TOP COP TIPS
It’s a battle for ammunition. Only this time it’s not for guns. Combatants for Chicago’s mayoral mantle have been pitching plans to stop the city’s soaring crime, producing a mountain of untested ideas.
Blah blah blah.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the anti-gun pastor of St. Sabina’s church in a violence-torn part of the South Side, a pastor who has seen way too many coffins filled with children killed by crossfire, is now weighing in on the city’s most dangerous territory.
Pfleger suggests:
• Chicago’s next top cop should be chosen from within the “ranks of the Chicago Police Department.”
• The new police superintendent should operate “from a firm strategy and not just a bunch of mandates” as it’s been during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration.
Of Supt. David Brown, Pfleger said: “Our police superintendent was an outsider, did not come from the CPD’s ranks, did not relate with the community, was not listening to his police officers, making them work with no days off, throwing them here and there.”
He said former Supt. Eddie Johnson “was constantly visiting the communities.”
Pfleger, who deals frequently with the department, said he thought Brown “did not know the city, did not understand the city. And we’ve got to stop saying ‘more’ police and start saying ‘good’ police. There are a lot of communities who don’t necessarily feel safer with ‘more’ police.”
Pfleger said the new top cop “needs to listen to his cops, see the community as a partner, see the value of talking and listening to people and not be afraid of it.”
Pfleger: Part 2 …
Whoa! In the wake of a negative reaction to Walgreens’ decision to not sell mifepristone abortion pills in 21 states, Sneed was reminded of a pulpit comment about the dignity of life by Pfleger in a recent Sneed interview.
“We seem more obsessed with preserving the dignity of life within the womb than dealing with what happens to protecting life outside a mother’s womb, a life which has to deal with violence, poverty, racism, lack of education, housing, depression and mental illness and drugs.
“We cannot take such a narrow view of abortion if we only care about the child being born, but not the child reaching his or her destiny.”
Is it Toni’s time?
Consider.
Once upon a time, two Chicago women named Lori and Toni ruled over a combined populace akin to half the population of Illinois.
It was no secret Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle were not fond of each other politically or personally.
• Backshot: Preckwinkle, a Cook County administrative Goliath, lost a bid for mayor four years ago, which was ultimately won in a mayoral runoff by attorney Lightfoot, a novice in elected office.
• Upshot: Lightfoot, who has just lost her bid for reelection, is now dealing with her campaign’s decision NOT to initially hardtarget the mayoral campaign of progressive candidate Brandon Johnson, who’ll face Paul Vallas in a runoff that appears to be this/close.
• Buckshot: Sneed is told that Preckwinkle, who recently endorsed Johnson, is steering his campaign big-time.
• Final shot: If Johnson wins the mayoral race, has the formidable Preckwinkle finally found a way to get a piece of a job she had once sought … albeit as the top adviser to the mayor?
Now that’s power.
The big question …
Hmmm.
Is a suddenly very silent Chuy Garcia, who lost his bid for mayor, noodling a notion not to endorse either Vallas or fellow party progressive Johnson for mayor?
Is the popular Illinois congressman, who is up for reelection in 2024, between a rock and a hard place?
The big question? Will the Chicago Teachers Union threaten NOT to endorse Garcia’s 2024 reelection bid if he does not endorse Johnson?
Or does he care?
Just asking.
Sneedlings …
Conservative gab pays. Now, we know: The late radio ranter Rush Limbaugh’s Palm Beach home sold for $155 million. … A yummy thumbs-up! The sweetest of congrats to Northfield’s delish Three Tarts Bakery & Cafe on its 25th anniversary! Cupcakes and a cuppa were celebratory servings. ... Acclaimed historian Edward Achorn hits Winnetka’s The Book Stall at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to discuss his new book, “The Lincoln Miracle,” which is based on Lincoln’s 1860 Republican National Convention presidential nomination in Chicago he bills as the most consequential political moment in American history. Saturday birthdays: actress Thora Birch, 41, actor Johnny Knoxville, 52, and actor Terrence Howard, 54. Sunday birthdays: actress Jaime Alexander, 39, singer James Taylor, 75, and Sen. Mitt Romney, 76.