“When all hell breaks loose in downtown Chicago, we’re doing activation drills, and they’re sending five, six cars from this district, all downtown.”
Keith Thornton Jr. was the emergency dispatcher that had to handle the call earlier this year that led to the shooting death of 29-year-old Chicago Police officer Ella French. It left French's partner Carlos Yanez Jr. with two bullets in his brain.
It also left Mayor Lori Lightfoot alienated against her own police department. Now, Mr. Thornton is back with another warning.
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View on Rumble"CPD IS SHORT MANPOWER AND YOU ARE BEING LIED TOO (sic) BY THE MAYOR AND CPD UPPER MANAGEMENT," warned Keith A. Thornton Jr. on Facebook Live.
Thornton is begging the city to reconsider the system of how officers are replaced when someone retires, gets sick on the job, or had to go on leave for other reasons.
According to ABC Chicago, Thornton told viewers that nine out of the fourteen police units in the 16th district were down.
Thornton at one point makes a graph on a piece of paper to demonstrate how simple it is for him to convey these points.
It means if people were in trouble, help wasn't going to come. The 16th District is one of the largest areas in Chicago.
"When I'm getting text messages from officers telling me that they're afraid for their safety because they're working by themselves and then the beat next to them, to back them up, isn't there because the cars are down, that's a problem. That's a safety concern," Thornton said.
When it comes to the issue of manpower, people are looking at the COVID vaccine mandates. In the case of Chicago, a high-profile legal fight took place between the Mayor and the city's police union before being dismissed.
Officers on the streets right now call it a COVID related "anomaly" that's impacting their bottom line. These concerns put aside the activist efforts of groups like Black Lives Matter.
In December alone, Chicago has seen an elderly Chinese man assassinated while getting the newspaper, and a father beaten to death while putting up Christmas lights.
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