Backing Obama gets top cop in hot water
A Chicago alderman wants police Supt. Jody Weis to be disciplined for making a statement in a TV interview earlier this month that seemed to support Barack Obama's candidacy.
Earlier this year, the department reprimanded a detective who campaigned for Ald. Tom Allen (38th) in his failed race for Cook County state's attorney. The department found the detective had violated a rule barring officers from engaging in partisan activity while wearing the uniform or identifying themselves as officers.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)
"What's good for the goose is good for the gander," said Allen. "If they're going to play games with me politically and hurt good people I've known for 25 years, touche. He should face whatever the penalty is."
The reprimanded detective appeared in a paid TV advertisement in support of Allen's candidacy for state's attorney, according to the police department. Allen lost the Democratic primary to Anita Alvarez in February.
On Oct. 15, Weis was interviewed as part of a WLS-Channel 7 story on security at Obama's South Side home. "He's our senator and he's hopefully going to be our next president, so it's an honor to serve and protect his home," said Weis, who was wearing his dark blue police uniform.
After Weis was notified that he may have violated a police rule with his statement to Channel 7, he notified the Independent Police Review Authority -- the agency that handles complaints of police misconduct.
Weis' legal adviser, Debra Kirby, said there's a difference between Weis' statement and the reprimanded detective's appearance in Allen's ad. The superintendent's statement came within the context of his job, Kirby said.
In Allen's ad, which touted his endorsement by the FOP, a detective wearing a police star on a necklace said, "We had a convicted sex offender that lived right across the street from the grammar school and the parents didn't know. Tom Allen decided to do something about it."
The ad went on to say that Allen led an effort to require sex offenders to register their addresses with the city.