Amelia Finefrock
President Donald Trump’s Chicago slandering is, unfortunately, working – to the point where people across the country believe the city is “on fire,” Police Supt. Eddie Johnson acknowledged Thursday.
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Johnson was asked about inviting Trump to do a “night ride-along without the Secret Service to see the real news” about progress being made in the city’s most violent neighborhoods, instead of the “fake news” the president has been peddling during a luncheon address to the City Club of Chicago. After the audience’s laughter stopped – Johnson turned serious about the damage done by Trump’s repeated portrayal of Chicago as the murder capital of the world.
“When I get off the plane and walk through airports, people say to me, ‘Wow. How do you all survive up there?’ That really chips me because it’s a false narrative the entire city is on fire. That’s just not true. We have pockets in the city where we have violence challenges,” Johnson said.
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“We have almost 700 less people shot in this city this year. That’s huge. It’s not success. But it’s progress. We have to do a better job of just pushing that narrative out there.”
Johnson also invited his audience to go through the citizens academy to get a feel for a dangerous job that everybody likes to have second thoughts on.
“A police officer has to make a split-second decision on whether or not to use force…It’s easy when you can sit back for two or three hours to pour over a video,” the superintendent said.
“We have a scenario called, ‘Shoot, don’t shoot.’ Go through that and see how many people you kill. I guarantee you, you will kill a lot of people.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced Johnson and praised the superintendent and Englewood District Cmdr. Kenneth Johnson for violence reduction efforts that lead the city.
“We only hire people named Johnson. If you want a promotion in the police department, change your name,” the mayor joked.
Emanuel was gone by the time Johnson asked the most controversial question of the day. It derived from a police widow who asked how the city “justifies stripping” police widows and retirees of health insurance benefits, which the unidentified woman said has lead to “widow homelessness in some cases.” She was referring to Emanuel’s now-completed, three-year phase-out of the city’s retiree health care coverage.
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Johnson said he “wasn’t aware of” the cut that saved Chicago taxpayers more than $100 million-a-year.
“It’s an embarrassment to me that that question even has to be raised because that’s not right. I pledge to you I will look into that to see what we can do to stop that from happening,” he said.
“There’s no reason that a police officer’s widow should be homeless after that person gave their life to serve the citizens of the city…As a police officer who’s been involved in shootings and having been injured myself, I know how traumatic that is and the financial burden that’s placed on families of police officers…It’s my commitment and my pledge to you that we will never forget you.”
Not too long ago, Johnson received a kidney transplant from his son. You can watch the touching coverage here via The Chicago Tribune.
