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CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- At an annual ceremony honoring a fallen Chicago police officer Tuesday night, both Chicago’s top cop and the head of the Fraternal Order of Police found some common ground. The roll call has become an annual tradition at 18th and Loomis, where Officer Brian Strouse was shot and killed by a teenager back in 2001. And those that took to the microphone had a similar message.
"He definitely gave himself and he wanted fairness," FOP President John Catanzara said. "If Brian was here today, I think he would be trying to mediate a solution here on what common ground we can find here with the community to make it better for everybody.
Catanzara spoke of the difficulties of being a police officer, saying “It’s hard being a police officer. And it’s only getting harder.” He put at least some of the blame on political policies.
"We didn't create these problems. These societal problems were created by policies politicians enacted and laws politicians enacted...We have to go to work in the same conditions that many of these communities are living in," Catanzara said. Police Superintendent David Brown took a more positive approach, saying many have turned their back on the police community and called it a noble profession.
"Not many people volunteer to walk down dark alleys, protecting people who they don't even know," he said.
Brown called Strouse a hero, and compared the city’s officers to a different kind of hero: Superman. “Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap building single bound. It’s a plane, it’s a train. No. It’s the men and women of the Chicago Police Department. A noble profession. My heroes," he said.