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Rahm Says Viral Video of Sleeping Officer 'There For All to See' and Judge

By Ted Cox | May 20, 2015 2:54pm

CITY HALL — Mayor Rahm Emanuel said a viral video of a Chicago Police officer sleeping in his squad car "is there for all to see and make a judgment" — but there are plenty of videos and images showing good deeds of officers.

“The video, I think, is there for all to see and make a judgment. … You have to look at what the men and women in uniform throughout the city do all day," the mayor said.

“Look at the video of the officers in the 11th Ward from Operation Impact who were playing football with kids the other day," the mayor said Wednesday.

 

Chicago Police Officers Pete Kalenik, Paul Stanczyk and Paul Komisaruk, assigned to the 011th District on the West Side, took a moment to enjoy the weather and play football with a few kids in the community.

Posted by Chicago Police Department on Friday, April 17, 2015

"Look at the officers on a video who were playing softball with kids. So there’s not one video of an officer. There are a lot of videos of officers, and a lot of them do exactly what you’d want them to do, both on duty and off duty, consistent with the responsibilities of being a police officer, which means we put a lot of trust in you.”

The video of the sleeping officer surfaced on YouTube this week and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The mayor was asked about it after a City Council meeting Wednesday.

“I want to be careful, because it’s obviously under investigation," he said.

The mayor then pointed to a resolution passed in City Council honoring two officers for courage and for using a belt as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding of an injured person.

Officer Edwin Pagan was honored for saving a wounded teen by using a bystander's belt as a tourniquet. [DNAinfo/Darryl Holliday]

“That is what it means to be an officer. That is what it means to be on the job. That is what it means to be using all your skills and talents.”

“We have a lot of good men and women in uniform throughout the Police Department who do things both on duty and off duty that carry both that spirit and being a public servant.”

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