It has been a while since my days in Northlake Police, Illinois(It seems that many people from the town of Northlake, Texas have been to this blog thinking that my stories about Northlake Police Department were about their PD). Anyway, here is a story from one of Northlake’s neighbors, Franklin Park, Illinois.
Franklin Park Police Department has had their share of “issues” over the years. They have had some excellent Police Officers there as well as bad ones. Well, the town is having the usual political power struggle with the people currently in power thinking that they are kings of the world. Sound familiar?
Well, they are currently in an election year for town mayor. As we all know, a change in mayors can be a very good thing because it usually means a change in Police chiefs and don’t we all like that! There are 3 people running for mayor there but I will only talk about the two that I know. The first is the current mayor who I know nothing about and will not judge. The second is a recently retired Police Officer. Ahhhhh, wouldn’t it be great to get your former police buddy in there as mayor and oust the mayor who you despise? Well, the former cop obviously has some supporters on the police force. I will talk about one of them and use the name Gus to represent him.
It seems Gus lives about a block outside of Franklin Park city limits in unincorporated cook County. He supports the former cop running for mayor and put up a big political sign in his yard in support. A short time after doing so, this officer gets called in and gets disciplined–sounds like he was suspended or had his shift changed around or something F’ed up like that– for not writing enough tickets or something along those lines. I think he also was ordered to take the sign down. Not too obvious huh?
Now, coming from the honorable City of Northlake, Illinois, something like this does not surprise me. But can you believe this? What happened to the 1st amendment? Can’t an officer support whoever he wants in an election without any vindictive actions being taken against him? Sounds like the union finally stepped in and some actions that were taken against this officer were reversed but why didn’t the public ever hear about it?
As we all know or should know, small town politics are nothing less than ridiculous and a circus. The goofy politicians think that they are God’s gift and all-powerful. They think they can trample people’s rights(employees) with no recourse or public scrutiny. Well, it will be interesting to see how this election will turn out this spring!
Oh, and if anyone has knowledge of this incident and would like to correct me or elaborate, feel free. Good times!