Chicago – Jewish families in the West Rogers Park area in Chicago are using off-duty police officers to secure the area after recent threats, but top cops say residents shouldn’t get a false sense of security and should rely on 911.
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After a chain of anti-Semitic threats and attacks on Jews in the area, local families began organizing patrols and paying off-duty police officers to patrol the neighborhood, reports DNAinfo New York (http://dnain.fo/1A6vQAc).
Resident David Kamish, 41, who organized the patrols, collects $25 a month from over 25 families to pay the officers. The pay goes to off-duty officers assigned to the Rogers Park Police District, who use personal cars to patrol Jewish institutions and drive around a 16-block area of West Rogers Park during the weekly Sabbath and holidays.
But the police are asking residents to stop the patrols.
Richard Concaildi, CAPS (the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy) facilitator for the area, encourages residents to use 911 if they see suspicious behavior or encounter threats.
Andrew Glatz, a resident of the area, said the private patrols were not meant to offend the police department, and that the trained officers know what to look when patrolling the neighborhood.
The area saw two attacks in April; on April 19, two people were robbed at gunpoint and on April 27, a synagogue and the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center both received suspicious letters filled with baking soda. The letters allegedly contained Arabic writing and an image of what appeared to be an Islamic radical fighter.
I visited chicago years ago and most people were afraid of Al Caponea
obamas adopted home town going the way of Detroit.
Why isn’t police moonlighting considered a form of police corruption? What I mean is that they’re making a market, for personal gain, in their status. When they’re off-duty, they still have their police powers and privileges, so their private sector employer is basically bribing the cop for personal attention. Police work shifts, so their off time is supposed to be for resting, so it should be forbidden for police to moonlight even as hairdressers. It also lets criminals hire cops for protection. The officer might not initially know an employer is a crook, and the salary might “blind” him to the possibility when he eventually notices suspicious stuff going on.
Just say that calling 911 on Shabbos when not life threatening isn’t an option for us and even when life threatening none of us are carrying cell phones.