SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) State Lodge President Chris Southwood issued the following statement regarding the police beating death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis:
“Tyre Nichols died at the hands of bad police officers. All good law enforcement officers are outraged and sickened by his brutal and senseless slaughter. But there are some politicians in Illinois who are using Nichols’ horrific death as another opportunity to bash all police officers, painting the thousands of good cops with the same brush as the five Memphis officers who murdered him. Would those same politicians sit by silently if they were accused of being felons simply because several of their fellow office-holders have been sent to prison?”
“Those politicians need to realize that the so-called police reform laws they passed in Illinois have driven many good potential and serving officers away from the law enforcement profession. Many departments in this state have had to lower their hiring standards since those laws were passed just to get enough officers on the street. No one wants to be a cop in a state that treats police like villains, and lower standards in one of the nation’s most stressful occupations is a certain recipe for disaster.”
“Good cops hate bad cops. Don’t lump the good in with the bad. And don’t think that bad laws will produce good results.”
The Fraternal Order of Police, founded in 1915, is the largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. With a proud tradition of officers representing officers, the FOP is the most respected and most recognized police organization in the country. The Illinois FOP, chartered in 1963, is the second largest State Lodge, proudly representing more than 34,000 active duty and retired police officers – more than 10 percent of all FOP members nationwide. Visit www.ilfop.org for more information.