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“I don’t know that I’ve seen it quite as tense as it is now, with as much mistrust of the police,” said Hatch, 49, a lifelong west sider. “I don’t think the people on the west side are waiting for leaders to tell them to do anything. This is really coming from the bottom up. I think it’s a very volatile situation–and that’s not a threat. It’s just an accurate assessment. We need to take very seriously just how tense and volatile this situation is. People are fed up. I’m very concerned about our ability to keep a lid on things.”
Harrison’s shooting is just the latest high-profile incident to turn emotions “raw,” said Hatch, an ally of Jesse Jackson’s who unsuccessfully challenged 29th Ward alderman Isaac Carothers in 2003. The main problem, he argued, is that residents of the high-crime area want and need additional beat police officers who invest the time to get to know their communities. Instead, the police department has dispatched cops from its roving Special Operations Section who swoop in for short periods of time and show little understanding of the neighborhoods. West siders derisively refer to SOS officers as “jump-out boys.”
A mayoral spokeswoman told the Sun-Times yesterday that the mayor’s reform of OPS shows he’s serious about holding abusive officers to account. And this afternoon Vance Henry, executive director of the city’s community policing program, known as CAPS, told me police officials have met with west-side clergy and residents to hear their concerns and keep them abreast of the Aaron Harrison investigation.
