Carol Marin played up the J-Fled angle on the Valentine's Day broadcast of WTTW's Chicago Tonight. The fun begins around the 30 minute mark. She claims J-Fled was brought in as Superintendent to "clean up" a Department wracked with scandal.
The reality is J-Fled was brought in to remedy a problem that didn't exist. A few high profile incidents played up endlessly in the media and suddenly, we're the punching bag of the decade. Ask yourself a few questions:
The reality is J-Fled was brought in to remedy a problem that didn't exist. A few high profile incidents played up endlessly in the media and suddenly, we're the punching bag of the decade. Ask yourself a few questions:
- How many times did you see the Abbate tape? Scientists from National Geographic just located a heretofore unknown tribe of Indonesian pygmies living on a remote Pacific island, and even they saw the Abbate video a dozen times. This was a drunken idiot who never should have been the police in the first place and was eased through the cracks in a corrupt hiring process. We all paid a price for it, but no one ever outed the clout that got him there.
- High profile DUI's. A number of cops went to jail, are about to go to jail or got fired for drunken behavior. The total? Probably under twelve, a mere tenth-of-one-percent. We aren't going to defend the behavior of alcoholics, but is was (and remains) a very small minority of officers. Media overkill again.
- The SOS Scandal. Rogue teams of officers doing home invasions, stealing from dope dealers and making life hell on everyone, right? How many people went to jail? Six? Less than six? Each for under 6 months if we recall correctly. The alleged "ringleader" still sits in the MCC with no trial date in sight. The other big name made a bunch of media appearances in an attempt to save his own worthless ass. Charges were actually dropped against two others. So we're looking at 6 to 8 resignations, a few small fish doing county time and a larger case that seems to be stalled and falling apart.
We don't call that a Department "out-of-control" by any stretch of the imagination.
So J-Fled turned inward, destroyed the established order (not necessarily a bad thing), forced decades of experience that may have assisted him out the door (unforgivable), jackpotted a cop who had served his punishment (really unforgivable), then attempted to win the hearts and minds of the Department by taking old ideas and passing them off as his own while trying to tell us that Tahoes and cameras would save the day. All of this while abetting the reduction in manpower numbers to historic lows, creating units of clout babies while pretending ability and results meant something, promoting more incompetent hacks, criminals and psychopaths and going through four or five "restructurings" that solved nothing. Then there was the whole "gotta run" debacle.
Getting the candidates on record for launching J-Fled is a good thing. He was a mistake.
So J-Fled turned inward, destroyed the established order (not necessarily a bad thing), forced decades of experience that may have assisted him out the door (unforgivable), jackpotted a cop who had served his punishment (really unforgivable), then attempted to win the hearts and minds of the Department by taking old ideas and passing them off as his own while trying to tell us that Tahoes and cameras would save the day. All of this while abetting the reduction in manpower numbers to historic lows, creating units of clout babies while pretending ability and results meant something, promoting more incompetent hacks, criminals and psychopaths and going through four or five "restructurings" that solved nothing. Then there was the whole "gotta run" debacle.
Getting the candidates on record for launching J-Fled is a good thing. He was a mistake.