Yesterday Chicago was introduced to its new Police Superintendent, the 60th top Cop in Chicago’s long history since 1837 when Oremus Morrison was sworn in. David Brown the former Police Chief of Dallas takes over from Interim Superintendent Charlie Beck. Since Oremus Morrison back in 1837, they have been called various titles ranging from City Marshall, General Superintendents, to Commissioner, the last of which was Timothy O’Connor in 1964.

Immediately after O’Connor’s corruption-tainted run, the title of Superintendent was introduced when O.W. Wilson was introduced as Chicago’s new reform Top Cop. Since Wilson’s retirement, there have been 9 Superintendents beginning in 1967 with James Conlisk and now, of course, David Brown. Superintendent Brown will soon find out what he has in common with all of Chicago’s top cops with the exception O.W. Wilson. He’s not in charge. Decades of blaming the Police when it’s convenient, Chicago’s Politicians who are actually responsible for the Police have conveniently escaped criticism. ( see Emanuel’s handling of a Clueless McCarthy)  Emanuel withholds a controversial video and McCarthy gets run under the Mayoral bus.

The first thing Wilson did as the new Superintendent was to move Police Headquarters out of City Hall and into a separate building located at 1121 S. State Street.   O.W. promptly began to not only change the image of the Department from a corrupt, inept, politically driven haven for politics and corruption he changed the very appearance. Uniform colors changed, the patrol cars changed colors, the archaic communications system was upgraded to one of the best worldwide and were copied for decades by other departments across the country and beyond.

The change was so dramatic that many old-timers retired as fast as they could, to the delight of Superintendent Wilson. New fresh young officers were hired with a priority for college-educated officers who were willing to grasp the new ways of Wilson’s leadership.

Through all this change the one thing that went unnoticed, is he had a free hand in almost everything he wanted without any undue influence of City Hall. Mayor Richard J. Daley never interfered with Wilson’s sweeping changes. I personally can attest to that because I was his driver for many months on weekends and he confided at how much the elder Daley gave him complete autonomy over department matters.

Never was City Hall’s meddling illustrated more than when Superintendent  Garry McCarthy was fired by Rahm Emanuel in 2016. McCarthy complained openly to the press that City Hall was constantly meddling into police affairs to the point of interference. When asked by reporters why he did not resist he stated, “HE LIKED HIS JOB AND WANTED TO KEEP IT.” As long as a sitting mayor has the authority to fire a top cop, politics will always triumph over a sitting superintendent’s tenure. Jim Rochford who was Chicago’s top cop from 1974- 1977, once told me that being Chicago’s Police Superintendent was like walking under a guillotine. A smart admission from a very smart man. I admit at the time I did not quite understand what he meant, but it’s clear now for sure.

There has been a lot of rhetoric tossed around the last five or six years in regards to the cops and the communities they serve. You often hear the theme that cops have to gain the trust of the community in order to function at a high level to be successful in fighting violent crime. In turn, the cops are thinking how much trust can you have in a community where its citizens are shooting and killing each other at epidemic like proportions and nobody is willing to come forward and testify. Indeed it’s awful easy to blame the cops for that so-called called trust not being there, but also one would have to be very cautious cooperating with the cops when the neighborhood gangs are such a power and the Cook County Court system is considered by many to be a boomerang system where arrested criminals are soon right back out into the neighborhoods they were arrested for terrorizing, some as quickly as the same day.

Last September 11, I wrote about a courageous 18-year-old named Treja Kelly, in a ChicagoNow post.  Treja, testified in June against the man who killed her cousin back in 2016. He was found guilty of murder and faces life in prison. A few months later Treja, who was 18 at the time and pregnant was ambushed as she walked home from work and shot five times, killing her and her unborn child. Prior to this she was worried about retaliation but was not offered any type of help by the States Attorneys office and she essentially was on her own. Anyone who missed the significance of this was not paying attention. Her killer was finally caught a few weeks ago.. See photo below

A community member comes forward and testifies, she expresses fear of retaliation, the entire community is watching, hard to lay that one off on the cops. Total silence until the beginning of the month when 18-year-old gang thug Kaviarian Rogers confess to police he NAILED Treja for 5 thousand dollars. The question now is who put up the 5 thousand dollars. Total silence again. It just seems simpler to keep blaming the police, and any other convenient scapegoat that comes along. In my opinion, if you keep telling folks its not their fault they will start to believe it.

David Brown is on the record saying the police have to gain the trust of the community.  However,  like his predecessors the last 7 Superintendents I have not heard one word about the community and their responsibility. These numbers are harsh to look at but they are hard to ignore, or indeed make excuses for. In the last 8.5 years, Chicago has averaged 562 souls being murdered and over 2,840  wounded with 37 mass shootings where multiple people are gunned down at one time.

Does Chicago have a new Superintendent that continues along and says the right things?  Can he resist the political forces that so many before him failed to do? Does Chicago have the stomach for what it’s going to take to defeat the gang thugs, that are so emboldened they can offer 5 thousand dollars to have someone NAILED who testifies against one of their own?  David Brown has to realize that same fight the City is putting up to take on the Coronavirus has to continue to fight Chicago’s other killer. Gang Violence is killing as sure as the Virus and it’s not getting any better. Even with a total stay at home order the thugs are thumbing their noses and the killing is escalating. God speed David Brown, learning from the past is the best teacher. Unchallenged crime spreads and kills like a virus. Best wishes.