Commander Paul Bauer was respected by the women and men in blue who shared the dangers and ugliness of Chicago's streets, during his career.
Commander Paul Bauer was not killed in a mass school shooting, but killed doing his job, while off-duty.
No cop is off-duty.
A thug with a handgun bought out of state and with an extended magazine clip
I have never owned a gun in my life, nor do I ever intend to apply for, or purchase any firearm. I live among many people to do and there has never been an incident where a gun was misfired, or directed at another person.
More than a very few times, bullets missed me by inches. They were all used by thugs (BDs, GDs, Stones, Four Corner Hustlers, or Vice Lords) in close proximity to Leo High School between 1996 and 2016. My guardian angle must come with Kevlar.
I have helped bury a dozen students and witnessed as many more wounded by rounds fired from Tech 9s and Glocks, none of whome 'were in the Game.'
Guns are tools and thugs use them to kill people.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who once commanded the Gresham District 6 near Leo High School, was sent to Springfield to label anti-gun laws in Commander Paul Bauer's name.
The new legislation is a response to the Parkland public school killings, close on the heels of Commander Bauer's funeral here in my neighborhood.
Paul Bauer was a cop's cop. He spoke out against the root problems of street violence: abuse of existing sentencing laws -
Commander Paul Bauer says there is a “high bar to prosecution” in Cook County, requiring Chicago police to get approval from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office before a suspect can be charged.The thug who killed Commander Bauer was not armed with a straw-man AR-15, which Rep. Burke's canned legislation targets.
“Sometimes they want to come out and...talk to the victim,” said Bauer at the annual meeting of River North Residents Association. “If you think about it, we’re sometimes victimizing this person twice. You just got your phone snatched from you. You got knocked down. Now you’re going to be in the station. You got to stay here for another couple hours until the State’s Attorney gets out here.”
[...] According to Bauer, 75 percent of the crime in the 18th district is theft-related, whether it’s theft from a building or theft from a person, including a suspect who, while riding a bicycle, recently swiped mobile phones from people in River North.
“We caught that guy,” recalled Bauer. “and we figured he did about 30 [robberies] over the course of a couple months. We were only able to charge him with one felony theft [because] victim identification was a little hazy.”
[...] “Even when we catch somebody,” says Bauer, “there’s still a long way to go to get them off the street.”
In August, Chief Judge Timothy Evans replaced all the judges who presided over bond hearings in Cook County and directed new judges to set bail in amounts more affordable to defendants. This is at odds with Chicago police, who would prefer to see higher bail amounts for career criminals.
“That guy, Willie, he’s a case in point. He needs a high bond. We got him for a number of burglaries. He’s on parole for burglary. He needs to sit. We got to get him off the street. It’s just like if you have kids, if there’s no consequences to your action, those actions are going to repeat.”
And when they do go to jail, they need to stay there longer.
“The Sheriff of Cook County, for whatever reason, is very proud of the fact he has reduced the population of the county jail. Maybe I’m jaded, I don’t think that’s anything to be proud of.” In Second City Cop
Mayor Rahm Emanuel talked about the bill after speaking to a room of police recruits, part of a package of legislation that would require gun dealers to be licensed, raise the penalties for illegal use of body armor, ban high capacity magazines for military-style weapons and ban bump stocks.Rahm Emanuel did the canning and the sending.
“We need gun legislation, like a waiting period, like a ban on assault on assault weapons, like what we're talking about on gun dealership that backs up the goals and the public safety goals we have as a city,” Mayor Emanuel said.
Were he not an oily sneak with a power jones, Emanuel might have helped craft a Paul Bauer Law that would keep thugs out of our community.
Maybe, another family will not need to mourn a father and husband. Maybe, fewer people will be gun down on streets at any time of the or driving the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways.
Instead, Rahm Emanuel, Mike Madigan, Bruce Rauner and their stooges used Paul Bauer's sacrifice, as an unwasted opportunity.