* I told subscribers about this press release earlier today. Despite a retraction sent yesterday, Moylan said only one word needed to be changed because it misidentified somebody…
State Rep. Marty Moylan, D-Des Plaines, has stated that he is convening a press conference with other state legislators and police chiefs to discuss proposed legislation regarding the increasing crime rate around Chicago and surging violence against police officers.
“The situation is getting out of control. FBI data this year shows that violent, fatal attacks against police officers are up 31%. Just this month, Officer Stephen Kotlewski of Bensenville was shot and hospitalized during a domestic violence call. It’s reaching into every community,” said Moylan.
Moylan is sponsoring two pieces of legislation to combat the alarming rise in fatal attacks. House Bill 4159, the Police Protection Act filed by Moylan, increases penalties for offenses when the act is taken against a police officer. House Bill 4125, proposed by State Representative Fran Hurley, creates the Police “Hate Crime” Act, which would label any offense where an individual attacks, harms or stalks a police officer as “hate crime” and increases penalties for those offenses.
Moylan is also asking for up to $100,000,000 to increase protections for officers on duty.
The conference will reportedly be attended by colleagues from both houses of the General Assembly including State Representatives Jaime Andrade, Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, Eva Dina Delgado, and State Senators Laura Murphy and John Connor. Additionally, Des Plaines Police Chief David Anderson and Park Ridge Police Chief Frank Kaminski have announced their attendance, along with Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow and DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin.
“The brave men and women who put their lives on the line each day to protect our communities deserve to know they, too, are protected.” Senator Laura Murphy (D-Des Plaines) said. “Law enforcement officers are facing an increase in dangerous and stressful situations. Together, we must build mutual trust between our officers and the community to reduce violence on our streets.”
“We must address this issue immediately. We are not at war with our police departments. Too many lives are being lost and too many people are being made victims,” said Moylan.
The press conference will be held at Des Plaines City Hall on Thursday, November 18th, at 10:15 AM.
…Adding… USA Today…
An Illinois police union on Wednesday ousted from its membership an officer facing criminal charges for exposing a squad car video that showed his fellow officers slapping and cursing a man dying of a drug overdose.
The case of Sgt. Javier Esqueda, a 27-year veteran of the Joliet Police Department, was featured in September as the first installment of the USA TODAY series “Behind the Blue Wall,” an investigation involving more than 300 cases of police officers over the past decade who have spoken out against alleged misconduct in their departments. […]
Esqueda told USA TODAY that he’s become a pariah among his coworkers since July 2020, when he shared with a television reporter footage from January of that year showing how officers treated a handcuffed Black man in medical distress. Officers slapped Eric Lurry, restricted his airway and shoved a baton in his mouth hours before his death. Esqueda faces up to 20 years in prison after department officials opened a criminal investigation into his actions and prosecutors charged him with four counts of official misconduct.
Members of the Joliet Police Officer’s Association on Wednesday voted 35-1 to expel Esqueda, a move first reported by The Herald-Ledger newspaper in Joliet. In a letter informing him of the impending vote last month, union leaders described his conduct as “reprehensible.” The letter did not offer specifics on what actions from Esqueda prompted the vote.
Emphasis added.
* Tribune…
The controversial head of Chicago’s largest police union said Monday he will retire from the Chicago Police Department — an announcement that came just after he took the stand in a disciplinary hearing that could have ended with his firing.
John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, also declared that he will run for mayor in 2023, alluding multiple times to his combative relationship with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and said he felt the outcome of the proceedings against him was predetermined.
“It was pretty evident very early on that this cake was already baked,” Catanzara said, “I am going to be at human resources first thing in the morning, and I am going to be retiring. I will no longer be a Chicago police officer. … No one will be able to touch me.”
“This has all been a farce from the get-go,” he added, later saying to reporters: “There was never a possibility under God’s green earth that I was ever going to give this mayor the ability to utter the words, ‘I fired him.’ ”
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 9:43 am:
Maybe if Marty had held a fewer parties and done any research he’d already know that DV calls have always been the most dangerous for cops. Why is he only doing something about it now? And what does a wife beater in Bensenville have to do with any crime in Chicago?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/479241002
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 9:47 am:
Of course Governor Pritzker will not be attending.
He will continue to tout his $250 million dollar Reimagine Public Safety program, outside of the Police departments, despite it’s obvious failure to make Illinois safer
- sladay - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 9:49 am:
Did he go into detail on how the $100m should be spent? Like body armor grants, etc.
- Frank talks - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:03 am:
Who were all the original attendees? Did they change because it was pro-cop? Or an actual conflict?
- Sangamo Girl - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:04 am:
Are COVID vaccines in the plan? “COVID-19 Is Top Cause of Death for Police Officers for Past 2 Years”
https://abc7chicago.com/covid-deaths-police-cases-officer-down-memorial-page/11131101/
- DeeLay - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:08 am:
“The situation is getting out of control. FBI data this year shows that violent, fatal attacks against police officers are up 31%.”
The biggest killer of cops in the last 24 months is COVID-19. How does $100M help when the vaccinations are free?
Tie the money to the % of LEOs vaccinated if they want to get serious about officer safety.
- SWIL_Voter - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:09 am:
There’s already a known, proven way to protect the lives of officers. It’s called the vaccine, and they refuse to take it. They get way more of my money than they deserve already and they can’t even do the basics of their job. Now they want more? Some of our cities are already spending half their discretionary budget on police.
- MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:11 am:
“Too many lives are being lost and too many people are being made victims.”
If they’re serious about police deaths, they should address the threat of unvaccinated officers and COVID-19.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-police-officers-leading-cause-death/
– MrJM
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:15 am:
=== He will continue to tout his $250 million dollar Reimagine Public Safety program, outside of the Police departments, despite it’s obvious failure to make Illinois safer===
Lemme ask you, you think this bipartisan legislation will pass or is it “it’s just a bill” kind of thingy?
If it passes, and it’s signed, how will your bot programming need to be reconfigured?
- Sox Fan - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:22 am:
==Tie the money to the % of LEOs vaccinated if they want to get serious about officer safety.==
I love this idea
- Almost the Weekend - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:23 am:
=Did he go into detail on how the $100m should be spent? Like body armor grants, etc.=
Same way these anti violence initiative grants are released. Every penny and receipt audited and accounted for.
- Publius - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:28 am:
With the number of guns on the streets and easy access to more not sure what can be done. Everyone puts their 2nd amendment rights above the safety of officers. Maybe if we started procesecuting gun shops selling it would help but its probably too far gone for that.
- vern - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 10:56 am:
== not sure what can be done ==
Publius, there’s a number of things that can be done.
1. As many have pointed out on this thread, the number one tool for protecting the lives of police officers right now is the COVID vaccine. So far, police and their supporters have been oddly neutral on the issue of “should police officers die of COVID?”
2. Departments can look at the practices that most often result in violence and consider if those practices are best for everyone. Obviously we want the police to respond to domestic violence calls, but there have been a number of recent studies laying out how traffic stops escalate unnecessarily.
3. The police can put more of its resources into solving major crimes. The Chicago Police Department has legendarily dismal clearance rates for murder and sexual assault. There isn’t even a dedicated sexual assault unit. If I had to guess, I’d say that investigatory and forensic work is safer than patrol or counter narcotics policing.
4. There are also cultural problems departments can address. The most recent example is the proliferation of panic attacks caused by the mistaken belief that fentanyl can cause an overdose through skin contact. This type of unfounded paranoia seems like it would cause all sorts of problems as police interact with citizens day to day.
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 11:17 am:
vern,
Seems like more surveillance cameras could help. First of all for traffic tickets. If the police aren’t enforcing traffic rules then without traffic cameras to catch violators, then aggressive drivers will cause more accidents. By aking the ticket a sure event (you break the law, you pay the price every time) instead of an if a traffic patrol is around, could be the enforcement will actually have a surer effect on traffic.
Also since witnesses don’t want to testify, having surveillance to gather evidence can help that too.
Also I am thinking robots (no not Robocop yet, but small drones with cameras that fly or creep) could give police an idea what they are going to encounter when they enter a scene.
- vern - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 11:34 am:
Cermak Rd -
I don’t disagree, but it’s worth pushing the thought experiment a little further. Parking in Chicago in enforced by unarmed, non-police employees. Correct me if I’m wrong, but a quick Google search doesn’t turn up any line-of-duty deaths.
Now that model isn’t 1-to-1 translatable to moving violation enforcement for obvious reasons, but policing seems to be in an innovation rut right now. The only recent developments I’ve heard about are public affairs offices pushing the boundaries of passive voice press releases. If police officers are getting hurt and crimes aren’t getting solved, it’s time to get creative.
- H-W - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 11:43 am:
I would want to see the data, before spending $100 M.
Each year in the U.S., about 75 LEO are killed on the job. This pattern is fairly stable over the years, according to FBI data.
While “violent, fatal attacks against police officers are up 31%” this year, according to Moylan, that does not mean violent, fatal attacks are up relative to historic data. If last year’ numbers were down, and then this year’s numbers are up relative to last year, then the net effect may be no significant increase over time. I would want to see a time trend analysis, as well as a rational reason to believe the numbers are up this year for a specific, preventable reason. Only then would it make sense to spend $100M to prevent something that can be shown not to be a blip, not to be a random effect, but instead a real lapse in policy that is allowing more LEO to be killed.
I would need to believe that that the numbers will continue to increase because of something that has changed, because of something we are no longer doing.
Time trend data can always be misinterpreted due to year to year fluctuations.
- H-W - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 11:55 am:
Here are some LEO Feloniously Killed data from 2010 to 2019:
2010 55
2011 72
2012 49
2013 27
2014 51
2015 41
2016 66
2017 46
2018 56
2019 48
A 31% increase from 2019 would suggest 63 LEO Killed in 2020. That number would not be out of line with historic trends in the FBI data. Indeed, from 2000 to 2010, the annual numbers were actually higher, averaging 75 or so per year.
Given the evidence, it does appear LEO Killings are already declining, and the recent year is not out of line with the historic data. In that context, throwing $100M at a problem that does not exist would seem impulsive, and not well thought.
- Da big bad wolf - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 11:59 am:
=== Esqueda is facing twenty years for using a Joliet laptop? Or for being a whistleblower?
- Da big bad wolf - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 12:02 pm:
=== Also I am thinking robots (no not Robocop yet, but small drones with cameras that fly or creep) could give police an idea what they are going to encounter when they enter a scene.===
Drones can’t be flown over people or cars. They can’t fly at night, and they can’t fly anywhere near an airport so their use would be very limited.
- Socially DIstant watcher - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
Will Catanzara’s campaign slogan be, “I jumped before I was pushed?”
Sheesh.
- charles in charge - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 12:39 pm:
Increased penalties on the back end are supposed prevent violence on the front end? These are literally the same old ineffective and discredited ideas that got us where we are today.
- Chito - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 2:24 pm:
Esqueda should be hailed a hero. Calling out more bad cops would increase trust in the police in the the very communities where its lowest. Shame on the members of the Joliet Police Department that voted to expel him.
- ChiSox - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 2:34 pm:
-SWIL—law enforcement pay taxes as well. If you feel that “can’t do the basics” -don’t call 911. And that officers get way more then they deserve -go sign up for the job of an officer….
- SWIL_Voter - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 2:39 pm:
The last several times I’ve called the police they just straight up told me they couldn’t help me. When you’re already spending half your budget on police and crime is still rising and case closure rates are in the dumper, it should be clear more money won’t solve gross incompetence
- ChiSox - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 3:07 pm:
SWIL- what city /budget are you referring to? Chicago? Any citations?? You say it’s excessive—-where should they cut??
- charles in charge - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 3:23 pm:
==-SWIL—law enforcement pay taxes as well. If you feel that “can’t do the basics” -don’t call 911.==
Yeah, some nerve you have asking the police to do their jobs!
- SWIL_Voter - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 3:32 pm:
My city is one example, but yes Chicago is another. 37% of discretionary funds go to police. 60% of Chicago COVID relief funds went to police. If you want specific items to cut, start with everything mentioned above
- Original Rambler - Tuesday, Nov 16, 21 @ 5:15 pm:
The actions of the Joliet union members is what is reprehensible. 35-1 smh