Anti-Cop Mentality Helps the Bad Guys: Chicago's Ex-Police Superintendent

CHICAGO, IL — In a talk that criticized Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and San Francisco backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick, former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the city's current climate of anti-police sentiment is perpetuating violence by helping criminals create "a culture of legitimizing noncompliance" and making officers second-guess how to do their jobs, the Chicago Tribune reports.

McCarthy spoke Monday to about 200 people at the City Club of Chicago. It was his first extensive public speaking engagement since being fired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in December in the aftermath of the release of the Laquan McDonald video.

"We actually have a presidential candidate, whose name I'm not even going to mention, campaigning on 'police violence'," he said, referring to Clinton's presidential run. "This is empowering criminals."

The city's former top cop told the audience that withholding the McDonald tape maintained the integrity of an ongoing investigation and that it should not have been released, the Tribune reports. A police dashboard camera video of the 2014 shooting of McDonald, 17, was released by judicial order last November.

McCarthy also said the U.S. Justice Department's investigation of CPD has had a chilling effect on officers who are afraid they could be cited for civil rights violations for doing their jobs, the report added.

Concerning Kaepernick and his protests during the playing of the national anthem at NFL games, McCarthy said this after the anthem played before his talk, according to Kim Janssen of the Tribune's Chicago Inc.: "Thank you everyone for standing during my favorite song. I didn't see anybody kneeling, I didn't see anyone engaging in attention-seeking behavior because their NFL career is over."

More via the Chicago Tribune

photo via Patch archive

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