Top cop's son mugged on CTA; cops solve it quickly
"Numerous police officers were redirected to work the robbery" on a Blue Line train last Thursday night of the adult son of Chicago Police Supt. Philip Cline.
Yes, that's right: A bunch of cops were pulled off their regular jobs to try and solve the mugging of a CTA train passenger. The victim lost a cell phone and cash to two men and a woman. But of course he was a well-connected victim.
And to be fair, here's the rest of the story: Victim Timothy Cline is an employee of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force. The Tribune reported: "There was some concern of sensitive information or phone numbers related to drug-trafficking investigations being compromised by the theft of the phone, the source said. However, . . . no information was compromised."
Further, a police spokesman said: "Additional police were assigned to the case because it was a mugging on the "L," and police believed it might be part of a pattern of robberies. She said the suspects, who have histories of gang involvement, are being investigated for other robberies."
Moral? Next time you're a CTA crime victim who wants the crime solved, make sure you are the offspring of a top police official who works on drug investigations.
Moi? A cynic?
Why is any of this necessary? What about all of the ALLEGED CTA Security we see all the time standing around doing nothing? They have plenty of time and resources to stop passengers from using cameras.Why weren't they on this? Shouldn't Securitas actually provide some security? How much are those Securitas people being paid and what if anything do they actually do? Securitas is obviously just another example of the do nothing jobs at the taxpayers expense at corrupt CTA?
Posted by: Dan Suizzo | January 22, 2007 at 10:47 AM
I don't see what the outrage is. First of all, this story is in the Trib today. These are serial muggers they're trying to catch. I think that's pretty legit.
And assuming the cops "pulled off their regular jobs" weren't doing anything of critical importance at the moment I don't see the big deal. If they were leaving some other un-"connected" person in the middle of another mugging to help this guy out then ya, that would be wrong.
And seriously, if you just had a crime perpetrated against you and had a relative who worked for the police wouldn't you take advantage of your connections? I sure as hell would.
Posted by: Snarla | January 22, 2007 at 11:03 AM
He didn't have to take advantage of connections. He's part of a very high level crime task force and there was the possibility of an intelligence leak. They acted with haste to stop that possibility. (Intelligence leak? I bet that happens at the CTA more often than we'll ever know.)
Posted by: payne hertz | January 22, 2007 at 02:12 PM