A police officer in Chicago had every right to shoot a black suspect strung out on PCP as he was savagely beating her, but she didn’t pull her gun because she was afraid of the media uproar that would follow suit:
WAPO – A Chicago police officer who was savagely beaten at a car accident scene this week did not draw her gun on her attacker — even though she feared for her life — because she was afraid of the media attention that would come if she shot him, the city’s police chief said Thursday.
Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the officer, a 17-year veteran of the force, knew she should shoot the attacker but hesitated because “she didn’t want her family or the department to go through the scrutiny the next day on the national news,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
Johnson’s remarks, which came at an awards ceremony for police and firefighters, underscore a point law enforcement officers and some political leaders have pressed repeatedly as crime has risen in Chicago and other major cities: that police are reluctant to use force or act aggressively because they worry about negative media attention that will follow.
The issue has become known as the Ferguson effect, named after the St. Louis suburb where a police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in August 2014. The shooting set off protests and riots that summer and eventually gave way to a fevered national debate over race and policing. Many law enforcement officers have said that the intense focus on policing in the time since has put them on the defensive and hindered their work.
According to Johnson, the 43-year-old officer, who has not been identified, was responding to a car crash Wednesday when a 28-year-old man who was involved in the accident struck her in the face, then repeatedly smashed her head against the pavement until she passed out. He said the attack went on for several minutes and that two others officers were injured as they tried to pull the suspect away, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The suspect was on PCP, he said, and was finally subdued after officers Tasered and pepper sprayed him.
Johnson said he visited the officer in the hospital, where she told him why she did not draw her service weapon during the attack.
“She looked at me and said she thought she was going to die,” he told the audience at the awards ceremony. “And she knew that she should shoot this guy. But she chose not to because she didn’t want her family or the department to have to go through the scrutiny the next day on national news.”
“This officer could [have] lost her life last night,” Johnson continued. “We have to change the narrative of law enforcement across this country.”
The head of Chicago’s police union, the largest in the country, said the incident showed just how concerned officers are about becoming the center of a public spectacle if they use force. Police “don’t want to become the next YouTube video,” he told the Tribune.
This is absolutely the result of the riots in Ferguson, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Charlotte, and other cities and the media attention they are getting.
After the public uproar over Freddie Gray, we heard stories of cops quitting the force in Baltimore and others refusing to police certain areas like they had been, all because of the fear of doing something wrong and a media uproar ensuing.
And what happened? Crime skyrocketed.
It’s a sad day in American when police officers are afraid of defending themselves (or doing their job) for fear that their family and friends will be dragged through the mud in the media and potentially be put in danger. But that’s where we are today and much of the blame rests with this despicable Obama administration and their BLM lackeys.
And unfortunately, I don’t see this getting any better any time soon.