Is the Top Cop a PR stunt?
"Top cop can be an insider" Daley says. We don't recall Mayor Daley, ever saying an insider was incapable of being the next Top Cop for Chicago. Daley had three choices already put before him as this story in the Suntimes demonstrated on September 22, 2007 and Dana Starks was not in the final mix.
As the Chicago Sun-Times reported last month, the board has hired the Police Executive Research Forum to conduct the search triggered by Mayor Daley's decision to reject all three finalists recommended by the Police Board -- insiders Charles Williams and Hiram Grau and New Yorker Thomas Belfiore -- and ordering the board to start over.
"PERF will use its considerable contacts and expertise in assisting the board as it searches for additional highly qualified candidates throughout the nation, which is the mandate we received from the mayor," Police Board President Demetrius Carney said in a press release.
A few things on this current article in regard to Mayor Daley and sitting interim Superintendent Dana Starks. Daley is looking for a diffuser a buffer between the loudest Reverends and citizens coalitions currently active. These groups have always challenged Police, even when the Police make the right decisions and their always led by African American political Reverends, who use their pulpits for voter gathering and their Democrats.
In Chicago if you don't make a lot of noise and rumble up marches along with media scenes, your simply non-effective. Call it the Chicago way, its been going on for years. While some of these Reverends may believe their representing the underclass or the impoverished and its always their drumbeat. Another way to look at this unusual Church and Political connection in Chicago. Would be to view it as a fuel for the Democratic Machinations that have driven Chicago Politics, and its a good portion of the glue in Chicago Democratic style of politics. These churches bring in voters and they keep the Reverends in power, with a strong ear from City Hall. Daley does not want to see what his father saw during the 1968 Democratic Convention, where riots broke out across the city. This is the power these various coalitions have over Chicago. Votes from the pulpit and potential Civil Unrest denouncing the Police and costing Daley his perceived progressive democratic reputation.
Some may disagree that Dana Starks is capable of being a Superintendent and others will stand on his inability to be truly effective, due to the control the Mayor has on CPD. Dana Starks has been known to be effective in his crime fighting style going back to his Commander days. Some even say he was innovative in his style. Dana is also said to be balanced in his relationships within all races in the rank and file. None of this is an absolute, and Starks would still need to work progressively towards cleaning up the problems within CPD. He would have to work from within, all the way from the ranks of Management, lower ranks and Internal Affairs. He would also have to hold his Supervisors accountable, sending a clear message, that his Officer's complaints must be respected by their Managers. IAD would need to cease in their given practice, of almost always making cops the accountable culprit, when it comes to saving Managers and clouts backside who either simply don't want to do their job or find it easy to dial 312-fav-orit. When CPD cleans up the inside of its favoritism for all the wrong reasons, we will see some change in the actions on the outside in the public view. With Daley running the department and clout running rampant, we don't see it happening anytime soon. There are two sets of rules, one for the clouted and one for the non-clouted.
Does Stark have prior connections to the same Reverends? The same Reverends who have such a strong hold over the Mayor leaves one to question, can Dana actually be effective for any real change? Some say he is connected and his connections have helped him for a long while. Clout will continue to rule either way and that is a big portion of the problem. Eradicating a working unit does not solve the major problems CPD has festering inside. Its a temporary fix, and won't be effective in the long run. CPD's history has proven it. Very few step forward with the truth, all due to the price to be paid, which can last a full career of punishment from all sides. Just ask those good cops tagged Beefer, who have tried.