And the media continues the tongue bath:
- A day after stepping down from the helm of the Chicago Police Department, Jody Weis said Wednesday it would be up to the people of Chicago to judge how well he did. But he thanked Mayor Richard M. Daley for giving him the “opportunity of a lifetime.”
Yeah, the opportunity to get nearly a million dollars for three years work, doing one job of the two he was hired to do, only comes around once in a blue moon. And to judge how well he did - he's talking financially, right?
- “Mayor Daley could not have been more supportive,” Weis said. “He gave me an opportunity of a lifetime. He cashed in a lot of political capital to pull me out. He took a chance and hopefully history will show that we delivered on that.”
"...cashed in..." "...political capital..." Poor choice of words there. We can judge that by your W-2's we're sure.
- Weis disputed that morale was a problem at the Police Department during the past three years, saying that the city could not have achieved the drop in crime that it saw in the past three years if officers were demoralized, especially with an under-staffed police force.
So finally, after three years, the official word is we're understaffed? How many exempts got shit canned because they spoke up at meetings and said "manpower is the issue." Wasn't it told to others that "manpower will not be an acceptable excuse for lack of numbers."
And now every media outlet is running J-Fled interviews.
And now every media outlet is running J-Fled interviews.
Guess what the major theme is?
- Weis disputed that morale was a problem at the Police Department during the past three years, saying that the city could not have achieved the drop in crime that it saw in the past three years if officers were demoralized, especially with an under-staffed police force.
- But on his first day as a civilian, he contended the reports of bad morale on his watch were overblown.
- "So my argument is to those who say morale is down, if morale is truly down, and the usual indicators are that people aren't performing, then how did the department achieve incredible success stories if everybody's demoralized?" said Weis.
It couldn't have anything to do with Chicago's population decline? The increasing response times that discourage victims from sticking around to report crime? The interminable wait on hold at 311 that further victimizes the victims? The reclassification and downgrading of crime that still results in the FBI not using Chicago crime statistics in their yearly reports?
But let's just settle this once and for all. Morale isn't down? Then we're sure the Department will finally release the "morale survey" from two-and-a-half years ago that never saw the light of day. The one that J-Fled said he'd resign over if it showed he was the cause of low morale. The one that cost a connected lieutenant her spot. Yeah, that survey.
Morale sucked. Any intelligent person could see that. J-Fled might be book smart, but he is a moron as far as connecting with the people he was supposed to lead. But morale being in the toilet doesn't stop people from still wanting to do the job they hired on to do. We've said it before - police work is a calling. We are going to do the best we can for the people who deserve it, and many times even for those who don't deserve it. We don't stop being cops because the boss is a moron. We step lighter, proactive policing suffers, numbers might fall, but most of us are still cops. And survivors.
Release the survey. Let's see how the "Gotta Run Kid" stacked up in the eyes of the rank-and-file. Or is this going to be yet another example of cowardice on the part of the Department, J-Fled and the media?
But let's just settle this once and for all. Morale isn't down? Then we're sure the Department will finally release the "morale survey" from two-and-a-half years ago that never saw the light of day. The one that J-Fled said he'd resign over if it showed he was the cause of low morale. The one that cost a connected lieutenant her spot. Yeah, that survey.
Morale sucked. Any intelligent person could see that. J-Fled might be book smart, but he is a moron as far as connecting with the people he was supposed to lead. But morale being in the toilet doesn't stop people from still wanting to do the job they hired on to do. We've said it before - police work is a calling. We are going to do the best we can for the people who deserve it, and many times even for those who don't deserve it. We don't stop being cops because the boss is a moron. We step lighter, proactive policing suffers, numbers might fall, but most of us are still cops. And survivors.
Release the survey. Let's see how the "Gotta Run Kid" stacked up in the eyes of the rank-and-file. Or is this going to be yet another example of cowardice on the part of the Department, J-Fled and the media?