MORE GOOD MONEY WASTED

City OKs $2.25M to home invader's kin

by Fran Spielman

SunTimes

Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) voted against the settlement, declaring, “I cannot see giving taxpayer money to the family of a home invader. It encourages lawlessness.”

Are you kidding me? Alderman that cats been out of the bag for some time now. Law firms like Loevy and Loevy boast on their website that they have earned "$80 million in jury verdicts for our clients". A great deal of that money coming from settlements with the City of Chicago.
These "civil rights" attorneys hold press conferences and make statements that distort the facts of the case. They minimize their clients intent or even disregard it entirely. They grandstand and are given a public forum to do so via the mainstream Chicago media. The public never hears the side of the involved officer. All the public hears is the tragic outcome.

Attorney Don Shapiro, who represents the Salazar family, has called $2.25 million a “great settlement” for Chicago taxpayers.

“They were tucking tail, running away as fast as they could. There was no reason to shoot and kill this young boy. Police officers are supposed to arrest people. They’re not supposed to be judge, jury and executioner,” he said last month.

Here are the facts. The "boy" was only 14 but he was accompanied with his 26 year old accomplice. They were armed with a pellet gun, wore yellow ponchos and their faces were covered with a mask. These two misguided youths knocked on the door of an off duty policeman's parents house. They forced their way into the house and the officer's elderly mother began screaming that they have a gun. The off duty P.O. was in the basement and gave chase and fired his weapon striking both the offender and his own father.
720 ILCS 5/7‑5{a}.....he is justified in using force likely to cause death or great bodily harm only when he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or such other person, or when he reasonably believes both that:
(1) Such force is necessary to prevent the arrest from being defeated by resistance or escape; and
(2) The person to be arrested has committed or attempted a forcible felony which involves the infliction or threatened infliction of great bodily harm or is attempting to escape by use of a deadly weapon, or otherwise indicates that he will endanger human life or inflict great bodily harm unless arrested without delay.

The officer had every reason to believe that the two home invaders had committed a forcible felony which involved the infliction or threatened infliction of great bodily harm and that their escape would further endanger human life. My question for Mr. Shapiro would be, what if Juan Salazar was running from the officer and made good his escape by entering your home? Oh that's right, it was only a pellet gun.
Can you tell the difference in a split second?