The Police Beat

There are protests against Chicago Police plans to issue assault rifles to officers:

A group of South side youths pushing for a public meeting on the Chicago Police Department’s plan to start buying M4 carbine assault rifles is unlikely to get its wish.

The department is moving forward with buying the guns, Superintendent Jody Weis said at a meeting last night. Weis also said he would be discussing the plan with the city’s multicultural advisory committee next month.

A group of about 40 protestors from the Southwest Youth Collaborative chanted slogans like “Stop the war on the poor, no more M4s” outside of Chicago Police headquarters before the meeting, holding up signs as they paced in a large circle.

Like many of the teens at the protest, Ansheera Hilliard, 17, wants to see more options for youths on the South side besides taking jobs at fast food restaurants and joining gangs.

“Put more community centers in these problematic neighborhoods they’re talking about,” Hilliard says.
Simply giving officers more powerful weapons wouldn’t do anything to address the underlying crime problems in the city, she says.

“They want to get us off the streets,” Hilliard says. “Find out what we want to do so we can get ourselves off the streets.”

There is actually more on the CapFax with excerpt from stories about cuts to CAPS, Chicago's community policing program and CTA President Ron Huberman's attempt to maintain his police pension justifying it by saying that his CTA job revolves around security. Millers titled his post, "More hypocrisy on the police beat".