If the facts of the investigation, which is no where near done, bear out that the 55-year-old woman was accidentally killed by a round that passed through or by the assailant with the baseball bat, then the Department and City should apologize profusely to the family and engage in talks of a settlement. It's the only proper thing to do. (And to those about to go off half-cocked, we make no judgement, assess no blame, have no knowledge of the investigation - read what we wrote, not what you think you heard.....are you back already? Go back and read it again.)
That these things happen is no comfort to anyone involved. We strive to do our job well as almost every person does. No one who is sane goes to work hoping to:
That these things happen is no comfort to anyone involved. We strive to do our job well as almost every person does. No one who is sane goes to work hoping to:
- shut down an assembly line,
- destroy a set of office files,
- flood a subterranean set of tunnels that no one remembered existed,
- kill someone.
The thing is, with those first three examples, it can be fixed most of the time. Not so much with the last, but so much of what we roll up on is already out of our control. The location is where we were called to, tactical options are few, response options are limited, and decision time is infinitesimal.
For these reasons, training should be a priority for any police department. But the fact is, Chicago has been getting by on the cheap for years, decades even. Too many cops fire a mere 30 qualifying rounds a year. Training is slapdash or non-existent (we're only now running any sort of drill for a mass casualty event with the Fire Department, and from what we've heard, it runs against any existing SWAT protocol). And was either Charlie Williams, Masters Masters Masters or some other brainiac who declared it wasn't "feasible" to train every copper in the most basic anti-terror tactics. That's what passes for "leadership" nowadays.
Media people wonder about the lack of video and audio from in-car systems? Look no further than the money CPD doesn't spend on equipment, training and maintenance. Garbage in, garbage out and you have to look a lot higher than the blue shirts for that.
For these reasons, training should be a priority for any police department. But the fact is, Chicago has been getting by on the cheap for years, decades even. Too many cops fire a mere 30 qualifying rounds a year. Training is slapdash or non-existent (we're only now running any sort of drill for a mass casualty event with the Fire Department, and from what we've heard, it runs against any existing SWAT protocol). And was either Charlie Williams, Masters Masters Masters or some other brainiac who declared it wasn't "feasible" to train every copper in the most basic anti-terror tactics. That's what passes for "leadership" nowadays.
Media people wonder about the lack of video and audio from in-car systems? Look no further than the money CPD doesn't spend on equipment, training and maintenance. Garbage in, garbage out and you have to look a lot higher than the blue shirts for that.
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