I was waiting for the punchline in this, but I never found it.
A man walked into a police station and told the cops he had been sent
over from another sector of the city. Except the guy the Chicago PD
sent out on patrol for an afternoon shift with another officer wasn't a
man at all; he was a fourteen-year-old wearing department-issue
trousers and a shirt and hat.
The boy kept up the farce throughout the entire patrol; his "partner"
never catching on. Now he's been charged with impersonating a police
officer.
So he should be punished, I get that. But when one of the nation's
biggest police departments suffers this kind of security lapse,
shouldn't the brunt of the disciplinary action fall on the adults who
screwed the proverbial pooch?
We're talking department-issue clothing that somehow got out on the
street and into this kids' hands. We're talking about a civilian, and
an under-age one to boot, spending an entire shift in a patrol car
exerting his "authority" over the people of the City of Chicago; and
the first one brought up on charges is the kid?
I'm sure eventually we'll hear that some heads have begun to roll, but
a part of me wonders why it's always the kids in these situations who
are dealt the harshest penalties? Yes, discipline them, but do we have
to make them the scapegoats when we adults are the real boneheads?
Image: Reuters via Times Online
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