By: Diane Benjamin
Remember when Target was looted back in June of 2020? We’ve never heard a reasonable explanation of why the police didn’t use any force to stop it. Many people have wondered why something as easy as tear gas wasn’t used. We don’t know, Mayor Chris Koos (who was there watching) has only said there were too many looters and he didn’t want his officers to get hurt.
When logic isn’t used when creating a narrative as to why the police weren’t allowed to intervene the public has little faith in leadership for the next crisis.
That crisis came at the Landings Trailer Park. Several commenters who watch the State Police released video heard the same thing I did – at least one officer asked another one if he had a long gun. The response was no.
Stan Nord has asked a few times since the June 2020 looting if the police had everything they needed. Below is Pam Reece’s response from November 16, 2020:
Below is a snippet of a “long gun” mentioned on the video released by the Illinois State police. “Long gun” is on the video at least twice, I can’t tell if it’s two different officers or the same one.
Pam Reece needs to explain how the police have everything
they need when they obviously didn’t that day.
The police were the heroes. They ran toward danger. Luckily no one else was injured because officers didn’t have a long gun that would have been more accurate than their service revolvers and resulted in fewer shots fired. Did they have bullet proof vests? It’s hard to tell from the video. Shots were fired at various times in the video, go to 29:00 in the State Police video to hear how many shots it took to end the stand off. (it isn’t graphic)
Watch the entire video here if you haven’t taken the time yet: https://blnnews.com/2021/09/10/state-police-release-audio-and-video-of-the-landings-shootings/
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Regarding the decision not to use force, court holdings have generally stated that deadly force may only be used to protect people from imminent threat and not property. As there were no people inside the target, at the time, they were only protecting property. When the situation escalated, and the crowd began throwing things at police, it became likely that violence would escalate, resulting in deadly force. If the police are unable to use deadly force because of the law or potential trouble under the law, pulling them out could make a certain amount of sense (I don’t necessarily agree, but I can understand). The question then becomes how much “less than lethal” force do you use to protect the property? What happens if that doesn’t work and the crowd gets violent? Personally, if we are to maintain the civil society, I think the buck has to stop somewhere. We can’t have mobs looting everyone. Using force, though, is a tricky situation that can be life ruining for all parties involved.
That’s just it. The looting continues because the criminals know the police will not use force. Remember the Magnificent Mile in Chicago? It’s been decimated. No surprise, right?
Diane, as a retired sergeant, firearms instructor and active shooter response instructor from NPD, I can answer a lot of your questions. In regards to the Target incident, tear gas wasn’t used as NPD did not have any nor did they have masks to protect officers from the gas. They were taken away as the cost of the filter canisters was deemed to expensive. As for the incident in the Landings, all officers are required to wear a vest. Roughly 75% of the department is rifle ( AR 15) trained. The department has a number of rifles available and officers are allowed to carry their own personal rifle. It is up to each individual officer if they want to carry one and when to deploy the rifle on a call. As for the number of shots/accuracy, the body goes through several physical changes in a critical incident, one of those being the loss of fine motor skills. This is the reason officers fire multiple rounds as the loss some control over their trigger finger. Most officers after a critical incident cannot tell you how many shots they fired.
Keep up the good fight
The suspect didn’t go down instantly. A lot of those shots missed.
Would you be willing to speak about this at a Town Council meeting?
Nope
No, you stated that you didn’t know why the Police didn’t use more force to stop the looting. You more than implied you wanted the Police to use force. Tear gas in a store? There are wide range of injuries caused by the use of tear gas. These include loss of sight, chemical burns, even death. Using force in some situations is not always the right thing to do.
You then conflate looting with the recent active shooter situation. The Normal Police seem to have acted professionally with a minimum of lives lost. You’re upset that some police didn’t have long guns. But Mr. Henderson informed you that Normal Police DO in fact have access to various rifles and get training to use them. So, Normal Police aren’t underfunded they have rifles, bullet proof vests. Does the Normal Police Department actually need tear gas? Probably not.
Crazy lady: they didn’t have the guns on scene! Either they weren’t available or they weren’t trained to take one with them.
Guess you missed the looting videos, plenty of opportunities fir tear gas outside. Only an idiot would assume using it inside.
So Pam Reece has been “Defunding the Police” before it became a thing. She used the police as her personal gestapo when she ordered them to enforce her personal Democrat politics for Joe’s and Maggie Milies to close while most municipalities did not. Her defunding and inappropriate use of the police hurts the confidence people have in them. She endangers these brave officers by not providing them with the tools necessary to deal with these recent unfortunate events. She pours unlimited dollars into uptown and the underpass but pulls funding from our police? Reece should be fired.
Would you be willing to speak about this at a Town Council meeting?
Wow, no tear gas! That’s crazy! That’s 101 in equipment needs!!! Sorry King Koos has too many studies to pay for and palms to grease. I,,,just,,,can’t,,,stand,,,that guy. I’m waiting for karma to catch up with his crooked disrespectful and traitorous self.
NO TEAR GAS MASKS & NO SHOTGUNS…WTF!!! NO MORE SPENDING ON THE UNDERPASS OR BIKE TRAILS UNTIL PUBLIC SAFETY HAS WHAT THEY NEED. EVERY COUNCIL MEMBER AND ESPECIALLY THE MAYOR NEED FIRED FOR HAVING F$CKEDUP PRIORITIES!!!
Would you be willing to speak about this at a Town Council meeting?
I remember commenting at a Normal Town Council Meeting where they were raising property taxes to fund the police pensions. I suggested they use some of the money they use on pet projects to fund the pension and that they stop blaming the police, the ones who show up, for the Council’s horrible budgeting decisions. Of course idiot fortress said “only property tax” could be used because she knows all. Taxes were raised, first responders were blamed. Now We find out Pam and council really are defunding the police at citizen and businesses expense. This is taxation without representation. I wish people would wakeup. The government is so far gone in Normal at some point citizens are going to need to take it back by force…I just hope the officers pick the right side.
You’re seriously saying that looting which is usually pled out if someone is charged should be a case were police shoot people to death? During the protests last summer there where protesters who were mainly peaceful. At night there was a separate criminal element that looted. In large cities like Chicago, police relied on store videos to arrest looters. Police can not fire their weapons were innocent people will be killed or hurt in a crowd. A couple of police officers on this thread have said as much.
Nobody said shoot the looters, must have been taught to read in public school.
I am not a police officer. I am a private citizen that is well-versed in self defense issues.
It is true that less than lethal force can cause injuries. There is a pretty clear record that the people at Target were not innocent peaceful protestors. If they were protesting, why on earth would they choose to gather outside of Target in the dark of night?
Despite the fact that deadly force wasn’t on the table as a viable option to protect the property, less than lethal force likely could have been used under the circumstances, especially when the mob started damaging police cars and hurling things at the police.
Do you want to live in a society where your property can be overrun by an angry mob at any time? I don’t. Only a small number of the offenders were caught. The buck has to stop somewhere or else we devolve into anarchy.
Police don’t shoot the looters but have defenders in the store you come through the door to loot you get shot problem solved
Police watched their vehicles get damaged. Tear gas would have sent a message. Instead they mimicked Biden.
If everyone in the store is burglarizing the store especially when it is blatantly obvious after hours, who is innocent? Peaceful? Lol! Hey look, I’m gonna steal your car but you can’t do anything to stop me becuase I am not threatening you. Next maybe I will peacefully kidnap your children. Yep, the ghost must be a democrat. Twisted.
The average Police Officers feels the brunt bad of bad administrators. If the Chief does not speak up about funding/hiring/training/administration problems then either there are no problems or he is a part of the bad administrators. It would be nice for the chief to address the questions that have been posed.
Why do I think he isn’t allowed to talk? Hum. . .
NPD does not have masks? That is crazy stupid especially with all the “peaceful” protests that have occurred. Many thanks to NPD for an incredible job they did under tremendous stress!! We must continue to support the men and women who wear the badge and that starts with funding appropriately.
The sad thing is, the current mayor of Normal and his town council bobbleheadz all want the police neutered. (Not including Stan Nord, of course.) That’s one of the many reasons why all of them had to remain on the council. Kk needs yes men.
Why aren’t the so called “Republicans” Lorenz and Preston helping Nord’s efforts to get the Police the tools they need? Voters need to remember these 2 RINOs when the time comes for their reelection. Preston is running to take over Dan Brady’s state rep seat. If Preston won’t stand up the the Democrats at the council level do you honestly believe he has the spine to stand up to them at the state level? Lorenz is just a self-involved Democrat.
I am sick of watching the local GOP destroy the party by endorsing RINOs.
Brady doesn’t stand up to them, and he’s in leadership!