At CWB Chicago Tim Hecke reports:
One of the highest-ranking officers in the Chicago Police Department barred city cops from responding to calls for help from federal agents who reported being surrounded by a large crowd in Brighton Park on Saturday, according to CPD radio transmissions.
CPD Chief of Patrol Jon Hein ordered city officers to leave the area as tensions escalated following the shooting of a woman by Border Patrol agents, supervisors said in recorded radio traffic.
concluding:
A dispatcher relayed that an agent said “he’s one of about 30 armed Border Patrol agents, ICE. They’re being surrounded by a large crowd of people [and he is] requesting CPD. They don’t see any weapons in the crowd.”
“If you guys can immediately head down to 39th Place and Kedzie, please, and go assist them,” the dispatcher urged units leaving the station. “I’m looking on the [cameras], and there are lots of cars.”
Those CPD units responded but, per supervisory orders, stopped a couple of blocks short of where the agents said they were being surrounded. About five minutes later, they were told to leave.
“Just to confirm,” a dispatcher asked, “they were saying that they were being surrounded by that large crowd and they were requesting the police and we’re not sending?”
“Again, those are the orders we’re being given,” the supervisor replied.
Saturday’s shooting marked at least the second time this week that CPD supervisors directed officers to avoid federal enforcement actions involving ICE. On Wednesday, after Border Patrol agents detained a man at the scene of a West Side traffic crash, CPD officers initially responded but were later told to steer clear.
“The [crashed] car can sit in the middle of the street,” one supervisor said. “As long as we’re not over there, it’s all that matters.”
Read the whole thing. The part of the story you are more likely to have heard about happened shortly thereafter which Matt Masterson reports at WTTW:
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling rejected claims his officers failed to respond to a pair of incidents involving federal agents in the city over the weekend, saying more than two dozen officers were affected by chemical gas deployed by the agents.
Snelling on Monday refuted statements that his officers were told not to respond to the calls for service Saturday, one of which allegedly involved a federal agent shooting a woman and a second that involved vehicles allegedly attempting to “box in” federal vehicles.
“Those who will tell you that our officers weren’t there, say that to the 27 officers who were affected by the chemical agents that were deployed by federal agents,” he said in a press conference.
When asked about Chief of Patrol Hein’s directions, Chief Snelling responded that it was a mistake and he had spoken with Hein.
If true, it was worse than a mistake. It was a crime—obstruction of justice.
At this point I have no idea what actually happened. I only know what different sides are reporting.
Should be videos available to show if police actually arrived. Also videos to show if ICE claims were true.
Steve
I don’t think any of that radio dispatch should be surprising. Illinois law and Chicago ordinance prevent law enforcement from helping immigration enforcement. When the Governor sent Illinois State Troopers to the Broadview ICE facility for crowd control, he was criticized for helping immigration enforcement. Law enforcement might make different conclusions on abstract concepts about the difference between not helping and being neutral. Pritzker must have understood (too late) that if neutrality means federal officers and buildings are damaged or are prevented from being used to enforce federal law, it’s an invitation for the feds to deploy the national guard and other federal resources.