Wednesday, January 14, 2009

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?

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

We should have the police follow U.N. directives. Whereas one can only fire their weapon when fired upon.

Anonymous said...

The family whose home was invaded should now take the awardees to court. Pain,suffering, post traumatic stress disorder etc..... Sue the parents of the 14 year old for not properly teaching their kid right from wrong and not knowing the where abouts of their son. Child endangerment for allowing their son to associate with the 26 year old.TAKE THE MONEY BACK!

Rue St. Michel said...

Great post! It's pretty sad that you have to quote the ILCS statute in order to clarify that the ODPO's actions were completely justified.

The mainstream press can't be bothered to highlight such details.

Semper gumbi

SECOND CITY SARGE said...

Thanks Rue.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
The family whose home was invaded should now take the awardees to court. Pain,suffering, post traumatic stress disorder etc..... Sue the parents of the 14 year old for not properly teaching their kid right from wrong and not knowing the where abouts of their son. Child endangerment for allowing their son to associate with the 26 year old.TAKE THE MONEY BACK!

Wed Jan 14, 09:36:00 AM


Great idea!!!!! Hire Loevy to take them to court!!!!!

Anonymous said...

That is brilliant! Let's start taking our cases to Loevy! Follow the money. Pookey wins the City Lottery and start sueing Pookey. Once they finally have something that can be taken away ( cant take away their link card ) who knows...the may become republicans!

Anonymous said...

this is why i go to work and do nothing.

Anonymous said...

New change to the ILCS: Now police officers are supposed to stop before using deadly force and make sure the gun the "armed offender" isn't packing a pellet gun. We don't want the city have to give our hard owned taxpayers away to the misguided youth who just make a bad decision.

Anonymous said...

We should have the police follow U.N. directives. Whereas one can only fire their weapon when fired upon.

--------------------------

Does the U.N by law have answer calls of man with gun or domestics with weapons? No. Liberal idiot. The U.N is not the police, and U.N. soldiers face less threats than a police officer in the US, if I saw men raping women as the UN did in Bosnia, police officers would of died preventing it, not running away.

Anonymous said...

loevy couldn't take the case but im sure some other hot shit oops hot shot attorney will

Anonymous said...

Thu Jan 15, 01:30:00 PM-

I'm pretty sure the post you responded to is sarcasism. Relax a bit, will you?

Anonymous said...

U.N. forces face much more dangerous enemies then mere foot cops. They encounter machinegun and rocket launching thugs all about the world. Cops? What a zip gun? A knife or two?

Anonymous said...

To Jan 16, 0926am:
A knife or two? Yeah, that's all CPD has to deal with. Sure.

Anonymous said...

Off Topic:
40 Lts in 2009...Comments?

Anonymous said...

Maybe that's why the UN sucks eggs and couldn't protect an ice cream store.

Anonymous said...

Obama swore an incorrect oath of office at the Presidential inauguration on Abraham Lincoln's Bible. The oath was readministered yesterday correctly without the use of any Bible.

A president is required by the Constitution to say, "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Obama could NOT guarantee preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution while swearing his oath upon the Bible.

At the inauguration, Justice Roberts instead said: "that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully."

Reported at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012103685_pf.html

Anonymous said...

This is posted under the Chicago Tribune comments on the article about Jose Vazquez's unsolved murder.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-vazquez-murder-city-zonejan22,0,4592589.story

shortly after officer vasquez's murder my boss made a comment that she was a juror on a trial of another cpd officer who was on trial for robbing money and drugs from gangbangers he pulled over and that officer vasquez testified against the accused officer. coincedence? and what about officer soto and his lady friend? what about their unsolved murders? what kind of message is this giving to potential future cop killers? that as long as they are off-duty it doesn't count?

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/chicago-tribune/T7CJ76VEHMUA5GD8B

Was Vazquez mixed up in the SOS thing? He was on a different team than JF and crew. What is up with this?

Anonymous said...

It seems the det. never really investigate a crime, unless they have the smoking gun with an offender.

MrKing said...

Il should take a look at Tx's concealed carry and castle laws. They'd go a long way towards cleaning up the south and west sides

Anonymous said...

I saw this story in the Sun Times and was outraged until I recognized the name of the involved officer. Then realized the real reason the city settled. It's odd that no one checked out where this guy is now and why. Even the braindead hacks in the Corp. Counsels office knew they could never let this go to court.Will not post until I find my old paperwork filed away somewhere but will return to this. Ask in 015 what happened to Raphael Balbontin I know because I was there. Hate to say it when only 99% sure, memories can fade but this one sticks out and will not go the distance unless 100%. Get some trained investigators to look this one up. This is not about the home invasion but why I think the city settled.The two scumbags should'nt have gotten a penny.

Anonymous said...

Found it in Sun Times archives, late Jan. 2005. Chicago cop held on one million bond for the stabbing murder of his wife. I believe he's doing 20+ these days and would not have made a good witness in the civil case. Unfortunately for the wife,case closed.

Please keep in mind that this is an open blog
that can and is read by people other than Chicago Police Officers.