Free Republic

Video footage on Tuesday emerged showing the moment when plainclothes Chicago police officers unloaded nearly 100 gunshots during a traffic stop last month, killing a man and subsequently leading to negative anti-cop coverage. However, the narrative of police killing an innocent man runs counter to the facts. As the New York Post reported, 26-year-old Dexter Reed was killed during a March 21 traffic stop in Humboldt Park on West Ferdinand Street after officers in an unmarked cop car pulled him over for failing to wear a seatbelt. The wild footage opens with a female officer and four others approaching Reed’s...

One way to “defund the police” is by not hiring officers – a strategy supported by many in Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s camp. The problem is, failing to hire more officers is backfiring. It leads to higher costs, some of which are very hard to count but easy to see. To date Chicago has spent $126 million on police overtime in 2023, according to a WTTW analysis of city records. This is ahead of last year, when the city spent a record $210 million on police overtime. The bump is because police strength is down by more than 1,700 since...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, once an advocate for Defund the Police, has a secret group of cops protecting her alongside her bodyguard, it's been revealed The unit of 65 officers, five sergeants and a lieutenant are providing protection for the city’s mayor together with her bodyguard detail of about 20 officers The revelation comes after Lightfoot proposed slashing $80 million from the Chicago Police Department budget in 2020 during Defund the Police protests The proposal was later scaled back and $59 million of the budget was cut She has since denounced the movement and pleaded with the AG to send...

CHICAGO (AP) — The head of the Chicago police officers union has called on its members to defy the city’s requirement to report their COVID-19 vaccination status by Friday or be placed on unpaid leave. In the video posted online Tuesday and first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara vowed to take Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration to court if it tries to enforce the mandate, which requires city workers to report their vaccine status by the end of the work week. After Friday, unvaccinated workers who won’t submit to semiweekly coronavirus testing will be...

Foot pursuits are to be discontinued for reasons including the officer believing they wouldn’t be able to control the suspect in the case of a confrontation. Chicago police will be adopting a new foot chase police that looks to limit when an officer can engage in the tactic. This comes after two cases of police killing someone they were in pursuit of on foot. The new policy, which goes into effect on June 11, prohibits foot chases in connection to minor traffic offenses or for criminal offenses less than a Class A misdemeanor, "unless the person poses an obvious threat...

Incredible video released tonight. Chicago police officers confront a man wanted for stabbing a citizen nearby. Perp has a large knife, overcomes the Tazer and then charges the female sergeant. He is shot 15 times before falling. No word if the officer was stabbed.

CHICAGO — A Chicago man known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy” is facing three charges after riding his horse on the Dan Ryan Monday afternoon. At around 4:30 p.m., police responded to the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan after Adam Hollingsworth, 33, better known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy,” was seen riding his horse on the expressway near 35th Street. He rode for around 30 minutes as traffic slowed to a halt with Illinois State Police and Chicago police following close behind. Police said they asked Hollingsworth and those who were with him to exit the expressway multiple times and said...

There is no shortage of activist groups denouncing allegations of police brutality. Sometimes it's legitimate; every honest person admits that unwarranted acts of violence against undeserving citizens occur. How could they not? There are about 700,00 sworn officers in the United States who make over 50 million contacts with the public every year. The act is getting played out, though, because to suggest that every fatal result is tied to racism or that the actions of a minute few should speak for the entire group is a gross absurdity. Last week in Chicago, a protest of sorts obediently marched to...

CHICAGO - More than a dozen Chicago police officers and supervisors were captured on video “lounging” inside a burglarized congressional campaign office and even appeared to be making popcorn and brewing coffee as people vandalized and stole from nearby businesses as protests and unrest spread across the city, a visibly angry Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democrat whose district includes much of the city’s South Side and southern suburbs, said his staff first viewed the video and he brought it to Lightfoot on Wednesday. The footage was taken on May 31 and early June 1,...

WGN Investigates has learned Chicago police officers have concerns the city has given them old, ineffective hand sanitizer that potentially puts them at risk. The city distributed thousands of bottles of “Safe-Tec” hand sanitizer to officers at roll calls Wednesday morning. Some officers who thought the bottles looked old, contacted the company. In an email obtained by WGN Investigates, a “Safe-Tec” sales manager said the hand sanitizer hasn’t been manufactured since 2012. A city spokesperson insists the sanitizer is effective as long as the bottle wasn't opened in the years since it was produced. A Chicago police spokesperson blamed a...

Why doesn’t this surprise me? People lament the violence in cities that have been under one-party political rule for decades. But voters keep electing people who not only fail to make things better but also make things worse. Take Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for example. Voters elected another cookie-cutter, anti-law and order politician, and the violence that was bad before she took office may be getting worse. But, of course it’s not her fault or the fault of bad policies. No. The fault belongs to—you guessed it—the police. Who didn’t see that one coming? No cop, that’s for sure. But...

CHICAGO — Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson admitted he “had a few drinks”after he was found "slumped over" in a car early Thursday morning, according the mayor's office. In an interview with the Sun-Times Friday, Mayor Lightfoot refused to say whether the superintendent should have been driving or whether he should have been given a sobriety test. The mayor told the Sun-Times she would await the outcome of the internal investigation before determining whether the rules were bent to protect the boss and whether to hold Johnson responsible. "While we have no indication of impropriety at this time, this question...

Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush blasted the Chicago police union over the weekend as “the sworn enemy of black people,” pushing back at the controversy surrounding prosecutor Kim Foxx and her office's handling of the Jussie Smollett case. During a press conference on Saturday, Rush, D-Ill., tore into Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police after members of the union participated in protests demanding Cook County State's Attorney Foxx resign from her post. “The FOP is the sworn enemy of black people, the sworn enemy of black people,” Rush said Saturday. “The FOP has always taken the position that black people can...

Appearing Wednesday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Jussie Smollett attorney Tina Glandian told anchor George Stephanopoulos that the Empire star is mulling a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department over their handling of his alleged hate hoax case.

CWBChicago is posting the complete Chicago Police Department investigative file on the Jussie Smollett "hate crime" investigation that we have received in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. We have not read or reviewed the files for completeness or accuracy. These files were provided by the Chicago Police Department in response to a FOIA request that CWBChicago submitted upon learning that the Cook County State's Attorney's Office had reached a sealed agreement to resolve Smollett's criminal exposure in the case. Our requests for video, including bodycam, surveillance, and interrogation, was denied.

Shortened title. Full title: Top Chicago Cop Slams Prosecutors For Dropping Charges Against Smollett ‘They Brokered a Deal in Secret to Circumvent Judicial System’ Crooked Chicago prosecutors dropped the charges against hate hoaxer Jussie Smollett on Tuesday. Chicago police are furious over state’s attorney Kim Foxx’s decision to drop all charges against Jussie Smollett. Smollett reached a deferred prosecution deal and the judge sealed his case! Even worse, Jussie Smollett and his lawyer are sticking to the BIG LIE that Smollett was attacked by racist white Trump supporters. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held...

'EMPIRE' BOMBSHELL! SMOLLETT CHARGES DROPPED STAR STICKS TO STORY HE WAS ATTACKED 'TRUTHFUL AND CONSISTENT' COMMUNITY SERVICE CASE SEALED CHICAGO POLICE 'FURIOUS'

In a highly unusual decision, prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett that accused him of staging a hate-crime attack against himself — a move that Mayor Rahm Emanuel later called a “whitewash of justice.” The actor was indicted March 8 with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly hiring two men to attack him near his Streeterville home in January. The $10,000 posted for Smollett’s bond will be turned over to the City of Chicago Law Department. The hearing lasted less than 5 minutes. Cook County Circuit Judge Steven G. Watkins sealed the case file. Chicago...

<p>Chicago’s police union has demanded a federal investigation into the county’s top prosecutor for allegedly interfering in the Jussie Smollett case after being contacted by Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff.</p> <p>The Fraternal Order of Police, which represents the department’s rank-and-file, sent a letter earlier this week asking the Department of Justice to probe Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, according to ABC 7 Chicago.</p>

Chicago prosecutors dropped charges against actor Jussie Smollett on Tuesday… ALL CHARGES WERE DROPPED!!