"A step in the right direction"

An anonymous contributor sent this off to the Second City Cop Blog and I wanted to share it with you:

"Michael Carroll’s campaign is personal to me. I am married to a Police Officer who works in the inner-city. Can you imagine how it felt when I received a phone call from the emergency room that my husband had been attacked by 2 ferocious pit bulls? He recently came home from work with a bruise on his leg. It was the FULL imprint of a shoe. Can you imagine how hard he had to be kicked to have a full footprint bruise? He has been spit on, punched, slapped, kicked and shot at. The shortage of police officers compromises the safety of every cop on the beat. If THEIR safety is compromised, OUR safety, as citizens, is compromised exponentially. It’s time for a change in the political climate of our city. Having Michael Carroll as the 46th Ward Alderman is a major step in the right direction. Please encourage your families and friends in the 46th Ward to vote for him."

When I finished reading this post, everything made sense, yet again. I was running for the right reason. I was doing it for the people in my neighborhood, in my Ward, and throughout the City of Chicago. I want to serve my community, making the Ward a better place to work and live for all residents and taxpayers. The safety and security of the cops on our streets is something I take personally and will be one of my top priorities. When our police can do their difficult job protecting and serving the citizens of Chicago, every resident and taxpayer will be better off. As the writer noted, "if THEIR safety is compromised, OUR safety, as citizens, is compromised exponentially." Cops cannot serve and protect you if their well being is not a priority.

Seven police officers have been shot in the last year and three have been murdered on the very streets they are tasked to protect. Enough is enough. The City of Chicago needs to hire more Police Officers immediately. Our lives depend on it.

The residents and taxpayers of the 46th Ward deserve better

Selling the City's assets is bad enough, but spending the entirety of the sale price to fill holes in the bloated City budget is quite another. Add TIFs to the equation and no wonder there is no money to hire police, fix our schools, and repair Chicago's crumbling infrastructure. Visit http://www.Carroll46.com/issues.htm and see how I plan to turn things around in the 46th Ward. The residents and taxpayers of the 46th Ward deserve better and that is what I promise to deliver.

FAIL, Part Two: One BILLION Dollars!  New evidence suggests Chicago leased out its parking meters for a fraction of what they’re worth. By Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke 

More bad news for residents of the 46th Ward

More bad news for residents of the 46th Ward.

"We’re probably going to have some hearings on it [police hiring]," Beale told [Mick Dumke] Tuesday. "But again, I’m the new chairman [because former chairman Ike Carothers is headed to the federal penitentiary for bribery and tax fraud], and as soon as I walked in I had this contract put on my lap. So I’ve got to figure out all the ordinances before the committee and then we’ll move forward from there. I’m still new, getting my feet wet" (The Chicago Reader, June 8, 2010).

Getting your feet wet is not an excuse when people in our community are continually dealing with crime in front of their homes and on their street corners. That police contract sat for three years and suddenly it was put on your lap? Please. There were only 47 cops hired in 2009 at the nation's second largest police department. Members of City Council must do better. Change is required.

Money must be reallocated and more police officers hired to keep out community safe and secure. When residents do not receive proper police service, we all lose.

Great arrest today. However, the glaring issues pertaining to manpower shortages at the Chicago Police Department cannot be ignored

We were contacted today by a detective from the sex crimes unit who asked us to see if we could pick up a guy wanted for criminal sexual assault of a child. We of course said yes and she gave us all the information. After going through all of the case reports and follow up interviews with the 12 year old victim, I asked why we were only now receiving the information, rather than back in March when the crime occurred. Her response: "manpower." She has so many other cases, some more heinous than the case we were working, that she was only able to get to this case today. She then said that it was only by chance that our paths crossed, allowing her to ask us to go out and see if we could track this dangerous offender down. Its sad when government waste and the misappropriation of City funds lead directly to an understaffed, overburdened police department.

We left the office at 1pm and am happy to say that by 1:45pm, this dangerous offender was in custody. All it took was a former address and a little bit of detective work of our own to track the offender down. Well, that and a little athletic skills to apprehend him when he leaped out of the home's rear window and fled on foot. Another dangerous offender is behind bars and our community is a safer place because of it.

But, we cannot forget why this dangerous offender was on our streets for almost three months before detectives were able to put some hours into this case - again, that reason was manpower. Alderman need to address this specific issue and treat public safety as the priority we know it to be because the safety and security of our community is paramount. The City of Chicago must hire more police to attack crime and work to reduce Chicago's high crime rate. I promise to do just that when I am elected Alderman and will work to make that a reality with property tax reform, reallocation of spending, and most importantly, TIF reform.

Our community is not immune to the threat of terrorism

Our community is not immune to the threat of terrorism. Synagogues, mosques, churches, a large immigrant population, our LGBT community, a large number of theater and concert venues, and of course Wrigley Field make our community a potential target for terrorism. There are people out there who would like to harm us and our neighbors. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of examples of extremists doing exactly that to specific groups because of their clouded ideologies. We need to ensure that our community is safe and secure and that starts with the police and our publicly elected officials.

With seven years fighting crime on the streets of Chicago, a masters degree from Northwestern University focusing on homeland security and defense, and countless hours of anti-terrorism training, I have a unique perspective that no other candidate has. I want to use my experience and training to ensure that the safety and security of our community is paramount and that Chicago does not suffer the same type of terrible attacks that New York saw in September of 2001.