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In an undated photo posted to Twitter, Chicago police officer Ella French is equipped with everything that should have protected her on Saturday night.
She is wearing a safety vest. She has a police radio strapped to her uniform so she can call for reinforcements. She has her gun strapped to her waist.
More importantly, Officer French wears the Chicago Police Department badge on his left sleeve, and that should have been enough. In a better world – a better city – this should have been the only armor she needed. It should have protected her.
He does not have.
Officer French was shot and killed in the West Englewood neighborhood on the south side around 9 p.m. Saturday while performing a seemingly routine traffic check. Another officer was also shot dead. He is fighting for his life, as of this writing, in a hospital intensive care unit.
This city should be ashamed of itself.
Every weekend, Chicago shoots itself. More than 60 people were shot dead last weekend. And now, the city can no longer even pretend to reasonably protect the police that it throws in the streets to repel the violence. So far this year, the police superintendent. David Brown said on Sunday that 38 officers were shot and 11 were shot.
Let’s understand:
When the police are not respected, when the authority of their uniform and badge no longer holds, no one is immune. Either we are a city with the police, even though we support police reforms, or we sink like a city without a police.
We will learn more about Officer French in the coming days.
She was only 29 years old.
We will also learn more about the traffic stop near 63rd Street and Bell Avenue which resulted in the death of Constable French and serious injuries to the other officer. There is a body camera video. We urge the city to release the video as quickly as legally possible.
Who were the three people in the now stopped car? What the hell were they doing? What exactly happened?
And this is perhaps the most pressing question of all: What could our criminal justice system have done to protect us from the people in that car before that bloody night?
Chicago’s flags are at half mast again. And men and women in blue, at attention and saluting, will line the streets again as the hearses pass.
Will we all, in each neighborhood, be by their side, in person and in spirit?
We had better.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot was asked on Sunday if the surge in police fire could somehow be linked to Chicago’s continued efforts to reform the police. There has been so much criticism of the department, and so much defensive criticism.
To which Lightfoot rightly responded: “Stop. Just stop it.
Yes, said the mayor, Chicago must “continue the journey” towards “more constitutional and responsible police”, but “the police are not our enemy”. On the contrary, they risk their lives for us “every day”.
They risk their lives and give their lives.
Every day.
Send letters to [email protected].
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