ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said not answering a federal law enforcement’s call for backup was a “dereliction of duty.”
The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the nation’s largest police union, and the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement condemning the reports.
…
However, the Chicago Police Department disputed the claim and said its officers did respond to the scene.
“CPD officers did in fact respond to the shooting scene involving federal authorities on Saturday to maintain public safety and traffic control,” the department said in a statement to Fox News.
Federal agents reportedly called Chicago police for backup after being confronted by protesters on Saturday.
…
Also on Saturday, videos on social media showed local officers rubbing their eyes, squinting and struggling with the effects of tear gas.
Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said his officers had been exposed to tear gas numerous times during previous incidents involving ICE agents. He said that the repeated exposure created a “dangerous situation” for the community and first responders.
Mills also told CBS News Chicago last week that his department had received several false 911 calls, calling it “disturbing.”
According to the station, an ICE agent had claimed someone was tampering with the gate at the ICE detention facility in Broadview, but a responding officer turned up to find a CBS News Chicago photographer filming the exterior of the building accompanied by a CBS security guard.
Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20251006180910/https://www.newsweek.com/ice-chicago-police-tension-10834038
Fuckin’ thank you man.
There are way too many people in this comments section who are thoroughly committed to snatching defeat from the jaws of this good development or finding a way to fit it into their totally counterfactual way of looking at US law enforcement.
I’ve interacted with US cops from a lot of different POVs, from having friends who were victimized by the old school of corrupt US policing, to having friends-of-friends who were both cops and criminals, to a little interaction with the system myself. This reductive bullshit helps no one. Here’s how I see it: Pretty much any group of people that you give power to without checking up on them is going to abuse it. That was US policing for many many years, until in the pretty recent past we actually started making serious efforts to punish bad behavior by the cops, and look at that, they got a lot more reasonable. Pretty much every instance where some cop did something heinously fucked up, in the last few years, has followed up by them not just getting fired but brought up on charges. It hasn’t stopped, because they are human and there will always be “bad people” in the world, but it’s not this wild street gang loose on the streets like it used to be.
(Well, mostly. Institutional corruption can keep some particular agencies corrupt for a long long time. NYPD and LASD are probably the worst that I’m aware of in that regard, and I’m sure there are some small town departments that are fucking horror shows. And they usually see protestors as “the enemy” which sure isn’t fuckin great, I can talk more about that too. But what I am trying to say is that they’re not the cartoon villains that almost everyone on the left seems to habitually get all unanimous about them being.)
I have no idea how far it’ll go. Historically, Chicago was a pretty corrupt department and I have no idea whether they have gotten better (and I can absolutely guarantee that there are some individual Chicago cops who would rather be ICE right now and play-act as them any time they have a chance.) But if they’re beefing with ICE, then good for them. It’s that simple, and I have no idea why people are trying to say any different.