Madigan leadership is the key to protecting police

Madigan leadership is the key to protecting police: Opinion

By Ray Hanania

This week, Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan withdraw his name as a contender to remain in that powerful position and instead urged the Democratic caucus to put together the 60 votes needed to elect a new speaker.

Some see it as a surrender by Madigan, who is probably one of the most brilliant politicians to come out of Illinois since Abraham Lincoln. Others see it as a clever political strategy. Step back and let the critics squabble and then step back into the leadership spot.

For his critics, Madigan has to go because, well, they have been trying to remove him from office for decades and have failed. These are the champions of what I call "the loser's strategy to win office," also called "term limits." Losers who consistently fail to impress enough voters to win office through the election ballot, push for "term limits" because it is an easier alternative.

There are many people who could take Madigan's place who are qualified, competent and strong leaders. They include State Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch. But I don't believe now is the time to change our leadership.

Some in the Democratic Party have become weak because of all the turmoil spilling over from the nation's divisiveness. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, the increasing violence not only in Chicago but in Cook County, or the bullying of "the politically entrenched" by the extreme Left in the Democratic Party tee'd up by Donald Trump's unhinged presidency over the past four years that ended abruptly when his foes twisted a Capitol Hill protest into an "insurrection" and attempted political coup. They think if Madigan would just step down and let someone new take over, they can get past all the turmoil.

But you have to look deeper. It's all just a distraction. The real issue for me is what will we lose if Madigan is pushed out of office? There is major price to pay that good citizens shouldn't have to pay.

All of the violent turmoil and protests of the past four years has ironically coalesced into one major issue, softening the fight against criminals -- because somehow, crime has now become a racial issue and an issue of discrimination and civil rights. The BLM protests have twisted and distorted the real issues involving the fight against crimes and instead of blaming the criminals, we now blame the police.

In fact, blaming the police has become a political weapon. One incident involving a few police officers responding with excess force in confronting a drug-addled, weapon carrying teenage moron, who happens to be African American, and gets killed becomes the logo or the brand of "police brutality" driven by racist hatred.

It doesn't seem to matter that some of the police might be African American themselves. It doesn't seem to matter that the victims have horrible criminal records. It doesn't seem to matter that they refused to listen to the police. It doesn't seem to matter that the suspects were carrying weapons. It doesn't even matter that they were one drugs.

All that matters is the corruption of politics -- that the "victims" are perceived as being of one race, African-American, and that the police are perceived as all being "White."

There is absolutely no doubt that African Americans have suffered in American society. Brought here as slaves in a system of slavery that preyed on Africans throughout the world, they were abused, oppressed and murdered. They were denied their rights. But a lot of that changed. It didn't happen over night but the civil rights movement that arose from the depths of that racist system of segregation is a blessing that has not only helped African Americans, it has also helped many other minority groups.

Today's laws are not last century's laws, although racism continues to be a problem. That can change through reasoned dialogue and understanding, not through confrontational political polemics.

What can't be changed, however, is America's ethnocentricity. Ethnic groups like to stick together. We have Irish neighborhoods. Polish neighborhoods. Mexican neighborhoods. Arab neighborhoods. Jewish neighborhoods. Italian neighborhoods. There has been some assimilation off all societies but ethnic identity remains strong.

I am proud to be Arab American, for example. And while the majority of Arabs are good decent people, there are some who are criminals, terrorists and deplorable -- not an entire society as defined by Hillary Clinton, the queen of deplorables.

It's like that in every ethnic community. The majority are good and there is always a small segment that is bad. It's like that in every race, ethnic group, religion, group or profession. And it's like that in the police.

There are many great police officers who risk their lives everyday to protect our community. They have to make judgment calls about saving lives especially when suspects and individuals refuse to cooperate, listen or follow the law.

Yes, there are a few who are corrupt.

But do we stereotype groups? Do we take individual incidents and blame them on whole groups? A race? A profession?

That's exactly what is happening today in The Illinois Legislature where HB 163 has been introduced to undermine support for the police and to undermine protections for law abiding citizens. Police need to do their jobs, which is to protect us. Protecting us IS their job. And when you tie the hands of the police in responding to crime, you expose the public to worse violence.

Already, Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx has created a atmosphere that is weak on fighting crime and that is signaling to the criminals that Cook County is the place to be if you want to commit a crime. The punishments in Cook County are not as tough as they are elsewhere. The thresholds for prosecutions have been raised and the crimes have to reach higher levels before they will be taken seriously.

A report released last week shows that 2020 was the worst year for crimes in Cook County of more than three decades.

There's nothing we can do about Foxx, for now. We're stuck with her. The way to take the pressure off of her failures is to undermine the policing system that has made the protection of the public a priority.

The extremists on the far left and the far right believe if they can oust Madigan from office, they can achieve their goals. The far right wants to take control of the legislature. The far left wants to change our society and people like Madigan are standing in the way of both.

Mike Madigan is the one person who is standing in the way of the radical Left and Right defending the interests of the public. If Mike Madigan is removed from leadership as Speaker, we risk seeing the passage of House Bill 163 sailing through the legislature and being signed by a weak governor, J.B. Pritzker.

HB 163 is 611 pages of political racism (click this link to view the entire bill), wrapped around some basic reforms like requiring all police to wear cameras, that is intended to undermine and weaken the Police while strengthening the "rights" of criminals.

Don't look at things separately. You have to look at the bigger picture.