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Posted: 6/28/2001 5:02:52 AM EDT
You got to remember one thing about Chicago Police, you fuck them, they will fuck you up. This guy was lucky. He was lucky not to be taken in, and beaten to a inch of his life.  Then taken to 26th and Cal, and beaten some more.  
If this dude broke into my home, I would of capped him.
c-rock
www.illinois-shooter.org



Vacuum, .44 Magnum raise 'Dirty Harry' questions for police
Posted on June 11, 2001
"Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Karen Cole must have imagined that famous movie question as she watched an off-duty Chicago policeman take aim at the head of a cowering villain.

"Go ahead, make my day."

Cole could almost hear Dirty Harry's favorite challenge being presented to the bad guy on his knees, by the man hovering overhead with a .44 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world.

This scene played out in a Northwest Side Chicago park according to Cole, who says she was on her lunch hour, just trying to enjoy a few peaceful minutes away from the office.

"The gun was to his head for approximately five minutes," says Cole. "He was on his knees, visibly shaking, before he was allowed to get up."

At the time, Cole didn't know what was going on. She didn't know it was, as she learned later, an off-duty cop and a suspected thief. She simply saw one guy with a gun pressing it to another guy's cranium.

When the guy on his knees got up, Cole says he climbed into a car and threw out a vacuum cleaner ... apparently a vacuum that had just been stolen from the police officer's home.

"The one with the gun let him drive away, while pointing the gun (it looked like a .44 Magnum Desert Eagle) down the 8500 block of Chester, with no regard for the people and children in Grandparents Park, where I was sitting on my lunch hour," Cole said.

So she did what any concerned citizen would do. "I called 911 from my cell phone."

"A uniformed officer arrived in the park on foot, and I told him what I witnessed. He said he believed the man with the gun is an off-duty officer!

"I said 'No way, I think he's a drug dealer!' If he believed he was off-duty, he didn't go and talk to him as he was still holding the gun and standing on the corner of Chester and Catalpa," she recalls of the incident.

"When a squad arrived at the scene, the officer on foot then went closer to the scene, as the gun was now in his jeans waistband! I went closer to the scene and asked the uniform if the guy was an off-duty officer. He said he was."

Cole, 42, cites her background in law enforcement as evidence that she speaks from a position of some knowledge. She was an Army intelligence officer, a youth supervisor for the Illinois Department of Corrections and an investigator for the Illinois Department of Human Rights. Currently she is a police liaison with a large cellular telephone company, handling wiretap authorizations and subpoenas.

After witnessing the city park showdown, Cole says she went to the closest police district headquarters "to make a complaint to the desk sergeant regarding the reckless and dangerous behavior I witnessed."

She says that the sergeant "looked on the computer and said there was a report of a suspicious person in that area and the off-duty officer was on police business.
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 5:03:38 AM EDT
[#1]

"I asked who was suspicious, the man who stole the vacuum or the officer? I then asked if it was Chicago Police policy to use deadly force when a vacuum is stolen and the thief is trying to get away. He said, 'Maybe the officer perceived a threat!' From a thief running away?"

Cole says she asked to file a complaint about the officer's behavior. She says the desk sergeant told her that she had "no complaint. He was on police business."

Cole says she "witnessed assault with a deadly weapon." But after a quick review of the allegations, a Chicago Police official told me that "the officer did not use deadly force," because no shots were fired.

Police spokesman Pat Camden explained that officers are permitted to carry firearms while off-duty. Camden admitted that pointing a gun at the head of a kneeling thief in a public park "is not the smartest thing to do," but maintained that it is not illegal or in violation of any departmental policy.

Cole sees things differently. "An off-duty officer has no legal right to put a gun to a thief's head as he is trying to get away. There was no threat or harm to the officer. He was just mad that his vacuum was stolen! It's unfortunate when a witness can't tell the difference between a thug and a police officer."

There seems to be a lesson in all this. Sometimes the letter of the law comes down to just one letter.

The letter "e".

As in the difference between vigilant and vigilante.

* Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC/7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by email at [email protected]
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 5:13:26 AM EDT
[#2]
She was an Army intelligence officer, a youth supervisor for the Illinois Department of Corrections and an investigator for the Illinois Department of Human Rights.
View Quote

What the heck is the "Illinois Department of Human Rights"?    
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 10:01:59 AM EDT
[#3]
I e-mailed Mr. Goudy, and (surprise!) he e-mailed me right back.  Here's both my mail and his response:



Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 11:59 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Vacuum, .44 Magnum raise 'Dirty Harry' questions for police


Let me get this straight - now even POLICE OFFICERS aren't supposed to use
their firearms to prevent crime?  If they take their uniforms off then their
right to defend life and property go with it?

I don't know what world Ms. Cole lives in, but I know I don't want to live
in it with her.  If someone is willing to burglarize MY home, he runs the
very real risk of getting shot for his effort.  And no, I'm not a police
officer.  I'm an individual citizen who believes I have the right to protect
my life, my family, and my property - and that doing so also protects the
society in which I live.

Perhaps Ms. Cole should post a sign on her home "No Gun Zone!  Guns Not
Allowed!  Please Don't Hurt Us!"
View Quote


Kevin,

Thanks for your note. Indeed, maybe Ms. Cole should post such a
sign.

Regards,

Chuck Goudie
View Quote


Link Posted: 6/28/2001 10:26:42 AM EDT
[#4]
During last semester in the dorms at college, one of the DuPont Scholars (basically organizes stuff for new freshman to do) said she didnt want guns or any weapons around her.  I told her to wait a sec, printed up a sign, attached double sided tape and handed it to her, while saying "Then please hang this on your door."  Of course, she just said "No way" and walked out.  Now why in the world does someone who doesnt want guns near them refuse to hang a sign saying "Gun Free Zone. I rely on 911." on their door? [rolleyes]

Kharn
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 10:27:55 AM EDT
[#5]
If a civilian did what the off-duty cop did, he would be facing ADW charges.
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 10:41:49 AM EDT
[#6]
let me get this straight:
1) Subject allegedly breaks in to a Chi-town LEO's house and takes a vacuum cleaner.
2) Off duty LEO chases down the subject.
3) Off duty officer points a hand cannon at the subject for 5 minutes.
4) This occurs in a crowded area during broad daylight.
5) The off duty officer gets his property back.
6) the officer lets the alleged burglar go!!???
7) CPD won't take a citizens complaint on the incident, claiming the officer 'tho off-duty was "on police business"
8) No crime was committed?

If the officer held the alleged burglar at gunpoint and said something like, your under arrest, or we'll wait until more cops get here then you will be taken into custody, that would be different. But to hold the subject gunpoint and then let the person go???

Steals a vacuum cleaner what is the point of doing that?? Who would want a "hot" cleaner?

Yeah Kbaker, I was just doing the AR-15 thing and filling in facts and making up stuff to make the story better.
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 10:45:24 AM EDT
[#7]
Quoted:(:
let me get this straight:

If the officer held the alleged burglar at gunpoint and said something like, your under arrest, or we'll wait until more cops get here then you will be taken into custody, that would be different. But to recite movie lines at gunpoint and then let the person go???
View Quote


Check your reading comprehension:

"Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Karen Cole [u][i]must have imagined[/u][/i] that famous movie question as she watched an off-duty Chicago policeman take aim at the head of a cowering villain.

"Go ahead, make my day."

Cole [u][i]could almost hear...[/i][/u]
View Quote


Of course, that's the impression you're [i]supposed[/i] to come away with - rogue cop.  He stuck a gun in his waistband!  Horrors!

I've got to believe they teach these techniques in journalism school.
[sniper]
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 10:46:45 AM EDT
[#8]
Originally Posted By Imbrog|io:
If a civilian did what the off-duty cop did, he would be facing ADW charges.
View Quote



at what point was the assault committed then,
that he would be charged with assault with a deadly weapon?
im referring to the civilian having done the same thing as the cop did......
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 10:57:02 AM EDT
[#9]
Quoted:
Originally Posted By Imbrog|io:
If a civilian did what the off-duty cop did, he would be facing ADW charges.
View Quote



at what point was the assault committed then,
that he would be charged with assault with a deadly weapon?
im referring to the civilian having done the same thing as the cop did......
View Quote


Generally ASSUALT is to be put in fear of a BATTERY. If a civilian brandished a weapon at someone after chasing them down after the detainee comitted a property crime they would probably be charged with some type of weapons offense.

And there is a story on my local TV news web-site, Eminem(rap singer) just got sentenced to probation, avoiding a jail sentence, for pulling out a gun and pointing it at people at a bar..................

It may be just me but I wonder why the subject was let go............
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 11:21:22 AM EDT
[#10]
Originally Posted By Imbrog|io:
If a civilian did what the off-duty cop did, he would be facing ADW charges.
View Quote


No, he would of been facing felony charges for having a unregistered handgun in the City limits of Chicago.    
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 11:22:57 AM EDT
[#11]
Originally Posted By Matt VDW:

What the heck is the "Illinois Department of Human Rights"?    
View Quote

Some feel good waste of tax dollars for hard working Illinois people like myself.
c-rock
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 11:27:00 AM EDT
[#12]

7) CPD won't take a citizens complaint on the incident, claiming the officer 'tho off-duty was "on police business"
8) No crime was committed?

If the officer held the alleged burglar at gunpoint and said something like, your under arrest, or we'll wait until more cops get here then you will be taken into custody, that would be different. But to hold the subject gunpoint and then let the person go???

Steals a vacuum cleaner what is the point of doing that?? Who would want a "hot" cleaner?
.
View Quote


To make a complant agaist a city employee is like trying to win the lotto. Next to impossible.  
You can't fight city hall, and in chicago that is the way it is.
All the liberals like it that way.
c-rock
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 11:32:49 AM EDT
[#13]
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 11:33:33 AM EDT
[#14]
Making a complaint should be easy. The complaint should be investigated. If the complaint is found to be legitimate discipline should follow. The person that lodged the compalint should be told of the outcome. preferably in writing. A person that makes a false complaint should also be punished.

There is a big difference between lodging a complaint and have that compalint found to be legitimate.
Link Posted: 6/28/2001 11:38:44 AM EDT
[#15]
Quoted:
[size=6]BE HONEST[/size=6]

Do you actually believe most of what you read in the newspaper, see on TV and hear on the radio?

sgb
View Quote


NO, I am cynical of all reports, whether or not the UN or the antis- are iinvolved.

But, the "witness" would appear to be a credible bystander. It also makes me wonder why the "subject" wasn't arrested. I am also wondering why a citizen can't make a complaint.
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