View Full Version : Police officer slain as mayor embarrasses himself and city
ForTehNguyen
05-22-10, 09:00
Man I dont know what to say, this is really sad. RIP to the officer/soldier
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0521-20100521,0,3497461.column
In anti-handgun Chicago, criminals aren't bothered by Mayor Richard Daley's handgun ban. They haven't been bothered for years.
And so another Chicago police officer was shot to death. But it wasn't during a traffic stop or some hunt through an alley after a drug sting.
Thomas Wortham IV, 30, was a victim of a robbery, shot down outside his boyhood home in the staunchly middle-class Chatham neighborhood, his body dragged 100 feet or so by the getaway car.
The thugs were trying to steal his motorcycle, a gift to himself upon his return from a second tour of duty in Iraq as a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard.
Wortham, a patrol officer, was helping his neighbors reclaim a troubled neighborhood park, the scene of several recent shootings.
"He was the best of us. He was a role model. He was 30 years old, a grown man, a police officer, a soldier, a man of service," said Ald. Freddrenna Lyle, 6th, who has known the Wortham family since she was a child.
"It was 'Yes, ma'am' and 'No, sir' from him. He had self-respect. He was teaching these young men how to be men," she said.
I talked to Lyle on a side street in Chatham just after she'd paid a long condolence call to the Wortham family, as neighbors stood out on their sidewalks, agonizing over the loss.
The front lawns were neat and small. Backyard gardens were places of old-fashioned flowers, peonies and phlox and tea-roses. It is a neighborhood carefully tended.
At that moment, Mayor Daley was holding a news conference, another dog-and-pony show at City Hall to demonstrate his tough stance on crime.
He called it to express his concern that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the city's handgun ban. There were guns on a table as props, so much eye candy for the cameras.
A reporter asked the obvious question: Given the numbers of shootings in the city, isn't the handgun ban ineffective?
The question was more than fair. In Chicago, the only people who are confident in their 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms are the criminals, the cops and the politicians.
Law-abiding citizens can't own handguns. They don't have an army of bodyguards, as does Daley. Political hacks have guns. They get out the vote for his machine.
And the retired neighbor who's never been arrested in his life? Oh, no. If he has a gun, it would be anarchy in the streets, according to Daley.
Confronted with a logical question, here's what the mayor did: He picked up a rifle from the prop table of guns, raised it and began to babble.
"It's been very effective," said Daley of the handgun ban. "If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know."
The mayor of Chicago then went on to say if the justices were attacked by thugs with guns, they'd see things his way.
"Maybe they'll see the light of day," Daley said. "Maybe one of them will have an incident, and they'll change their mind overnight, going to and from work."
Chicago politics is a rough business. But suggesting that Supreme Court justices need to suffer before becoming enlightened is despicable. It not only embarrasses the mayor, but everyone who lives or works in Chicago.
His press aides put out a statement saying the mayor used "less than ideal" language when he suggested inserting the rifle into his critics and pulling the trigger.
And there was no word of any plans to apologize to the Supreme Court.
But he meant what he said. And so the mayor reveals his nature.
Daley has been a bully his entire life, a child of muscle and privilege, and now he's terrified at the prospect that his citizens might think he's lost control of the streets.
The police despise him. Their department is terribly understaffed and overworked. Taxpayers want more cops. But there's no money for additional police because Daley wasted it all, hundreds of millions of dollars year after year after year on deals for his cronies.
While Daley spent his life pushing weaker people around, Thomas Wortham spent his life as a man of service. Now he's cold at the funeral home, waiting for burial.
His Chatham neighborhood once was considered free of violence. It is the home of Sen. Roland Burris, of former Police Supt. police Superintendent Terry Hilliard, of lawyers, judges, doctors, bus drivers and steelworkers.
Neighbors recalled Cole Park, just across the street from Wortham's boyhood home, as a place to see the best basketball players in the city. Even a young rookie named Michael Jordan played hoops in pick-up games.
Now there are iron bars over the rims to discourage young men from congregating in the park, the scene of a recent rash of shootings.
Wortham's tour of duty in Iraq ended less than two months ago. He bought himself that motorcycle and planned on helping Ald. Lyle reclaim Cole Park this weekend.
On Thursday, it was the setting for a prayer vigil for his immortal soul.
"His mother was worried that something was going to happen to him over there [in Iraq]," Lyle told me. "But he had to come home to Chicago to get shot down."
Home to Chicago, the anti-handgun city, where the thugs don't worry much about what the mayor has to say.
DocHolliday01
05-22-10, 09:23
That mayor sounds like a piece of trash. :rolleyes:
Chicago really is a shit city. The places that have "gun control" have some of the highest crime rates in the country. Give the power back to the people and the criminals will hide in fear like they used to.
There was an episode of Gangland on yesterday about the "SD's" or Satans Disciples. Just a bunch of punks, useless scum that call them selves gangsta's. Al Copone was a gangster and his organization would have spanked these scum like little kids.
Despicable. Makes my soul hurt. :mad:
... That this man, no matter what his station in life - could so overtly brandish a weapon in front of who knows how many witnesses and cameras was not immediately arrested and charged on the spot. This demonstrates just how out of control the politicians are now, and it will only get worse...
So sad.
"He was teaching these young men how to be men"
THIS !!!!!
RIP
ForTehNguyen
05-22-10, 10:52
Mayor Daley Threatens to Shoot the Messenger—Namely, Me | The Blog | Chicago Reader (http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2010/05/20/mayor-daley-threatens-to-shoot-the-messengernamely-me)
Mayor Daley Threatens to Shoot the Messenger—Namely, Me
Posted by Mick Dumke on Thu, May 20, 2010 at 4:32 PM
Mayor Daley loves to bag on the local media, and given my recent line of inquiry into his politics and policies, I’ve never expected to be greeted with a fruit basket at City Hall.
But even I was a bit taken aback this morning when the mayor grabbed a rifle and threatened to shoot me.
The mayor was holding a press conference to discuss what the city was doing to prepare for the Supreme Court’s expected decision to overturn the city’s gun ban. The short answer: all sorts of things, but we’ll just have to wait until the court weighs in next month to find out the details. “We’re hoping for the best,” Daley said.
Guns are one of the mayor’s favorite soapbox topics—he regularly goes out of his way to point out that he despises gun manufacturers and “extremists” like the NRA. “It’s really amazing how powerful they are,” he said today, standing next to a table covered with handguns, rifles, and even a machine gun that police had seized. “They’re bigger than the oil industry, bigger than the gas industry, bigger than Google, bigger than President Obama and the rest of them."
Daley also likes to highlight what he considers to be flagrant hypocrisy on the part of the defenders of gun rights. “Now you can’t walk into the Supreme Court—you have to walk in the side way. They’re going to barricade the doors or something now. I mean, they’re barricading the doors but they’re saying everyone else should have guns. That’s the thing that bothers me in Washington. As you know in Washington all things are being barricaded, all federal buildings. But they’re saying everybody else should be able to carry guns.”
But even supporters of tough gun regulations—myself included—have to admit that it's not clear how much they reduce violence. Despite having some of the most restrictive laws in the country, Chicago is a national leader in shootings and murders, and the mayor himself noted that “we’ve seen far too many instances in the last few weeks” of firearm violence, including the shooting that left a cop dead last night.
So I asked: since guns are readily available in Chicago even with a ban in place, do you really think it’s been effective?
I’m hardly the only guy who asks the mayor things he doesn’t want to answer, and I’ve been responsible for at least one of his huffing, puffing, ranting tangents, which generally get the press corps laughing, thus enabling him to move on to the next question without giving a real answer to the one at hand.
But even by those standards, this was a masterful and surreal performance.
“Oh!” Daley said. “It’s been very effective!”
He grabbed a rifle, held it up, and looked right at me. He was chuckling but there was no smile.
“If I put this up your—ha!—your butt—ha ha!—you’ll find out how effective this is!”
For a moment the room was very, very quiet. I took a good look at the weapon. It had a long bayonet. (Was it seized during the Civil War?)
“If I put a round up your—ha ha!”
The photographers snapped away. Suddenly everybody started cracking up.
Daley went on. “This gun saved many lives—it could save your life,” he said—meaning, I think, that getting that gun off the street might have saved many lives, including mine.
And he went on some more. “We save all these guns that the police department seizes, you know how many lives we’ve saved? You don’t realize it. First of all, they’re taking these guns out of someone’s hands. They save their own life and they save someone else’s. You cannot count how many times this gun can be used. Thirty, forty times in shooting people and discharging a weapon. I think it’s very important.
“Next will be hand grenades, right? We’ll say that hand grenades are OK. I mean, how far can you go in regards to mass weapons? To me, any gun taken off saves thousands of lives in America. I really believe that, I don’t care what people tell me. You have to thank the police officers for seizing all these weapons. We lead the country in seizing weapons. This is unbelievable.”
I had to agree.
the weapon Daley had was an SKS with a bayonet I believe
I wish Mick Dumke would file a complaint against Mayor Chucky for agg assault to make a point that it was a threat. In jest, yes - but still a threat.
Daley is a thug. He represents all that is wrong with Illinois politicians. I can only hope that the US Attorney indicts him sooner rather than later. His gun ban has always been useless, emotionally driven liberal horseshit. I avoid Chicago as much as possible.
What a drivel filled dipshit.
Where do all these out of touch politicians keep coming from? Is there a massive yet secret Soros funded camp somewhere where they are born and bred, then funneled into politics?
Paraclete comes
05-22-10, 11:58
The Mayor of Chicago is a complete fool. Within the first full year of the D.C. gun ban being overturned their murders dropped by just under fifty! It was the lowest murder rate since the 1960's I think the exact date is 1966 but not 100% sure. That just seems to make a point to me.
This guy is deceiving himself by believing taking guns away from citizens with no criminal record would somehow reduce crime! I cant remember the last time when that family from the gun club went out with their guns and conducted a drive by. This idiot needs to get real and look at the facts and stop making judgements based on emotion. Complete idiot in my opinion!
One of my Marines is from Chicago and I asked him what it was like. He says downtown is terrible, organized crime or gangs just seem to run rampant. He laments the fact that he deploys overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan to liberate them from tyranny, to protect their freedoms. Only to come home and find out he cannot even protect his own life or his family's life with a handgun. A sad realization to come to, one i've often thought myself.
It's depressing to think that such a 'man' (and I use that term loosely) can keep getting elected to office over and over.
Paraclete comes
05-22-10, 12:10
What a drivel filled dipshit.
Where do all these out of touch politicians keep coming from? Is there a massive yet secret Soros funded camp somewhere where they are born and bred, then funneled into politics?
Look at the educational system! Its filled at least in California with ultra liberal professors. They train up the young people forcing this liberal garbage upon them. Teaching it as if it is the gospel truth and its no surprise that lots of young people buy into it. After all shouldn't they be able to trust there $40,000.00 educations?
Sad to say but my wife even attended a Nazarene university(point loma) and over the years found out a majority of the professors to be non christian and super liberal. She says they pushed the agenda of the left overtly and covertly. I am active duty right now so my only option currently is online university via Kaplan. We have to participate in these daily discussions about topics of the week. I throw out ideas they think are CRAZY! Get this smaller central gov, allowing the market to run itself. Like letting consumer dollars speak louder than gov restrictions, or here's some craziness. Letting Americans make there own decisions about insurance, healthcare, retirement, investment, guns, etc. I must be a real nut job to want to make decisions for myself.(lol) What was I thinking clearly politicians can spend my money better than I can.
So thats where I think they come from, I think they are products of there education. I also think that many people today have an entitlement attitude. They forget America is a land of opportunity, not the land of entitlement.
SeriousStudent
05-22-10, 12:19
Prayers sent for the fallen officer. He was a hero, several times over.
I am so weary of bullies like Chicago's mayor. They only serve as a bad example, and that species is over-abundant already. :(
Moose-Knuckle
05-22-10, 13:04
Not surprised it's Shitcago after all. The only good to come from that city is it's pizza pies.
Sounds like the diss-honorable mayor and the city needs to be sued out of existence for violating it's citizens constitutional rights.
It's depressing to think that such a 'man' (and I use that term loosely) can keep getting elected to office over and over.
Seriously, I wonder how the hell this works. How does a shitty mayor get elected into office over and over again.
Goes to show how a society's choice in a politician reflects their intelligence.
Moose-Knuckle
05-22-10, 13:12
Seriously, I wonder how the hell this works. How does a shitty mayor get elected into office over and over again.
Goes to show how a society's choice in a politician reflects their intelligence.
Who says votes even count? I for one believe that public officals (i.e. POTUS, big city mayors etc) are "chosen" not elected. You forget this is the same city/state where one "winner" had more ballots than constituents! :rolleyes:
Bulldog7972
05-22-10, 13:29
Gents, don't buy into the BS that Chicago is a shithole. It is not. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The downtown area is almost crime free and as safe as anywhere else. Hell, I don't even carry a gun when I go downtown which is usually 2-3 times a month. They do have some incidents downtown from time to time but those are usually rare and occur with no greater frequency than any other big city. The problem with Chicago is the political system. That's what sucks here, not the city or the people. We are working to correct that problem. I hate the mayor more than any other person on earth. But don't write off the city or it's residents because of the mayor. Why let someone like him prevent you from coming here and enjoying the many fine things this city has to offer. The VAST majority of crime in this city occurs in either the south or west sides. Stay away from those areas and you will have the time of your life.
Now, onto the murder of Officer Wortham. I didn't know him personally but I do know several other people that knew him and to a man they all say that this guy was a born leader and a helluva man. We here in Chicago lost a good one when he was murdered. It's really sad. I really feel for his parents especially his Dad who returned fire and shot two of the punks that robbed his son. Here's a video clip of the mother of the deceased thug. I find it nauseating but informative at the same time because it illustrates how these punks develop the mindset they do and how the parents of the punks are also punks themselves. Watch as she tries to shift blame away from her son and onto the murdered Officers father.
www.nbc5.com/news/localbeat/lucille-floyd-thomas-wortham-94635494.html
Similar to Obama "jokingly" threatening the Jonas Brothers with killing them using Predator drones. http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/05/03/obama_drone_joke_jonas_brothers
RIP to the fallen officer. With all due respect, at least he had more of a chance than the average citizen of Chicago and was able to carry a weapon to defend himself. Unfortunately he wasn't afforded the opportunity to use it and rid the streets of these scumbags.
madisonsfinest
05-22-10, 13:48
His dad was a retired Chicago Police Officer. He returned fire killing one, and putting the other in critical condition. Another was apprehended, and I'm not sure about the 4th suspect yet.
GermanSynergy
05-22-10, 13:53
RIP brave Officer. :(
I have no words to adequately express the disgust and contempt I feel towards these Soviet style goons and bottom dwelling leftist scum that support them. :mad:
The dumbass mother doesn't seem to understand that 20 years old isn't a "kid" anymore. Too bad her worthless carcass wasn't in on the robbery...
I had to dig to find the video. The other link redirected me for some reason. Maybe this works: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/lucille-floyd-thomas-wortham-94635494.html
The Chicago political machine::: where our bend over, bow before them, apologize for the US, kiss their ass President is from.
Bulldog7972
05-22-10, 16:20
His dad was a retired Chicago Police Officer. He returned fire killing one, and putting the other in critical condition. Another was apprehended, and I'm not sure about the 4th suspect yet.
All four are in custody. In the sunday edition of the Chicago Sun Times, they did a piece about the Officers father, a retired CPD Sgt. I guess the old adage about an apple not falling far fom the tree must be true. He sounds like a helluva man himself.
So, his dad was able to return fire but an ordinary citizen would, most likely, not have had that option.
Interesting, maybe the Mayor would like to address this....
Buckaroo (who avoids Chicago regularly)
madisonsfinest
05-22-10, 22:03
I only get to chicago a couple times a year, but I love going there. Of course I don't go to the dirty southside
Bulldog7972
05-22-10, 23:43
So, his dad was able to return fire but an ordinary citizen would, most likely, not have had that option.
Interesting, maybe the Mayor would like to address this....
Buckaroo (who avoids Chicago regularly)
What makes you say that? There are other weapons besides pistols. Shotguns, rifles etc. And no, despite the rhetoric by some, you would NOT be arrested.
This guy is deceiving himself by believing taking guns away from citizens with no criminal record would somehow reduce crime! I cant remember the last time when that family from the gun club went out with their guns and conducted a drive by. This idiot needs to get real and look at the facts and stop making judgements based on emotion. Complete idiot in my opinion!
I don't think you quite grasp the kind of person Daley is.
Yes, the guy's pretty nutty. But he is also very powerful, and knows he can get away with anything. He isn't stupid- he conceals the true purpose of his handgun ban- control- under a thin veil of "safety". He doesn't give two shits if your family is brutally murdered while ya'll are out in the park on a Sunday afternoon.
Daley is part of a huge political machine. He's got it made for life. His father was mayor. He'll be mayor for a while longer. It's the way stuff works. He's Chicago's Boss Tweed.
There's a reason some say Capone was more honest than the Chicago politicians.
Re: the video. He reminds me of Leonid Brezhnev, but with even less charm, certainly less hair, and no fancy medals.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0521-20100521,0,3497461.column
What makes you say that? There are other weapons besides pistols. Shotguns, rifles etc. And no, despite the rhetoric by some, you would NOT be arrested.
Owning a pistol in Chicago is difficult enough as a citizen. Try getting a concealed carry permit living there and it becomes almost impossible. Shotguns & rifles aren't typically carried around the city and if you did I'm sure you'd get a lot of attention real quick.
Owning a pistol in Chicago is difficult enough as a citizen. Try getting a concealed carry permit living there and it becomes almost impossible. Shotguns & rifles aren't typically carried around the city and if you did I'm sure you'd get a lot of attention real quick.
We don't have carry at all in IL, so I suppose that could be considered "almost impossible". ;)
EzGoingKev
05-23-10, 16:35
Daley is an idiot. Chicago's own crime stats prove him wrong.
Bulldog7972
05-23-10, 19:04
Owning a pistol in Chicago is difficult enough as a citizen. Try getting a concealed carry permit living there and it becomes almost impossible. Shotguns & rifles aren't typically carried around the city and if you did I'm sure you'd get a lot of attention real quick.
I was responding to this specific incident. The father or anybody else in this specific situation could have done the same thing with a rifle or shotgun.
PRGGodfather
05-23-10, 19:22
Daly is "practically" a criminal himself. Old school cronyism is alive and well in the Windy City. Al Capone is probably still calling the shots from hell.
For anyone who is interested in Chicago in general, and how totally ****ed that city is...
http://www.secondcitycop.blogspot.com/
They tell it like it is. It would seem that the blog owners and most of the posters are CPD. Often times it reads like the script of Robocop.
Can I ask a stupid question? How does someone like that keep getting reelected year after year? I just don't get it.
Rest In Peace brother you were taken to soon.
As a former deputy sheriff for Cook County I can say that Chicago is turning into the wild west thanks in part to that idiotic mayor that seems to get re-elected and his anti-gun policies.
I travel to Chicago twice a year for family functions and more for work related business(fugitive warrants) and I always carry two guns. Chicago is a beautiful city but I`m glad I don`t live there anymore.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.