Feeling the Heat-Police Laid off

Laid off Prospect Heights Officer

When I became a Police Officer fourteen years ago I knew that my employment was going to have a large trade off. I was going into a field that would be exciting, offer opportunities to enrich people’s daily lives and have a standard of job security not offered anywhere in the private sector. The trade off was I would not be able to take advantage of the economy when times were good and I would not be individually rewarded for my performance. The worst officer on the force makes the same as the best, even more if the worse has more time on. The promotions are not based on your performance but rather on your ability to answer a written test and your answers before an oral panel made up of the chief’s law enforcement’s friends, once every three years.


When times were good I would receive calls from my college buddies calling me stupid and lazy while their stock soared and they drove high-end BMW’s. When times were bad they would call and express their collective jealousy that they had been laid off while I was in no danger whatsoever of loosing mine. The trade off worked. Till Now.

Hoffman Estates-Laid off 4 Officers

Prospect Heights-Laid off 6 Officers

Naperville-Laid off 6 Officers

Other cities that have laid off police: Barrington, Calumet City, Downers Grove, Fox Lake, Highwood, Hinsdale, Hoffman Estates, Lake in the Hills, Lakemoor, Mundelein, Park Ridge, River Forest, Wauconda, Worth.

Story about Police Officers Laid Off

There have been over 300 officers laid off in Illinois this year alone.  That number does not include support staff who are easiler (due to lack of contact, no negative PR problems for the cities, etc)to lay off and their numbers easily are three times the number of police laid off.

So one of the major features of working in local law enforcement is slowly going away.
 

It has gotten so bad that even one of the major police academies The University of Illinois Police Training Institute (PTI) will be closing.  I never thought that would happen it has been a cash cow for the school for years.  But if no one is hiring police no police need to be trained. 

News Story About Closing of Institute.

I would not recommend anyone seek a career in law enforcement unless they would be going to the Federal level-they have not let anyone go...as of yet.  Why take a reduction in salary and the lack of opportunities for advancement if you are going to be subject to the swings in the economy equal to the private sector?  While I have loved this job if I was just entering the job market I would have sought opportunity elsewhere.

Wow if only these Municipalities had done this:

 Genesis 41:34-36

 

34 Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. 35 They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. 36 This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”


Christian cop, Christian law enforcment, Christian police, Christian Officer

Another Blow to the Mexican Cartels-The Pig Captured

I try to keep up with the Mexican and American law enforcement responses to the danger that are the Mexican Drug Cartels.


I find our war with these criminal organizations analogous to the FBI’s war with the Chicago/ Philadelphia/New York Mafia in the post world war two era. The criminal organizations became violent over territory and profits and eventually law enforcement stepped in. It took a long time but eventually law enforcement took out all the major heads from all the competing families. The result was a neutered Mafia but one that still exists in a stunted form. That’s the future for these Mexican crime syndicates.

The Pig (Manuel Fernandez Valencia) has now been captured. A man that had direct connections to El Chapo, Mayo and ABL.

In the last three years, A.B.L.(Arturo Beltran Leyva) and Nacho (Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel)--killed.

VCN (Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla) , The Flores’ Brothers, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, La Barbie (Édgar Váldez Villarreal) and now The Pig --captured. Their talent pool is drying up, one man at a time.

ABL Killed, The Pig Captured, Nacho Killed, VCN Captured, The Flores Brothers, La Barbie Arrested

The Story - the link first http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327974/Alleged-drug-dealer-Manuel-Fernandez-Valencia-The-Sow-arrested-Mexican-police.html


Bringing home the bacon: Alleged drug dealer nicknamed 'The Sow' arrested by Mexican police
By Daily Mail Reporter

A drug kingpin nicknamed 'The Sow' has been arrested after a stand-off with Mexican federal police.

Manuel Fernandez Valencia is linked to the notorious Sinaloa cartel and is suspected of plotting with one of Mexico's most wanted drug lords to smuggle eight tons of marijuana into the US.

Seven other men suspected of working for the cartel were detained with Valencia.

The drug dealer worked closely with cartel capo Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman smuggling drugs into the United States.

He has been wanted for extradition to the US since 2009 on charges of trafficking heroin and cocaine, and the two met at least five times recently, police said.

Guzman and Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, who authorities say control the Sinaloa cartel, are Mexico's two most notorious fugitives, with a $2 million reward offered for information on their whereabouts.

Fernandez Valencia was courted by the leaders of the rival Beltran Leyva cartel in 2007, but he chose to remain with Guzman, police claimed.

In August, his son Marcial was slain in Culiacan, apparently because the killers mistook him for Guzman's son.

One drove a white Ferrari and the other a white Lamborghini

Police said intelligence indicated Guzman called Fernandez Valencia personally to apologise and vow to find the killers.

Monday's arrests come on the heels of the death of reputed Gulf cartel leader Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, also known as 'Tony Tormenta' or 'Tony the Storm,' one of a string of high-profile kingpins who have been captured or killed by security forces stationed throughout the country to battle drug traffickers.
2 Samuel 23:6But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand.

Christian Police Officer, Christian Cop, Christian Law Enforcment, Christian police

Crisis-provides proof of who you really are

I was randomly watching the TV the other day to burn up some time before I had to pick up my kids from whatever they were doing (their so busy that I can not remember what it was) when I came across a History Channel show about the Battle of  Fredericksburg.  The battle that turned into a meat grinder for the Union Army as they vainly tried to take a hill that the confederates were holding from a sunken road and a stone fence.  It’s a story that concerns heroic bravery, inept military leadership, an essay of the temporal nature of life and the mercy of one man.

It got me thinking about the nature of war and the basic nature of a true life and death crisis.  A number of people around me have stated at one time or another that they do not know or really understand who they are, what abilities they have and what is inside their core being.  All people wear masks, whether Christian or secular, we all try to hide who we really are.  We try to minimize our flaws, our base carnal nature, and over promote our gifts.  We get so good at masking who and what we are loose the sense of our true selves.  We end up wearing a mask to disguise us from ourselves.

Life and death crisis strips away our masks and reveales our true nature not only to ourselves but to all of those around us.  There is no time to carry all the layers of lies around when survival is at stake, we just have time to react as we are.

I have been in this situation a number of times and the results have been, at best, mixed.  There have been times when I have shown what the light of Christ in a life can produce and I have also shown what a flawed sinful person can produce.  It has always been eye opening.   

I am a work in progress, taking guidenence from the Bible, daily prayer, accountability to fellow Christians, to hopefully improve the core of the true me to come one tiny bit closer to God’s own heart.

I want to be Richard Kirkland, The Angel of Marye's Heights.  Not the Richard Kirkland that fought for the wrong side of the Civil War which fought for evil ideals, but the Kirkland that found himself in crisis at the Battle of Fredericksburg.  I want to be Kirkland at that one place at that one time.  I want my core to be this believer's heart of mercy that day for that reason.

His Story:

December of 1862, Kirkland had become a combat veteran, having seen action at 1st Manassas, Savage Station, Maryland Heights and Antietam. He had also witnessed the death of several of his best friends.

During the Battle of Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862, Kirklandâs unit formed behind the Stone Wall at the base of Maryeâs Heights and helped slaughter the Union attackers. After a day of severe fighting, the scene shifted from severe fighting to tremendous suffering.

After dark on the 13th, doctors and soldiers began caring for the injured. The walking wounded made their way to the rear while those with disabling wounds remained on the field.

Daylight on the 14th revealed a ghastly scene to the Confederates behind the Stone Wall. About 8,000 Union soldiers had been shot in front of the wall and many of them remained where they had fallen. As hours went by without food, water or medical treatment, their suffering increased.

Nearby soldiers from both sides listened to the painful cries and pleas for help. While the suffering emotionally moved many, none dared face almost certain death to provide help.

At some point in the day, Kirkland could no longer bear listening to the pleas, so he walked over to the home of Martha Stevens. He went upstairs and told General Joseph Kershaw, his brigade commander, that he would like to try and help the wounded Union soldiers.

The surprised general at first refused the request, but he later relented. Kirkland gathered all the canteens he could carry and filled them at the near by water well. Then, at extreme risk to himself, he ventured out to help the Federal soldiers. He carried water and warm clothing to the suffering Federal soldiers.

He ventured back and forth several times, giving the wounded Union soldiers water, warm clothing, and blankets. Soldiers from both the Union and Confederate armies watched as he performed his task, but no one fired a shot. General Kershaw later stated that he observed Kirkland for more than an hour and a half. At first, it was thought that the Union would open fire, which would result in the Confederacy returning fire, resulting in Kirkland being caught in a crossfire. However, within a very short time, it became obvious to both sides as to what Kirkland was doing, and according to Kershaw cries for water erupted all over the battlefield from wounded soldiers. Kirkland did not stop until he had helped every wounded soldier (confederate and federal) on the Confederate's end of the battlefield. Sergeant Kirkland's actions remain a legend in Fredericksburg to this day.

I want to be Kirkland, a heart for at least one day that was the heart of Christ, the heart of mercy, the true light of the Divine out the core of himself.  So far I am far short.

Matthew 20:31
The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, havemercy on us!”


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