A BENEFIT FROM DRUG ASSETS

Forty percent of the assets seized from drug dealers would be used to
compensate the families of Chicago police officers who are casualties of
the city's never-ending war on drugs, under an ordinance introduced
Wednesday by an influential alderman.

At a City Council meeting that began with a moving tribute to slain officer
Brian Strouse, Ald. Thomas Allen (38th) came up with a way to compensate
the Strouse family and others whose loved ones are police officers injured
or killed fighting drugs.

Allen wants to take 40 percent of the $4 million seized annually from
Chicago drug dealers and divert it into a newly created "Police Officers
Family Recovery Fund." Officers injured while fighting drugs, and the
family members of those killed, could "make a claim in a court of law,
administrative body or other quasi-judicial agency to recover reasonable
compensation," the ordinance says. "I'm at the funeral of this police
officer [Strouse], and I'm thinking, why is this police officer getting
zero for an intentional, murderous act and LaTanya Haggerty gets $18
million for an accidental death, a negligent act?" Allen said.

"The reason is, there's no deep pockets to go after.

Well, an agent of a multibillion-dollar drug corporation killed officer
Strouse. That agent was 16 years old. That corporation has assets.

We should be able to attach those assets. This is not taxpayers' money.

It's blood money that drug dealers have taken in at the expense of the
lives of Chicago police officers." Strouse, a tactical officer, was gunned
down June 30 in the Pilsen community. Hector Delgado, a 16-year-old
allegedly working security for local drug dealers, has been charged as an
adult with Strouse's murder. In an apparent attempt to prevent similar
ambushes, Ald. Ray Frias (12th) proposed Wednesday that off-duty police
officers be hired to stand guard in front of known gang and drug houses at
the expense of property owners.

To qualify for anywhere from eight hours to three days of security, police
would have to receive a sworn complaint saying a building has been used
twice in 30 days for prostitution, drug crimes, gambling and other illegal
acts defined as a public nuisance.

An anonymous complaint supported by a videotape also would suffice. "People
are being shot in my ward every day. Why? Because kids are hanging out.
Police show up, and the first thing they're told is, 'Hey, I live here. And
these six friends of mine sitting on the steps wearing gang colors--they're
my friends,"' said Frias, a former Chicago police officer. "But that in
itself is a danger.

Gangbangers drive by, they flash signs at each other, and you have a shootout.

Innocent bystanders get killed." During Wednesday's tribute to Strouse,
Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) took aim at yet another target: Hollywood producers
who inadvertently encourage violence by churning out the blood-bathed
movies that "make it look so easy" to kill a police officer.

Suarez suggested a boycott.

"If people do not pay to go see these lousy movies, they won't make them,"
he said.