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He Was Shot 4 Times
From Second City Cop:
[…] I’m also still furious Lappe insinuated to [Officer X] he could come back light duty and sit at a desk. [Officer X] was shot a total of 4 times, twice in the head. He died twice that night. He has hearing aids in both ears. He lost an eye. And Lappe suggested [Officer X] come back to work in some capacity. It still makes me sick.
Officer X just has not given enough to the City of Chicago to qualify for his disability pension.
He’s not a scammer in a city and state that is famous for scammers. Maybe the hope is he’ll die before he can collect on any health care. Maybe they’ll hope he starves to death before he receives a check to pay for groceries. The Governor of Illinois has not missed any meals even though his contributions hasn’t cost him anything.
His situation has been resolved:
Published in PolicingOur e-mailer was furious over the treatment of Officer X. We’re pretty sure most readers can pick out EXACTLY who Officer X is, but he is a private person and doesn’t want to make waves. His situation was resolved eventually, but this is ridiculous that he even had to go through this.
The FOP and the Pension Board need to revisit, reform, streamline and fix this process. We don’t give a [REDACTED] if it has “been this way for thirty years.” We could list a few hundred things that have changed in the last thirty years – some of them were even good changes. Different classifications of woundings/injuries would be a good start, because these two examples we’ve cited involve Officers being either crippled or just short of Line of Duty Deaths by fractions of inches.
What is the criterion for disability here?
Is it ability to work? Because I know a lot of people with hearing aids, and they can work. I’ve known a few people with one eye, and they can work. In many jobs, these disabilities will make very little difference.
How many people do you know that were shot four times? Your empathy well is extremely shallow. That comes as no surprise to me.
My question would be this: Why is this being considered under disability pension and not Workman’s Compensation? In any other job if a worker was injured on the job while performing work activity, his compensation for treatment and disability would be considered a Workman’s Comp claim and the employer would be required by law to maintain an insurance policy to cover such claims. There is no legal minimum length of employment or minimum contribution required before Workman’s Compensation begins coverage. It goes into effect as soon as the employee begins work.
Sounds like a union thing to me.
Is it possible that there is more to the story? Like if he works X days he will qualify for more money?
OTOH, Chicago.
DeSantis sees an opportunity. These billboards are going up in Chicago.
I knew a man who had been shot, multiple times, on multiple occasions, in the head. He had serious hearing loss, his lower jaw was rebuilt twice, most of his teeth were artificial.
He was one of the hardest working people I ever met. He specialized in commercial plumbing and electrical, and outside of work was extremely active in the church. You needed anything, or to get anything done, Mike was there.
I know firsthand that there are cases when a person can be severely injured and still be fit for work. I would even accept that it would often be beneficial for the injured person to continue to work if able in order to avoid the negative psychological impacts of an unplanned retirement.
I think that after injuries such as this, the officer should be entitled to disability compensation due to the permanent pain and suffering he will experience as a result of performing his job. He should not be required to return to the workplace he sustained such injuries in if he doesn’t want to in order for him to qualify for compensation for injury he’s already sustained. However I also would encourage him to find work he is capable of doing, in order to keep his mind occupied and his body fit, to the extent that it is possible.
But does ANYONE really want ex Chicago cops?
As long as you keep an eye on them, sure. If they prove honest you have a win. If they prove bent, you bounce them.
Don’t underestimate them. They caught Jussie Smollett’s “assailants.”
I guess, but, he made it kinda easy didn’t he? Paid them by personal check, and stuff.
They found them, then they found the check while executing the search warrant.
I guess it didn’t occur to them to check his bank records first. Is that a demerit? Maybe, unless they were simply not allowed to suspect it was a setup.
Generally you need a search warrant for bank records too.
Two things became apparent for the detectives investigating the Smollett assault. The first was what they noticed when interviewing him in his home shortly after the attack. His Subway sandwich survived the attack in pristine condition.
The second was they knew that Kimmie Fox, the States Attorney for Cook County was going to tank the investigation. The detectives decided to leak info to the media because Fox was going to further Smollett’s narrative.
I have some advice for Mr. Smollett. Involving police officers into your hoax is not a very good plan. Kimmie Fox received several phone calls urging her not to dig into the story and there is a rumor that Michelle Obama was one of those callers.
Does ANYONE really want ex Chicago cops?
Yes. Of course. The idiots in Chicago (Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York…) are busily making it as difficult as possible to do a good job of serving and protecting their citizens. They are driving out officers who, for a variety of reasons (among which is talent), can go elsewhere.
Departments in not-stupid cities and the citizens thereof will benefit, the dwindling number of officers and citizens of Chicago (Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York…) will lose.
I met a police officer from Memphis when I was in DC in May. She’d been a cop for over twenty years. This year, she said that she and her colleagues are severely demoralized, thanks to the appalling results of “social justice” hiring practices. If they hadn’t lost an officer in the line of duty, she wouldn’t have come to DC. For the first time, she wasn’t proud to be wearing her uniform. Oh, and by the way, she was black, as well as (it may need to be said) female.
Memphis has lost a lot of officers in the line of duty. The latest is Memphis Police Officer Geoffrey Redd, who according to the Memphis P.D. in memoriam page, succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained two weeks earlier while responding to a suspicious person call at the Poplar-White Station Library at 5094 Poplar Avenue.
Officers, including Officer Redd, had responded to a nearby business regarding a trespasser. Approximately 30 minutes later the subject became engaged in an altercation with a citizen inside of the Poplar-White Station Library. As Officer Redd and another officer attempted to contact the subject outside of the library, the man produced a handgun and opened fire on them.
Officer Redd was shot and critically wounded before the other officer returned fire killing the subject. Officer Redd was transported to Regional One Hospital and remained in critical condition until succumbing to his wounds on February 18th, 2023.
Several years prior to being shot, Officer Redd had been critically injured when he was struck by a vehicle while on duty. He returned to duty following an extensive recovery period.
Officer Redd had served with the Memphis Police Department for 15 years. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, and four grandchildren.
I’m going to keep an eye out for his family when I’m in DC this year.
I know, or knew, two people who were shot in the head. One was killed. One was badly injured, and if I remember correctly, he lost an eye. I did not know either of them well, and do not know how many times they were shot in the head.
This, however, has nothing to do with the issue presented in the OP. Sympathy or empathy can have something to do with the issue presented in the OP, but only in the sense that these feelings can lead to incorrect conclusions about eligibility for disability benefits.
I do empathize with the officer. What happened was terrible. I’d like him to be compensated, both for lost income, if any, and for his other pain and suffering.
I am making an assumption about the disability policy or program at issue. I assume that, like most such policies or programs, the purpose of the disability payment is to replace income lost because a disability either eliminates, or reduces, a person’s earning capacity. The purpose of disability is not to provide compensation for pain and suffering, or for other significant limitations and inconveniences that result from an injury, if such problems do not affect earnings.
Here, from the facts presented, it appears that the person criticized was merely stating the presumably applicable rule, that an injured officer cannot get disability payments if he is still able to work. Again, I’m assuming that this is the rule, but this makes sense in the disability context.
I note that the objection made does not contend that the injured officer is actually unable to work. The attitude seems to be that, contrary to the apparent rules of disability recovery, some people think that this injured officer should not have to work, even if he can. Because of empathy or sympathy.
So this seems to be an example of emotion overriding the fair, rational application of the rules.
Worse, in my view, those claiming empathy aren’t actually exhibiting empathy. They are exhibiting anger and outrage, at the decision-maker who appears to have made a proper decision, or at least to have stated the correct rule for whether this particular injured officer should receive disability compensation.
I’m no longer willing to accept the default of “good cop” without some evidence of her performance from body camera videos etc.
Being a cop for over 20 years doesn’t mean a lot either, when you look at the evidence: