JUST SAYIN
MAY MAYHEM/ AFTER THE AFTERMATH/ A HARSH REALITY/SHHHH/ A NEW OLD WAR WILL SOON BE EXPOSED.
I really hate to use the word aftermath, however, when used to discuss Chicago’s future, it’s the aftermath of what? Two months of a stay at home order, a curfew, a social distancing order, a quarantine, a shelter in place order, or maybe for thousands and thousands of Chicagoans it’s going back to work FINALLY! OR is it the aftermath of massive looting, burning, and rioting that seemed to touch all areas of a totally unprepared city and beyond. In what seemed like an innocent demonstration or protest of the killing of a black man in Minnesota while in police custody, suddenly turned into a violent riot that nobody seemed prepared for including the police and city officials. The scenes of overturned police vehicles, the looting of stores, the fights with the police, and the property damage seemed to shock most people. Below are the violent figures for just May last month. Unprecedented violence spanning over a decade. This is what’s facing the aftermath. But we will get to that later.
In my mind, I was thinking there are an awful lot of people who are finally witnessing what cops go through, sometimes on a daily basis. There of course are good and bad in all RACES, GENDERS, and RELIGIONS. What the Chicago suburbs and Downtown including my former neighbors in the South Loop were seeing, was eye-opening to lots of decent people who never see evil or bad behavior on a consistent basis. Looting burning and violent tactics. These people were not protesting, they were committing vile criminal acts when they sensed an opportunity. A grieving community was set upon by hundreds of THUGS who could care less about grief and protest. After seeing that, anyone who thinks differently is insane. The Coronavirus threat and all the disruption from normal life plus the rioting has shielded, for lack of a better word, a massive surge in violence that continues in the city’s neighborhoods. As you can see below the usual bullshit that’s the police need reforming rings a tad hollow.
While the media and most folks are fixated on the virus disruptions and the rioting, hardly anyone is talking about, or noticing that in just a five-day span from 29 May – June 2, 128 people have been shot and 33 have been murdered. For cops, it’s what we see day after day and year after year. It has become the plea of many folks including the news media that we focus on the GOOD, in other words, the peaceful protesters from the violent hate groups causing the mayhem. Well okay! but then why aren’t cops afforded that same decency. You don’t want to lump the violent protesters together then don’t lump all cops together. We are sick of it. Nobody hates bad cops more than good cops.
The great Tribune columnist John Kass has reminded everyone in a recent column of the policy of “GIVING SAFE SPACE TO VIOLENCE” that just might explain what happened to the Chicago area. We have to remember that elected officials are not exempt from being complete idiots, they are in abundance and all around us, especially in Cook County and Illinois. However one in particular is in the NITT-WITT hall of fame. The “GIVE SAFE SPACE TO VIOLENCE” was immortalized by none other than Stephenie Rawlings Blake, a former Mayor of Baltimore, who allowed 2015 protesters over the death of Freddy Grey to warp out of control.
These were her exact words”ITS A VERY DELICATE BALANCING ACT” SHE BABBLED”( AS BALTIMORE BURNED AFTER IT WAS TOTALLY LOOTED) “WE ALSO GAVE THOSE WHO WISHED TO DESTROY SPACE TO DO THAT AS WELL AND WE WORKED VERY HARD TO KEEP THAT BALANCE AND PUT OURSELVES IN THE BEST POSITION TO DE-ESCALATE.” IT NEVER DE-ESCALATED. Those words were the MODERN DAY GETTYSBURG ADDRESS OF A LUNATIC OUT OF AN INSANE ASYLUM. Imagine why she did not choose to run again?
It’s no secret that the police response to the rioting was pathetic at best. There is no way of knowing if any orders were given to the police to not wear riot gear which the Department had purchased in 2012 for over a million dollars, to be ready for the NATO demonstrations. Not one police officer was injured during those very stressful street confrontations. Last week over 100 to 150 Chicago cops were injured, some hospitalized with broken bones. The rioters looted and damaged at will, they burned and damaged dozens of police cars. Whoever was in charge failed to locate the police vehicles in a staging area with security and bus the cops to their posts. The second watch was sent home while authorities knew or had to know they were dangerously outnumbered. I’m not second-guessing, I’m first guessing.
I worked scores and scores of demonstrations and so did many of my colleagues and we all agree something or someone seriously dropped the ball. Soon it spread to almost every neighborhood in the City and beyond, and the proof of that is several Alderman have accused the Mayor of abandoning their Wards of police protection. Now back to the aftermath word. What’s happening now in the city is practically going unnoticed or it’s the OSTRICH THEORY, a theory so many politicians espouse too. If you keep your head in the sand there is nothing to see. While all this was happening in the City, Governor Pritzker about 2 months ago decided that it was much too dangerous to keep over a four thousand convicted felons behind bars, including 61 convicted of murder, lest the poor dears catch the VIRUS. So now what’s facing an already beleaguered community is those released felons are now back among the neighborhoods they terrorized before going to prison.
Hence the reason for the massive explosion of killings and shootings. The thugs from prison now want their old positions back in the gangs, and of course, the bangers that took over those positions are not walking away quietly. The money in drug trafficking and illegal activity is much too lucrative to give up. At some point, both the media and the City officials will notice full bore and we will have more blah- blah- blah, there will be more gas let loose than PEOPLES GAS HAS IN STORAGE, most likely about police reform. It seems to be a favorite topic of clueless politicians. My attitude is not cynicism, it’s based on sound information and observation from folks with hundreds of years of experience. You cannot talk sense with those who are willing to use violence as their means.
Last month the Mayor and the Hapless Police Superintendent reduced the Chicago police Departments Narcotics units by some estimates of over 98%. The reason was overtime in my opinion. The gangs will virtually have little or no oversite into their lucrative drug dealings, killings, and shootings will continue at a fever pace. To maximize those profits are what’s at the center of the mayhem. It just seems to me that for some reason those lives do not seem to matter. If they did, my question is, where is all the OUTRAGE? It’s CRICKETS. Listen carefully you can hear them.
Filed under:
Uncategorized
-
Advertisement:
-
Advertisement:
-
Welcome to ChicagoNow.
-
Meet The Blogger
BOB ANGONE
Bob Angone is a Marine VETERAN and a retired Chicago Police Lieutenant. He worked his entire Career covering the streets of Chicago as a Tactical Officer, Tactical Sergeant, and Tactical Lieutenant. His last assignments were in special Functions, he was the C/O of the CPD Swat teams his last five years and was an HBT (Hostage Barricade Terrorist) Sergeant for 10 years.
-
Subscribe by Email
Completely spam free, opt out any time.
Latest on ChicagoNow
-
48 Lessons Learned in Job Search: How to Find a Job and Yourself along the way
from Where Are We Going So Fast? by James Warda
posted today at 2:55 pm -
“Structural racism” has become a misplaced act of faith
from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor by Dennis Byrne
posted today at 2:15 pm -
An Ode: In memory of George Floyd
from The Quark In The Road by Aquinas wired
posted today at 1:10 pm -
NBA lookback: Michael Jordan’s daughter used to Google him
from ChicagoNow Staff Blog by ChicagoNow Staff
posted today at 11:16 am -
MAY MAYHEM/ AFTER THE AFTERMATH/ A HARSH REALITY/SHHHH/ A NEW OLD WAR WILL SOON BE EXPOSED.
from JUST SAYIN by BOB ANGONE
posted today at 10:49 am
Posts from related blogs
-
Where Are We Going So Fast?
Most recent post: 48 Lessons Learned in Job Search: How to Find a Job and Yourself along the way
-
Cheating Death
Most recent post: The third stage of Elderhood: Making sure your life mattered!
-
Getting More From Les
Most recent post: When Words Fail Me
More from Lifestyle: Opinion
Read these ChicagoNow blogs
-
Cubs Den
Chicago Cubs news and comprehensive blog, featuring old school baseball writing combined with the latest statistical trends -
Pets in need of homes
Pets available for adoption in the Chicago area -
The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor
Chicago writer, editor and author blogs about today’s political and public policy issues.
Read these ChicagoNow Bloggers
-
H. Van Howe
from Pizza For Breakfast: -
BOB ANGONE
from JUST SAYIN: -
Carole Kuhrt Brewer
from Show Me Chicago:
- About ChicagoNow
- •
- FAQs
- •
- Advertise
- •
- Recent posts RSS
- •
- Privacy policy (Updated)
- •
- Comment policy
- •
- Terms of service
- •
- Chicago Tribune Archives
- •
- Chicago Internet Marketing Services
©2020 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
Crafted by the News Apps team