The FBI sent an intelligence alert to the Chicago Police Department warning of a pact agreed to by several Chicago gangs to “shoot on-sight any cop that has a weapon drawn on any subject in public.'”
ABC7 News says that the warning was issued on August 26.
“We have been made aware of this threat by a law enforcement partner,” a Chicago police spokesperson told Fox News on Tuesday. “The Chicago Police Department takes all threats against officer safety seriously and we will take all necessary measures to safeguard our officers.”
The alert — which mentions around 36 gangs, including the Latin Kings and Vice Lords — says “members of these gang factions have been actively searching for, and filming, police officers in performance of their official duties,” ABC7 says.
“The purpose of which is to catch on film an officer drawing his/her weapon on any subject and the subsequent ‘shoot on-site’ of said officer, in order to garner national media attention,” it added, according to the station.
Mayor Lightfoot had no comment on the report and neither did the FBI. Two Chicago officers were shot over the weekend, but it’s unknown if the shootings were connected to the threat.
The source of the intelligence is described as “a contact whose reporting is limited and whose reliability cannot be determined.” Unfortunately, this is the kind of threat that can’t be ignored, regardless of the reliability of the source.
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said Monday that he believes “people are seeking to do harm to cops.”
“I think it’s bigger than a suggestion,” Brown said, according to ABC7. “I think 51 officers being shot at or shot in one year, I think that quadruples any previous year in Chicago’s history. So I think it’s more than a suggestion that people are seeking to do harm to cops.”
This is what happens when political authorities do not support the police in public and genuflect to the mob. The gang threat is not happening in a vacuum. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s original forbearance when violence broke out, referring to the riots as “peaceful protests,” was a sign of weakness that the ruthless street gangs pounced on immediately.
Too late, Lightfoot sought to close the Pandora’s box she opened by condemning the riots. By then, the gangs had organized the looting to a degree not seen before in an American city.
“It’s not opportunistic and spontaneous when you already have U-Haul vans and cargo vans and you come equipped with precision tools to break into stores, to break into safes, to haul off cash registers and when you are coming with arms to fight off the police. … While there absolutely was a layer of opportunistic individuals, this was also organized crime. And we are going to break these crews and these rings and we are gonna bring them to justice. That is what we owe the residents of this city. Period.”
No word yet on whether there have been any arrests related to those nights of organized looting. They rarely arrest gang members for murder, so we shouldn’t expect arrests for looting.
Meanwhile, police in Chicago and elsewhere are in a new era. Black Lives Matter rhetoric enables targeting police and calling it “justice.” Lightfoot’s tepid backing of police has now made her city more dangerous as cops will be looking over their shoulders wondering if someone is targeting them.
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