Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“With high turnout and low morale, rank-and-file Chicago Police officers decided Wednesday to change union presidents heading into contentious contract negotiations,” the Sun-Times reports.
“With 9,811 votes cast, Police Officer Kevin Graham captured 56.2 percent of the vote to incumbent Dean Angelo’s 43.8 percent.”
This isn’t necessarily a surprise, but it’s beyond disturbing – not that Angelo was an honest broker. In effect, Chicago’s police officers have just doubled down against reform.

In a statement posted to the Facebook page of his Blue Slate of candidates, Graham called the results a message “loud and clear” from a demoralized rank and file . . .
“FOP members want a Lodge that will fight for them. This was our promise and now we will fulfill it,” Graham, who was sworn in Wednesday, was quoted as saying.
“We look forward to immediately preparing for the upcoming contract negotiations, fighting the anti-police movement in the city and obtaining fair due process and discipline for our members.”

Does anyone in the city have a bigger – and more undeserved – sense of victimhood than the police union?
Is there any sense of irony among officers when they harp on the alleged failures of due process that undermine their morale?
“You have a no-one-has-your-back mentality in our ranks more prevalent now than ever before,” the outgoing Angelo told the paper. “Media and politicians have demonized this job over the last couple of years. Then they wonder why people in the community don’t want to work with or trust the police. How do you trust Satan reincarnated that you’ve created?”
Any cop who thinks “people in the community” don’t trust the police because the media and politicians have demonized them is a bad cop for completely failing to understand the dynamics between the people they are sworn to protect and serve and longstanding pattern and practices of their department.
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“Angelo said he deliberately stayed away from commenting on questions of Graham’s residency, adding, ‘If he meets the requirements, he meets the requirements.'”
Um, what? This is the first reference to Graham’s residency, am I missing something?
Yes, I am. I found it here by scrolling back up through the story and finding this “related” story. Just put the link at the reference!
From that story:
“In 2013, [Graham] and his wife sold their split-level house in Edgebrook on the city’s Northwest Side – and bought a more expensive four-bedroom house in Lincolnshire, about 25 miles outside the city limits in Lake County . . .
“And even though Graham has a suburban address, he insists he’s renting his sister’s Chicago condo, living there in full compliance with police department rules.”
Oh Lord! That’s just perfect. #SoChicago.
“Graham [ignored] repeated interview requests from Chicago Sun-Times reporters, who’d found he no longer owns a house in the city and has his name on the water bill for the Lincolnshire house.
“Records also show Graham’s wife was registered to vote from the Lincolnshire address and that Graham was registered from a 900-square-foot basement apartment in West Town, a near West Side Chicago neighborhood. Two cars Graham owns aren’t registered to either address, but to the 19th District police station where he works.”
It gets better.
“Graham reached out to Sun-Times reporter and columnist Dan Mihalopoulos – not the reporters who’d reached out to Graham initially.
“‘I have always lived in the city as is required,’ Graham told Mihalopoulos on Thursday. ‘I’ve always followed the rules of the Chicago Police Department.'”
“When the Grahams sold their Edgebrook home in May 2013, the buyer was retired Chicago Police officer Les Smulevitz, an uncle of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.”
Dying.
“Graham told Mihalopoulos he did not know Smulevitz was related to the mayor until after Smulevitz had agreed to buy it. He also said he has occasionally been stationed in front of Emanuel’s house as have ’90 percent’ of patrol officers in the 19th District, where he has worked for 20 years.
“Graham, 54, has voted using his West Town address since 2013, including this past November. His wife has been registered at the Lincolnshire address, records show. The Grahams claim a homestead exemption on the property tax bill for the Lincolnshire house.
“He declined to discuss how often he is at the Lincolnshire house. ‘I’m not divorced. I’m a Catholic,’ Graham said. ‘My wife can live wherever she wants . . . The situation with my wife and I is nobody’s business.'”
I’m afraid that it is – it’s the public’s business to be assured that our police officers, and particularly someone in a position like head of the union is following the rules, especially given that their job is to enforce rules on everyone else.
If you’re separated, just say it!
“Graham said he moved out of basement apartment after it flooded ‘about a year ago’ and now lives in a Lake View condominium owned by his sister. He admits he voted using the West Town address five months ago, but told poll workers he had moved before they gave him a ballot.”
Voter fraud! And I bet he voted for Trump. This story has everything!
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Noted: “Graham said police officers often register their cars and driver’s licenses at their work address to prevent their home addresses from being placed in public databases.”
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From the Tribune’s election story:
“Graham has slammed the media for allegedly lying about police misconduct claims and applauded [new U.S. attorney general Jeff] Sessions’ move to review the federal government’s reform agreements with local police agencies. He also said he disagreed with Emanuel and Supt. Eddie Johnson’s pledges to continue pursuing reform.”
It sounds like Graham is the poster child for police victimhood, and living in a Trump-like alternate universe where the media lies about police misconduct in a city where it has been legion for decades. And frankly, sir, the “community” is not likely to trust a cop leading the charge against reform. That’s on you, not them.
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“‘The DOJ investigation was politically motivated and was part of a larger movement to put the handcuffs on the police in the Obama administration,’ Graham said in a press release last week. ‘Sessions recognizes that the police are generally doing a good job and must be allowed to continue to do so. We think this decision is a step in the right direction to restoring law and order and diminishing violent crime in the city.’
“Graham went on in the press release to say, ‘Chicago police are being hammered with new disciplinary measures constantly. Members are not receiving due process rights, and the media is not telling the truth about many cases in which the police are accused.'”
Name those many cases. I’m sure you have a list in front of you, as well as all the corrections you’ve requested from the city’s guilty media organizations. It’s called evidence. Show it or shut it.
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BeachBook
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A sampling.


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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Lose, complain, repeat.

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Posted on April 13, 2017