22 am:
State government pensions - bankruptcy - must be a looped soundtrack