Forest Park Review
Carl Nyberg
Police brutality is wrong. It's morally wrong. It costs the taxpayers a bunch of money. It's not an effective tool for preventing or reducing crime. In fact, police brutality is a crime, even if the Village of Forest Park and the Cook County State's Attorney refuse to treat police brutality as a crime.
Before the recent beating allegedly endured by Edison Reformado at the hands of Forest Park Police, I assumed that the apologists for and proponents of police brutality were merely maladjusted cops and their immediate families. Now, I'm not sure.
It seems there is a vocal minority that actively supports police brutality. These supporters of police brutality could care less about the truth of any incident. The pro-brutality crowd will endlessly make excuses for bad decisions by cops when the cops beat people-at least certain kinds of people.
Some have advanced the theory that Reformado was intoxicated with alcohol and perhaps PCP when he was beaten by police, and that this somehow justifies the way he was treated. Others say that since the 19-year-old illegally entered a bar and then got in a fight, he had it coming.
The problem with this conjecture is that it isn't supported by the facts. Reformado was arrested and placed into police custody. Forest Park police officers did not evaluate Reformado as being intoxicated.
The only note on the police report involving alcohol was an observation that he smelled like liquor. Even if he was intoxicated, police officers are supposed to be trained to make arrests without punching offenders in the face repeatedly. Still, the pro-brutality crowd is not going to let facts stop them from believing what they want to believe.
These people make excuses for police officers no matter what. If police beat one Latino kid, it's a good night. If they beat two Latino kids, it's a better night. They are going to shill for the cops no matter what the facts are and no matter what police department policies might have been violated.
One theory holds that the pro-brutality crowd harbor some resentment because some young person, perhaps a member of a minority, did them wrong at some point. Maybe.
I'm not particularly interested in trying to understand the pro-brutality crowd or understand why they support the authorities abusing the rights of individuals.
I categorize them with alcoholics. When they want to get help they can be helped. Until then, talking to them is a waste of time; no amount of logical rhetoric is going to change their minds.
As Jonathan Swift wrote, "It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
I am concerned about the people that are influenced by the pro-brutality loudmouths. Most people don't devote a whole lot of their thinking to municipal government issues. They think about their friends, jobs, hobbies, families, sex lives, etc. The people that think about politics and government mostly think about what the big media outlets cover: national and international issues.
On local stuff, most people go along with what they perceive to be the experts and the majority. This is a perfectly legitimate form of decision making. Everybody does it on stuff they can't or don't devote much mental energy to.
But the loud minority that favors police brutality should be treated as pariahs by people of decency. The pro-brutality crowd doesn't have a vision for providing effective policing. They merely want the system to be more punitive and to see cops teach wrongdoers a lesson through pointless and excessive force.
This doesn't prevent or reduce crime. It's using criminal activity to clarify and amplify society's social hierarchy. It's not good for business. And it costs taxpayers plenty.
The Forest Park Police Department has serious issues. The department had an unhealthy climate when Lt. Michael Cody was convicted of battery for assulting Officer Andrea Caines. Since then Mayor Anthony Calderone and Chief of Police Jim Ryan have made decisions that have further corroded good order and discipline in the department. Police brutality and other problems are a symptom of the lack of good order and discipline in the department.
Forest Park taxpayers are paying for the police department's bad decisions. The average taxpayers who would rather think about what to do on the weekend is going to have to devote a small amount of mental energy to understanding the problems facing the Forest Park Police Department. Understanding these policing issues is necessary to get past the shrillness of the advocates of police brutality.
Police+Brutality Forest+Park
Carl Nyberg
Police brutality is wrong. It's morally wrong. It costs the taxpayers a bunch of money. It's not an effective tool for preventing or reducing crime. In fact, police brutality is a crime, even if the Village of Forest Park and the Cook County State's Attorney refuse to treat police brutality as a crime.
Before the recent beating allegedly endured by Edison Reformado at the hands of Forest Park Police, I assumed that the apologists for and proponents of police brutality were merely maladjusted cops and their immediate families. Now, I'm not sure.
It seems there is a vocal minority that actively supports police brutality. These supporters of police brutality could care less about the truth of any incident. The pro-brutality crowd will endlessly make excuses for bad decisions by cops when the cops beat people-at least certain kinds of people.
Some have advanced the theory that Reformado was intoxicated with alcohol and perhaps PCP when he was beaten by police, and that this somehow justifies the way he was treated. Others say that since the 19-year-old illegally entered a bar and then got in a fight, he had it coming.
The problem with this conjecture is that it isn't supported by the facts. Reformado was arrested and placed into police custody. Forest Park police officers did not evaluate Reformado as being intoxicated.
The only note on the police report involving alcohol was an observation that he smelled like liquor. Even if he was intoxicated, police officers are supposed to be trained to make arrests without punching offenders in the face repeatedly. Still, the pro-brutality crowd is not going to let facts stop them from believing what they want to believe.
These people make excuses for police officers no matter what. If police beat one Latino kid, it's a good night. If they beat two Latino kids, it's a better night. They are going to shill for the cops no matter what the facts are and no matter what police department policies might have been violated.
One theory holds that the pro-brutality crowd harbor some resentment because some young person, perhaps a member of a minority, did them wrong at some point. Maybe.
I'm not particularly interested in trying to understand the pro-brutality crowd or understand why they support the authorities abusing the rights of individuals.
I categorize them with alcoholics. When they want to get help they can be helped. Until then, talking to them is a waste of time; no amount of logical rhetoric is going to change their minds.
As Jonathan Swift wrote, "It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
I am concerned about the people that are influenced by the pro-brutality loudmouths. Most people don't devote a whole lot of their thinking to municipal government issues. They think about their friends, jobs, hobbies, families, sex lives, etc. The people that think about politics and government mostly think about what the big media outlets cover: national and international issues.
On local stuff, most people go along with what they perceive to be the experts and the majority. This is a perfectly legitimate form of decision making. Everybody does it on stuff they can't or don't devote much mental energy to.
But the loud minority that favors police brutality should be treated as pariahs by people of decency. The pro-brutality crowd doesn't have a vision for providing effective policing. They merely want the system to be more punitive and to see cops teach wrongdoers a lesson through pointless and excessive force.
This doesn't prevent or reduce crime. It's using criminal activity to clarify and amplify society's social hierarchy. It's not good for business. And it costs taxpayers plenty.
The Forest Park Police Department has serious issues. The department had an unhealthy climate when Lt. Michael Cody was convicted of battery for assulting Officer Andrea Caines. Since then Mayor Anthony Calderone and Chief of Police Jim Ryan have made decisions that have further corroded good order and discipline in the department. Police brutality and other problems are a symptom of the lack of good order and discipline in the department.
Forest Park taxpayers are paying for the police department's bad decisions. The average taxpayers who would rather think about what to do on the weekend is going to have to devote a small amount of mental energy to understanding the problems facing the Forest Park Police Department. Understanding these policing issues is necessary to get past the shrillness of the advocates of police brutality.
Police+Brutality Forest+Park
THE RIGHT TO LIVE
My name is Beatriz Luis Garcia, I am the mother of Leonardo, LEO.
On the afternoon of January 16, 2004, my 17 year old son "Leonardo Barquin", left my house and has not returned. It's horrible for a mother to wake up each day and not have her son, we're not prepared to say goodbye to them first.
He and a friend together jumped the fence of a house, the police say it was for robbery, but when they caught them, they had nothing, they were without cars or bikes, they were walking, it was one o'clock in the afternoon, and they didn't break any windows to enter the house. I think as teenagers, they were up to some mischief, their first mischief, and the devil crossed their path.
If "Leonardo Barquin" was doing something incorrect, he should've been placed in front of a jury for them to decide his sentence. "Jorge Espinosa" couldn't have killed him, or beat him then, he's a murderer, not a police officer, the boy was unarmed.
This Metro Dade police officer named "Jorge Espinosa" with records of "police brutality", shot my son in the back three times and beat him to the point where his casket could not be opened at the funeral because he was so disfigured. After he shot him, he beat him in his face and all over his body. They put more than 60 transfusions of blood in the boy and he died alone in the hospital six hours later because no one called me. In spite of knowing his name, the police never called me and he died alone in the hospital. This murderer's name is "Jorge Espinosa", he is armed and walking the streets because the criminal department determined that the murder was justified. I ask myself if they would've taken different measures with this man's history of police brutality, if my son would still be here? Who's going to answer when this man does it again? But there will be justice, this man will not remain unpunished. This is the first step of many to come, for example my constant denouncement that this man named "Jorge Espinosa" is still on the streets with a weapon in his hand. This murderer took from me the most valuable thing in my life and for the rest of his, I will be here to call him a murderer and to fight for justice for this man, because if God wants to have justice in the sky, he can, but here, on the ground, who is in charge is ME.
UNTIL WHEN?
THIS IS A DENOUNCEMENT
It has now been 18 months since my son has gone and each day is worse. The pain has grown with time, today hurts more than yesterday, the loss of a son has no consolation, and even more when a murderer takes him.
How do you stop this brutality? Who gives this power to the police to take justice in their hands? Or is it that they have the license to kill?
There will be justice and all the weight of the law will fall on this murderer. The laws have to be stricter against police when they commit these atrocities that is why you must denounce the brutalities. Not only is it brutal to kill, but to stop you for a ticket and verbally assault you, we have rights and they cannot do that. It has been 14 months that a Hialeah police officer brutally beat Osiel Santana, he too was unarmed like my son. He died a few hours later in the hospital. Among the things the police say, now they say that he beat himself in spite of being handcuffed. It has been two years now that the Sweetwater police almost beat to death Peter Daniel. Fortunately, this boy is alive but he lost part of his liver and each day he wakes up he sees a scar that runs along his body of almost 100 stitches in length. A few months ago, the case of Cesar Augusto Rada, a young man, 31 years old, who was studying psychology, was a model, was shot in his chest by a police officer standing in front of his house, in front of his father. I ask myself, do the police have this right, always alleging that their lives are in danger? Through this email we can make denouncements, we need to unite. We have to remember that in groups there is power and together we can make a difference and construct a better future for our children. The mothers cannot remain quiet, they have to denounce when their son is mistreated or offended by a police officer, they cannot do that, they are not justice, they don't have the right to abuse and kill our children.
leonardobarquin@yahoo.com
NO MORE POLICE BRUTALITY
YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IN OUR HEARTS, WE LOVE YOU
"Leonardo Barquin", 17 years old, who was unarmed, was a loving boy and a good boy. We all miss him very much, mainly his seven and eight year old brothers. They are the ones who keep me alive. Every night they pray for him and they say that now, in our home, lives an ANGEL. It's very difficult to continue living after this pain, the heart can hurt, it's not an expression, one�s life leaves them.
THE LOVE LIVES FOREVER IN OUR MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS. BECAUSE IN OUR HEARTS, OUR LOVED ONES WILL BE WITH US EACH DAY.
WORDS DO NO EXIST, NOR TEARS, THAT CAN EXPLAIN THIS PAIN.
I ONLY HAVE A PIECE OF MY HEART LEFT.
I LOVE YOU FOREVER, MY BABY.
FROM, YOUR MOTHER.
LEONARDO BARQUIN
APRIL 16, 1986- JANUARY 16, 2004
Posted by Beatriz Luis-Garcia
I am sorry for your lost and I understand and am outraged at the injustice that is occuring today with our police departments. Forest Park has had these incidents for over 5 years and nobody is looking into it. God bless your baby, he was a good boy no matter what anybody tells you, he did not deserve to die. May God grant you and your family the justice you deserve and bestow His wrath upon the murderer.
Posted by Anita