Rush says cops lounged in his burglarized campaign office as nearby stores were looted

[brooklynite]

Source: Chicago Sun Times

Thirteen Chicago Police officers — including three supervisors — slept on a couch, popped popcorn and drank coffee in U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush’s South Side campaign office while looters had a field day in the same strip mall earlier this month, the congressman and Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.

An outraged and emotional Lightfoot, her voice breaking at times, joined Rush at a City Hall news conference, apologizing to her former political nemesis for the “unspeakable indignity” and vowed to hunt down the officers responsible.

“Let me lead by apologizing to you again on behalf of our city that you and your office were treated with such profound disrespect. That’s a personal embarrassment to me. And I’m sorry that you and your staff had to deal with this incredible indignity,” the mayor told Rush.

Lightfoot said the officers’ “deplorable failure to do their jobs” will only underscore the widespread perception that police officers “don’t care when black and brown communities are looted and burned.”



Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/6/11/21288167/bobby-rush-chicago-police-looting-campaign-office

[Mr.Bill]

1. The cops will say

Mr. Rush should thank them for standing guard at his office when they noticed it had been broken into.

I'm not kidding. Wait for it.

[Rainbow Droid]

4. The sad truth is that any reason they give de facto justifies anything that they do.

[Blue_playwright]

2. Insane.

[SheltieLover]

3. Boom

She is on it.

[SharonClark]

5. Rush was on Chris Hayes tonight.

He sent the video of the cops to Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot; she was not pleased and vowed to ID the cops.

Did anyone else see the interview? Rush seemed extremely frail, is he ill?

[Tess49]

6. I saw the interview. He did appear frail to me. n/t

[DeminPennswoods]

7. Rush does not look good to me

This is the second interview I've seen with him recently. He's only 73, but looks about 20 yrs older. He did survive a bout with cancer in 2008.

[GoneOffShore]

8. You might want to put that it's Bobby Rush in the subject line.

Initially I thought it was Rush Limpballs.

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Not that there's a connection.

At least one that anybody who’s not in authority could name.

[madville]

10. Isn't this kind of what the Defund the Police crowd wants?

For the cops to do nothing or not exist at all?

[Jedi Guy]

11. What the "Defund the Police" crowd wants is extremely vague, from where I'm sitting.

The sensible ones are talking about reducing the amount of money allocated to police budgets, and instead using those funds for other methods of community support. So things like social workers, mental health professionals, housing assistance, things like that. In theory, it could work out reasonably well.

Sometimes cops are tasked with handling things that really aren't in their wheelhouse, such as when a school principal calls the cops for an unruly kid. Unless the kid is armed and violent, that's really not a police issue, in my opinion. Having non-police professionals on staff to deal with those kinds of behavioral issues is certainly not a terrible idea.

Then there are the absurd "abolish the police" types who somehow think society will function properly with no police presence at all. Even the most cursory knowledge of human nature should make it pretty clear that police are a necessity. Most people are genuinely good and decent, and follow the law because, well, that's what you're supposed to do as part of the social contract. Unfortunately, there are always the assholes and bad actors who don't give a damn about the laws and would run wild in a city with no police.

Regarding this particular incident, I think Mayor Lightfoot is laying it on a bit thick to call this an "unspeakable indignity." The cops involved are definitely in the wrong, but eating someone's popcorn and lounging on their furniture is hardly an "unspeakable indignity." It's petty theft and dereliction of duty, but that's about as far as it goes.