CHICAGO (AP) — The police officer was in full uniform, gathering evidence from a car break-in when someone walked into the garage and shot him and the car's owner in the head, then fired another bullet into their heads as they lay on the ground.
The brazen, daylight slaying last week of Officer
Michael Flisk underscores what Chicago police have been saying for months: They
are increasingly confronting people willing to attack them even as overall
violent crime in Chicago continues to fall.
Five police officers have been killed in the line
of duty this year — the most in at least 25 years. A sixth police officer was
gunned down as he sat in his vehicle while off-duty just a few days before
Flisk's death. Add to that, the number of reports of batteries on police
officers has nearly tripled in just over a decade.
In 2009, there were just under 3,300 reports of
battery on a police officer, more than twice as many as were reported in 2002
and nearly triple the number reported in 1999.
Police say the most dramatic jump came after the
process of reporting the batteries was fully automated in 2004, when it became
more accurate. But between 2007 and 2009 the number of reports climbed from
2,677 to 3,298 — a 23 percent increase — and this year the number is on pace to
climb well past 3,000 again.
"There is a lack of respect for the police, a
lack of fear of the police that's getting worse," said Officer Nick
Spencer, a 17-year-department veteran. "They see a cop, and they just
don't care anymore."
Police, activists and even some former gang members
point to other explanations, from the drop in the number of police officers on
the streets to changes in the structure of gangs that has led to increased
violence among the city's estimated 100,000 gang members.
Officers routinely return to their station with
stories about rocks and other debris pinging off their squad cars as they
respond to calls or being confronted by crowds that no longer disperse just
because an officer tells them to. Also, the sound of gunfire that used to stop
whenever they arrived at a scene now continues long afterward.
Superintendent Jody Weis said there was "no
indication whatsoever that there's any group of folks or gangs targeting our
officers."
But he has said many times in the last several
months that criminals are becoming increasingly brazen, and clearly he has been
baffled in recent months by people who don't hesitate to take on a police
officer.
"I simply cannot understand how a person can
have such a total disregard of life and for those who keep order on the streets
that he can attack, disarm and then shoot and kill a uniformed officer in broad
daylight," he said after the July slaying of Officer Thor Soderberg as he
was walking out of a police station. "This savage act defies all human
value."
"He identified himself as a police officer and
they still killed him," Spencer said.
Another officer, Michael Bailey, was shot and
killed while washing his car outside his home after returning from working the
overnight shift, where he was assigned to protect Mayor Richard Daley's home.
The department has about 1,000 fewer officers than
the 13,500 it had as recently as March 2008, according to the police union. As
the department scrambles to cover the city — more officers are riding alone in
squad cars, dubbed "rolling coffins" by beat cops — there is a
growing concern that the uptick in violence is linked to the smaller force.
"The criminal element sees there are fewer
police officers out there," said Lt. Robert Weisskopf, head of the Chicago
police lieutenants' union. "Criminals go where there's no pressure on them
. . . and the easier it is, the more bold they will become."
With Weis saying more than half the homicides
committed in the city this year involved gangs, police say they have no doubt
that many of the assaults and at least some of the police slayings were
committed by known gang members — including the 19-year-old parolee charged
with killing Flisk.
"They feel like they can get away with a lot
more," said Phil Cline, Weis' predecessor, who said he noticed during his
tenure that gangs seemed to have less and less fear of police. "When you
think of a 19-year-old gang banger murdering an officer processing a crime
scene, it's unbelievable."
Some of that escalating violence, police say, may
be due to changes in the gangs.
Lt. Thomas Waldera said gangs are far less structured
than ever because many gang leaders have been sent to prison — resulting in
less organization and control among members who are not only more likely to
attack rivals but members of their own gangs.
Former Vice Lord gang member Reginald Berry, who
spent 18 years in prison for murder, said the gang hierarchy that was in place
when he was locked up had all but disappeared by the time he got out in 2006.
"All these young guys are taking the law into
their own hands; every little kid's got their own little gang and they won't
let up on one another," Berry said.
Waldera said those gang members don't seem nearly
as concerned about the police as they once did.
"They're not afraid of us at all
anymore," he said. "Most are not stupid enough to fight it out with
the police, but there is something going on."
Copyright
2010 The Associated Press.
