Last week we noted that Chicago's police officers were taking their own lives in record numbers...the devastating consequence of having to work everyday in the "war zone" that is Chicago (see: "Chicago Is A War Zone": Police Suicide Rate Surges To 60% Above The National Average). Now, yet another brutal weekend of violence and an ambush of police officers sitting in an unmarked vehicle offers a small glimpse of what Chicago police officers have to face on a daily basis. The escalation in violence this weekend even prompted Chicago's police department to issue a new bulletin warning officers of an ongoing gang war in which "gunmen are using weapons powerful enough to pierce bullet-proof vests" which shows an increasing tendency to "arm themselves with weapons most associated with soldiers in battle." Per the Associated Press:
Given the very real possibility that the gang war has not played itself out, the department has saturated the same area with officers and tactical teams, Guglielmi said. It also has issued a warning about gunmen with weapons powerful enough to pierce bullet-proof vests. "Given the type of shootings and the incident last week (in which two offers suffered gunshot wounds about two miles away) we have put out an officer safety bulletin," said Guglielmi.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said Monday that a reputed gang member sprayed a police van with more than two dozen rounds from an assault rifle after mistaking the vehicle and plainclothes officers inside for rival gang members.
Guglielmi said the incident in which two officers were shot while sitting in a car does not appear to be connected to the bloody gang feud that erupted Sunday. Combined, however, they are the latest examples of what they have seen as a greater willingness of arm themselves with weapons most associated with soldiers in battle.
The bulletin came after a generally violent weekend which claimed over 30 shooting victims and 5 homicides (stats per HeyJackAss!).
Chicago police issued a bulletin Monday warning its officers about gangs armed with high-powered weapons, after three people were shot to death over the weekend - including two attending a memorial for the earlier victim.
Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the three people who were killed in the shootings Sunday were all members of the same street gang.
A shooting early in the day left one man dead, and the two others were killed and eight people were injured in a spray of more than two dozen shots from two guns while attending a makeshift memorial for him. Police suspect they were all shot by members of a rival street gang in the same neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side.
Of course, according to Loretta Lynch's analysis, those cops probably just had that one coming...after their decades of "racial discrimination."