Editorial

The Aftermath

David A. Lombardo

I know I'm going to be skating on thin ice when I say this but a disturbing trend appears to be developing with respect to excessive force and denial of rights during and after an arrest. I made three attempts at writing that sentence, one of which resulted in a paragraph, and all three contained an apology to my law enforcement friends.

The fourth and final time I wrote it was after I realized that I don't have any law enforcement friends who would use excessive force or deny someone's rights. In fact, it occurred to me that the overwhelming majority of cops wouldn't use excessive force and deny someone's rights. Now that's not to be confused with some folks that need more attention than others to bring under control but I don't believe anyone I know would intentionally use excessive force. Oh hell, it turned into a paragraph none-the-less but here's the point: Where there's smoke, they're fire.

The most recent spate began when a 33 year old woman was strip searched by three male and one female deputy hours after her arrest for DUI. The Sheriff's department said there was an altercation during a pat-down search. The allegation opened a small floodgate during which, in just the past few days, we've learned that numerous women have filed complaints in LaSalle County saying they were forcibly strip searched by LaSalle County deputies.

It needs to be noted that state law does give officers the right to do a strip search if they have "reasonable belief" that the subject is hiding a weapon or controlled substance on their body. The law also requires the search be conducted by an officer who is the same sex as the subject and it cannot be observed by people not conducting the search.

Did I mention the video cameras? Counsel submitted a court filing to preserve existing video before they could be destroyed.

Lest we unfairly target LaSalle County, a 47 year old Chicago woman is suing the Village of Skokie and one of its police officers saying she was shoved headfirst into a jail cell bench after her DUI arrest. You remember that video thing? It worked. It showed her falling forward and striking her head and face on a bench before officers and paramedics tend to her as a pool of blood spreads on the floor. The incident required facial reconstructive surgery and the insertion of a titanium plate to replace the bones that had been shattered.

Then there was a woman who died in a Chicago police lockup. She had asthma and diabetes, and was dependent on a wheelchair. Arrested for drug possession she was locked up without the prescription medication that she kept telling the police she needed. She was observed over time to grow increasingly "wheezy and incoherent." Several hours later she was found dead in her cell.

According to an October 8th Chicago Tribune article, so far this year the city of Chicago has already settled lawsuits alleging police wrongdoing for at least $66.5 million. Now let me be very clear: none of these women were up for sainthood but there's a line somewhere and it surely appears it's being crossed. Someone needs to sharpen their pencil and draw that line a whole lot sharper and clearer. 

NSSF updates

Modern Sporting Rifle consumer report

The National Shooting Sports Foundation's initial Modern Sporting Rifle Report, conducted in 2010, provided the first professional survey data on ownership of these popular semi-automatic rifles. The report revealed that owners were passionate about their MSRs, that most used them often and primarily for target shooting, that they owned multiple modern sporting rifles and they enjoyed accessorizing them. The newly-released update of the report-NSSF Modern Sporting Rifle Comprehensive Consumer Report 2013-shows these characteristics remain true, with much of the data falling within the range of the earlier report. Nearly 22,000 owners of AR- and AK-platform modern sporting rifles participated in the survey, which was commissioned by NSSF and conducted by Sports Marketing Surveys. Among the findings were that most modern sporting rifles were purchased from an independent retail store, with an average cost of $1,058, which is $25 less than the average from the 2010 study. The preferred calibers were not surprising-.223/5.56mm for the AR platform and the usual 7.62mm x 39mm for AK-platform rifles. The new report shows 35 percent of MSR owners had some military or law enforcement background-a figure lower than the 44 percent in the 2010 report.